Oscar Whitbread Oscar Whitbread i(A69476 works by)
Born: Established: 1937 ;
Gender: Male
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1 form y separately published work icon Cluedo Vince Moran , Karin Altmann , Vicki Madden , Graeme Farmer , Ray Boseley , Tony Cavanaugh , Elizabeth Coleman , Michael Harvey , ( dir. Mark DeFriest et. al. )agent Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1992-1993 Z1937233 1992-1993 series - publisher film/TV crime mystery

'There are strange goings on at Brindabella Homestead. Every time someone visits the house, they seem to come to a sticky end. Who is committing these horrible murders?

'Could it be glamorous socialite Mrs Peacock, owner of Brindabella? Perhaps it is her step-daughter, the lovely Miss Scarlet? Scarlet's boyfriend, Professor Plum, has charm but is he to be trusted? The family cook, Mrs White, seems a kindly old soul. But looks can deceive! Colonel Mustard's fine war record would suggest an upright gentleman. But is he? And the good Reverend Green? Surely a man of the cloth couldn't be a killer ... or could he?

'The answer is that any of them could be the killer and the task of finding out who is the criminal rests with you, the audience. In your investigations you will be assisted by the local sleuth, Detective Sergeant Bogong. Help will also come from a studio audience who are able to quiz the characters about their movements and their alibis.'

Source: Crawford Productions publicity material (held in the Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection).

1 form y separately published work icon Ratbag Hero Sonia Borg , ( dir. Oscar Whitbread ) Australia : Portman Productions Ratbag Hero Productions Seven Network , 1991 7299108 1991 series - publisher film/TV historical fiction

'RATBAG HERO takes place around the picturesque towns of the Murray River during the 1930s. Set against the colourful background of loggers and bargees, the mini-series revolves around the Kelsall family and a generation not only coming to grips with their environment but of the ties that bind a family. We experience a young man's coming to terms with his father's expectations and his own destiny.'

Source: Screen Australia.

1 form y separately published work icon Golden Pennies Graeme Farmer , ABC Television (publisher), ( dir. Oscar Whitbread ) Australia : Central Independent Television ABC Television , 1986 Z976684 1986 series - publisher film/TV children's historical fiction

Set in the 1850s, Golden Pennies concerns a struggling family who move to the goldfield town of Jericho to try and make their fortune.

1 form y separately published work icon An Electric Day James Balian , ( dir. Oscar Whitbread ) Sydney : Australian Broadcasting Corporation , 1986 7227292 1986 single work film/TV

'A look at a day in the life of an Armenian electrician.'

Source:

[Television guide], Canberra Times, 20 October 1986, p.3S.

1 1 form y separately published work icon Outbreak of Love Howard Griffiths , ( dir. Oscar Whitbread ) 1981 Australia : ABC Television , 1981 Z305931 1981 series - publisher film/TV A three-part drama series based on Martin Boyd's novel of the same name, Outbreak of Love explores the lives of a well-to-do section of Melbourne society in the years leading up to World War One.
2 form y separately published work icon Lawson's Mates Cliff Green , ( dir. Douglas Sharp et. al. )agent Australia : ABC Television , 1980 7140341 1980 series - publisher film/TV

Series of television plays based on the short stories of Henry Lawson, featuring a number of different, but intertwined, narratives.

2 form y separately published work icon Burn the Butterflies Cliff Green , ( dir. Oscar Whitbread ) Australia : ABC Television , 1979 Z872489 1979 single work film/TV

Television play, dealing with nuclear energy, national and political survival, and the threat that nuclear conflict offers to peace and freedom. When a nuclear disaster occurs in Scotland, it throw the whole question of uranium mining in Australia open to impassioned debate. The government is divided and, against a background of community protest and public discord, the Prime Minister has to make the most serious decision of his career.

2 form y separately published work icon End of Summer Cliff Green , ( dir. Oscar Whitbread ) Melbourne : ABC Television , 1977 Z1855101 1977 single work film/TV
— Appears in: Four Scripts 1978; (p. 161-213)

'A story of rural hardship based around a sheep property that is owned and run by Paul and Betty Graham and Tom, a farmhand who has been with the family property for 17 years.'

Source:

[TV guide], Canberra Times, 21 October 1977, p.26. (View via Trove.)

1 form y separately published work icon Heads I Win, Tails You Lose Cliff Green , Howard Griffiths , ( dir. Oscar Whitbread ) Australia : ABC Television Paradine Productions , 1976 7186947 1976 single work film/TV

Episode one of the adaptation of Frank Hardy's novel.

1 form y separately published work icon Rush James Davern , David William Boutland , James Davern , Ted Roberts , Victor Sankey , Colin Free , Sonia Borg , Oriel Gray , Colin Eggleston , Cliff Green , Howard Griffiths , John Martin , ( dir. David Zweck et. al. )agent Melbourne : Australian Broadcasting Commission , 1974 Z1833016 1974 series - publisher film/TV historical fiction crime

One of Australia's earliest television dramatisations of its gold-rush era, Rush is, as Don Storey points out in his Classic Australian Television, in many ways two entirely separate programs: between series one and series two, the setting shifts from the Victorian goldfields to a New South Wales mining town, and jumps forward from the 1850s to the early 1860s. However, both series take place in the same universe, use the same chronology, and have a clear internal coherence, centred on the continuing character of Sergeant Robert McKellar. Therefore, they are generally treated as two separate series of a single program.

(The differences in cast, crew, writers, and directors between the two series are given in detail in the film details section below.)

With its enormous, intricate, expensive, and accurate sets, costumes, and props, Rush proved extremely popular with viewers, despite series one airing in an awkward weeknight 8pm slot (which, as Storey notes, put it against the second half of the highly successful Homicide in Melbourne). Series one did, however, attract some criticism for being filmed in black-and-white when colour programming was only a matter of months away in Australia.

Series two (which drew on foreign financing to cover its cost, an extremely high--for a domestically produced program--$24,000 an episode) was made in colour. Following Sergeant McKellar (the only character to carry over from series one), series two pushed the character forward through two disillusioning events (the Eureka Stockade, which prompted McKellar's resignation from the Victoria Police, and the death of his wife Sarah) and dropped him into the conflicts of a small New South Wales mining town.

Series two was also extremely popular but, according to Storey, plans for series three were shelved when the new Fraser government instituted (among other things) a hefty budget cut to the ABC.

Series one gained renewed prominence in the 1990s when, like police procedural Bluey, it was re-dubbed and sent up on The Late Show (as The Olden Days).

1 form y separately published work icon Marion Cliff Green , ( dir. Douglas Sharp et. al. )agent Melbourne : Australian Broadcasting Commission , 1974 Z1830982 1974 series - publisher film/TV

Based on Cliff Green's AWGIE Award-winning script, Marion follows the tribulations of a World War II-era schoolteacher working in the rural Gippsland area. As Moran notes in his Guide to Australian TV Series, 'she finds that the local townpeople resent her being single. She settles down to teach, putting up with insolence from one schoolboy, befriending another with a record of truancy, and trying to help an illiterate country girl. She becomes attracted to an Italian prisoner of war. The series highlights the different values of the country and the city and the difficulties Marion encounters because she is young, female and single.'

1 form y separately published work icon A Time for Love Howard Griffiths , Sonia Borg , John Romeril , Jeff Underhill , Oriel Gray , ( dir. Oscar Whitbread ) Melbourne : ABC Television , 1972 Z1862515 1972 series - publisher film/TV

An anthology series produced at the ABC studios in Melbourne. Ten episodes aired in 1972.

1 form y separately published work icon Voyage Out John Croyston , ( dir. Oscar Whitbread ) Melbourne : ABC Television , 1969 Z1819584 1969 single work film/TV
1 1 form y separately published work icon Australian Plays ( dir. Oscar Whitbread ) Melbourne : ABC Television , 1969 Z1819564 1969 series - publisher film/TV
2 form y separately published work icon Dynasty Tony Morphett , ( dir. Oscar Whitbread ) 1969 Melbourne : ABC Television , 1969 Z1391211 1969 single work film/TV
— Appears in: Camera Three : Three Plays for Television 1972; (p. 110-147)

A television play based on Tony Morphett's 1967 novel, the narrative sees inventor Jim Richards seeking financial backing from the Mason Corporation for a revolutionary new machine. With different parts of the empire competing for capital and different members of the Mason family competing for control, Richards finds himself in the middle of a power struggle.

1 2 form y separately published work icon The Cheerful Cuckold Alan Hopgood , ( dir. Oscar Whitbread ) 1969 Melbourne : ABC Television , 1969 Z851943 1969 single work film/TV

'The cuckold is a young university lecturer whose academic career is headed for brilliant success as surely as his marital relationship with a lovely, sexual wife is headed for disaster. What makes for comedy is first the husband's inversion of his academic and marital duties and finally their equation in a sophisticated battle of the sexes.'

Source: Mayhead, Gerald. 'Chance of a Winner'. The Age 27/12/1968: p.2

2 form y separately published work icon Fiends of the Family Pat Flower , ( dir. Oscar Whitbread ) Melbourne : ABC Television , 1968 Z1821210 1968 single work film/TV crime

Three middle-aged sisters are repressed by their mother, but how long can this last?

1 1 form y separately published work icon The Torrents Oriel Gray , ( dir. Oscar Whitbread ) Melbourne : ABC Television , 1968 Z1821220 1968 single work film/TV
3 form y separately published work icon The Winds of Green Monday Michael Noonan , ( dir. Oscar Whitbread ) Australia : Australian Broadcasting Commission , 1965 6725990 1965 single work film/TV historical fiction

A contemporary newspaper report offers the following synopsis: 'The story deals with a crew which deserts a ship to find a fortune on the NSW goldfields of the 1850s and the efforts of the captain to lure them back on board.'

Source: '"Combat" Private in a Ballad', Canberra Times, 2 August 1965, p.1.

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