Cirrus@Austlit

'Mother Paul, after having climbed over the walls of the Athuan monastery, very quickly takes over the administration of the monastery's foundering cherry liquor business - she has her sights set on being the next Abbott...after that Rome!'

Source: Screen Australia. (Sighted: 31/1/2014)

A short-lived anthology series, Things That Go Bump in the Night does not seem to have attracted a great deal of viewer attention, and is now extremely obscure. According to Albert Moran, in his Guide to Australian TV Series, 'This series was another short drama series produced in the Sydney studios of the ABC. The series featured Helen Morse fresh from the success of the ABC drama Marion. The program is based on tales of supernatural powers disturbing the residents of a boarding house.'

Certain Women began as a short series in 1973 and continued on as a serial until 1977. At the centre of the narrative were six women from three generations of a Sydney family. Dolly has two daughters Freda and Jane. Jane has three daughters Marjorie, Helen, and Gillian.

In a short piece announcing the extension of the series after the broadcast of the first six episodes television critic Valda Marshall said the decision to make further episodes 'should also keep the women's libbers happy ... so far as I know, it's the first TV series made here specifically as a starring vehicle for women'.

Source: Marshall, Valda. 'ABC's 'Women' Given Longer Reign'. The Sun-Herald, 25/3/1973, p. 77.

A young man considering the priesthood as his vocation finds himself in the company of a group of artists. Their Bohemian lifestyle leads him to spend his time and money on the pleasures of alcohol, food, and stimulating company.

A period drama set in the 1890s, the narrative concerns eighteen-year-old Ella Belairs, who returns to her home in Ballarat, Victoria after having spent her childhood in Fiji.

The Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) produced the critically acclaimed, award-winning series Dynasty between 1970 and 1971. Dynasty--which bears no relation to the 1980s' American series of the same name--was developed from Tony Morphett's novel and later television play.

The series explores the intrigues and conflicts of powerful media family the Masons who, through the Mason Corporation Board, publish The Standard newspaper and own the television station MSN Channel 6. Head of the family and chairman of the board Jack Mason is a newspaperman like his father. And, again like his father, he is an old-style autocratic owner-publisher, determined to retain control of all aspects of his empire.

An elderly woman who refuses to leave her house even though it has been bought by developers is visited by a young woman who claims to be fleeing her abusive husband.

A BBC television adaptation of Ruth Park's novel.

'It is Christmas Eve and, in tropical heat, Felix and Emillie Ducotel struggle to maintain a small shop, cope with the arrival of Felix's unpleasant cousin, Henri, and settle their lovely daughter (Marie-Louise) happily.

'Three convicts–two murderers and an embezzler–who are repairing the roof of the Ducotels' shop, decide that, as a Christmas gift to the family, they will set everyone's problems to rights–financial problems as well as emotional problems.

'Their gift, and their methods, are unconventional and provide much of the play's humour.'

Source

'Murray Rose in Acting Debut', Canberra Times, 19 December 1962, p.25

An Australian adaptation of Peter Kenna's play; little can be traced about this adaptation.

In response to the success of Lola Montez, Peter Stannard, Alan Burke, and Peter Benjamin were commissioned by ATN-7 and Shell to write a family-orientated musical for television. That production, Pardon Miss Westcott, was performed and broadcast live around Australia a few weeks before Christmas in 1959. Starring Wendy Blacklock and Michael Cole, it was orchestrated by ATN-7's musical director, Tommy Tycho, along with Julian Lee.

The musical begins in Sydney in 1809, just after Governor Bligh's departure and before Governor Macquarie's arrival, and tells the story of Elizabeth Westcott, a convict transported for serving a pompous magistrate at her father's inn in England his own lamb. She is assigned to work at Government House and quickly rules the roost. When she is granted a ticket of leave, Miss Westcott opens an inn in Pitt Street, with the help of an assortment of saints and sinners. A serving army officer, Richard, who was also on board the convict ship, is captivated by her and eventually overcomes the social gap between them by getting himself into trouble. All ends well.

Musical

Set in Ballarat during the gold rush year of 1856, the story concerns the visit to the town Lola Montez (aka Dolores Eliza Gilbert), the famous Irish-born courtesan and mistress of a king. Her notoriety was also in part due to her sensational strip-tease 'The Spider Dance.'