person or book cover
Tony Ward as John Hunter (screen cap)
form y separately published work icon Hunter series - publisher   film/TV   thriller  
Issue Details: First known date: 1967... 1967 Hunter
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Australia's first spy show, made at a time when overseas television networks were investing heavily in counter-espionage programs.

The titular character was John Hunter, a secret agent with SCU3 (Special Clandestine Unit 3), a division of COSMIC (Commonwealth Offices for Security and Military Intelligence Co-ordination). Operating under the front of Independent Surveys, COSMIC was headed by Charles Blake. Hunter was assisted by female agent Eve Halliday.

The enemy organisation, CUCW (Council for Unification of the Communist World) was headed in Australia by Mr Smith, whose chief agent was the complicated idealist Kragg. Kragg ultimately defected to the West (and to COSMIC) after a period of disillusionment with CUCW.

Late in the show's run, John Hunter met an untimely death in front of a firing squad in an Iron Curtain country. He was replaced by a new agent, Gil Martin, but the show only continued for another eight episodes, as Ian Jones preferred to concentrate on his new vehicle for Gerard Kennedy, Division 4.

According to Moran, in his Guide to Australian TV Series, 'Coming as it did towards the end of the Cold War and indeed the whole breakdown of the hegemony of Australian society, Hunter was an uneasy combination of boys'-own spy adventures, owing something to the popularity of James Bond novels, and the more cynical and seedy variation of the genre associated with writers such as Len Deighton and John Le Carre'. Don Storey, however, writes on Classic Australian Television that it was 'a bold, sophisticated and ambitious venture into slick, professional local drama', the sophistication no doubt aided by the per-episode budget of $20,000 (compared to Homicide's per-episode budget of $7000).

Notes

  • According to Storey, 'Early publicity made much capital from the fact that Tony Ward did most of his own stunts, but press reports that he wrestled a live shark were rather exaggerated. He did wrestle the shark, but it was already dead'.
  • The opening credits included the following voiceover: 'This man wears no uniform. He has no rank. His name is often not his own. The law offers him no special protection, no exemption. If necessary, his own country will deny his existence. He is part commando, part detective, part spy. He is ... Hunter'.
  • The opening titles are available to view on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1g1pszpEpc (Sighted: 13/10/2011)

Includes

15
form y separately published work icon The Vaughan Jackson File Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1967 Z1923746 1967 single work film/TV crime thriller

The script held in the Crawford Collection has neither synopsis nor character notes.

Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1967
17
form y separately published work icon The Martin Brenzer File Howard Griffiths , Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1967 Z1920238 1967 single work film/TV crime thriller

The script held in the Crawford Collection has neither synopsis nor character notes.

Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1967
18
form y separately published work icon The Bob Kitchen File Howard Griffiths , Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1967 Z1920306 1967 single work film/TV crime thriller

The script held in the Crawford Collection has neither synopsis nor character notes.

Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1967
19
form y separately published work icon The Vargon File Terry Stapleton , Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1967 Z1914462 1967 single work film/TV crime thriller

The script held in the Crawford Collection has neither synopsis nor characer notes.

Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1967
20
form y separately published work icon The Snowy Mountain File The Snowy Mountain File : Section One Ian Jones , Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1967 Z1923771 1967 single work film/TV crime thriller

This is the script for the first of of the two episodes of Hunter collectively called 'The Snowy Mountain File'. The Crawford Collection does not hold the script for the second episode.

The script held in the Crawford Collection has neither synopsis nor character notes.

Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1967
22
form y separately published work icon The Kaufmann File Howard Griffiths , 1967 Z1912468 1967 single work film/TV crime thriller

The script in the Crawford Collection has neither synopsis nor character notes.

Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1967
23
form y separately published work icon The Mirage File Terry Stapleton , 1967 Z1914489 1967 single work film/TV crime thriller

According to Storey, 'The Mirage File' was a two-part episode: there is some confusion in the annotations as to whether this script is the script for part one or part two. No copy of the script for the other part is held in the Crawford Collection.

The script held in the Crawford Collection has neither character notes nor synopsis.

Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1968
25
form y separately published work icon The Friends in Need File Howard Griffiths , 1967 Z1920334 1967 single work film/TV crime thriller

The script held in the Crawford Collection has neither character notes nor synopsis.

Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1968
26
form y separately published work icon The Hans Felburg File 1967 Z1923803 1967 single work film/TV crime thriller

The script held in the Crawford Collection has neither synopsis nor character notes.

Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1968
27
form y separately published work icon The Krystina File Terry Stapleton , 1967 Z1914498 1967 single work film/TV crime thriller

The script held in the Crawford Collection has neither synopsis nor character notes.

Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1968
28
form y separately published work icon The Jackpot File Howard Griffiths , 1967 Z1920342 1967 single work film/TV crime thriller

The script held in the Crawford Collection has neither synopsis nor character notes.

Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1968
29
form y separately published work icon Doves in the East The Jan Lestrovic File Terry Stapleton , 1967 Z1914510 1967 single work film/TV crime thriller

In this episode, the murder of Kragg's mentor Lestrovic finally forces the disillusioned idealist to turn his back on the Council for Unification of the Communist World (COUW) and approach COSMIC, though it takes a further two episodes and the murder of a colleague for him to fully join COSMIC (in 'A Reason for Dying').

The episode was written as 'The Jan Lestrovic File' (the title that appears on the script cover page) but aired under the title 'Doves in the East'.

The script held in the Crawford Collection has neither synopsis nor character notes.

Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1968
30
form y separately published work icon The Kragg File Ian Jones , 1967 Z1923369 1967 single work film/TV crime thriller

The script held in the Crawford Collection has neither synopsis nor character notes.

Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1968
31
form y separately published work icon A Reason for Dying Terry Stapleton , 1967 Z1912480 1967 single work film/TV thriller crime

This episode is the last in the arc that began with episode 29 ('The Jan Lestrovic File'/'Doves in the East'), though it had been signalled in earlier episodes: Hunter's nemesis Kragg, disillusioned with the Council, especially after they order the murder of his mentor (and Council founder) Lestrovic, ultimately defects to COSMIC. He is aided by Council spy Georgie Savage. In this episode, Georgie is brutally murdered for assisting Kragg. Stapleton went to great lengths to ensure a specific mood and tone to the scene in which Hunter finds the dying Georgie, adding the following detailed stage directions:

'SPECIAL NOTE:

'THE OBJECT OF THIS SEQUENCE HAS CERTAINLY NOTHING TO DO WITH EITHER SEX OR SENSATIONALISM.

'IT SHOULD SHOCK, AND IT SHOULD HAVE GREAT IMPACT. BUT THE INTENDED EFFECT IS ONE OF TRAGEDY.

'THE IMAGE WE RETAIN OF GEORGIE'S DEATH MUST BE POWERFUL BECAUSE, WHEN HUNTER DESCRIBES IT TO KRAGG, IN A LATER SCENE, WE MUST BELIEVE THIS MAKES SUCH AN IMPACT AS TO GIVE KRAGG ONCE MORE A REASON FOR LIVING, I.E., REVENGE.

ALSO, IN ONE OR TWO LATER EPISODES, THIS IMAGE WILL SUSTAIN HUNTER AND KRAGG IN THEIR SEARCH FOR GEORGIE'S KILLER.

'FILM DIRECTOR:

IT MAY BE NECESSARY TO MAKE SPECIAL ARRANGEMENTS REGARDING THE SIMULATION OF CUTS AND BRUISES ON GEORGIE'S FACE AND BODY. IT IS IMPORTANT THAT THESE BE UTTERLY CONVINCING AND TRAGIC.

'ALSO, WE SHOULD BELIEVE THAT GEORGIE IS NAKED. WE SEE HER BARE BACK, THEN GO TO HEAD AND SHOULDERS WHEN HUNTER TURNS HER OVER.

'WHEN FIRST SEEN, SHE SHOULD BE COVERED BY AN OLD, STAINED, RAGGED TARPAULIN OR CANVAS. THE WHOLE EFFECT SHOULD BE SQUALID, PATHETICALLY TRAGIC.'

The script held in the Crawford Collection has neither synopsis nor character notes.

Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1968
44
form y separately published work icon The Visitor Ian Jones , Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1968 Z1923330 1968 single work film/TV crime thriller

The script held in the Crawford Collection has neither synopsis nor character notes.

Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1968
49
form y separately published work icon The Immovable Object Douglas Tainsh , Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1968 Z1923649 1968 single work film/TV crime thriller

The script held in the Crawford Collection has neither synopsis nor character notes.

Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1968
50
form y separately published work icon The Long Weekend Ian Jones , Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1968 Z1923337 1968 single work film/TV crime thriller

The script held in the Crawford Collection has neither synopsis nor character notes.

Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1968
51
form y separately published work icon Misfit Howard Griffiths , Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1968 Z1920347 1968 single work film/TV crime thriller

The script held in the Crawford Collection has neither character notes nor synopsis.

Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1968
53
form y separately published work icon The Lost One Terry Stapleton , Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1968 Z1914522 1968 single work film/TV crime thriller

The script held in the Crawford Collection has neither synopsis nor character notes.

Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1968
54
form y separately published work icon The Rising of the Moon Ian Jones , Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1968 Z1923351 1968 single work film/TV crime thriller

The script held in the Crawford Collection has neither synopsis nor character notes.

Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1968
55
form y separately published work icon A Piece of String Douglas Tainsh , Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1968 Z1923665 1968 single work film/TV crime thriller

The script held in the Crawford Collection has neither character notes nor synopsis.

Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1968
56
form y separately published work icon The Smaller They Are David William Boutland , Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1968 Z1915718 1968 single work film/TV crime thriller

This was Rod Mullinar's first episode as Gil Martin: Tony Ward's central character, John Hunter, was killed off in the next episode, 'Misadventure'.

The script held in the Crawford Collection has neither character notes nor synopsis.

Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1968
57
form y separately published work icon Misadventure Howard Griffiths , 1968 Z1912496 1968 single work film/TV crime thriller

'Misadventure' was Tony Ward's final episode as the titular Hunter. Ostensibly on holiday but actually on loan to British Intelligence, Hunter is paired with a British spy and sent to an unspecified country behind the Iron Curtain. But the British spy has been hiding a worrying heart condition, which began after his last physical examination: when he drops dead in the street of a heart attack, police find a code book strapped to his chest, and arrest Hunter as a spy. Hunter is given a strict script to follow for his show trial, which should end in deportation or a short prison term. But when Hunter not only refuses to read the plea that has been written for him but also reveals to the audience that this is a show trial, he is sentenced to death. His country disavows him in order to preserve the sanctity of COSMIC generally, and Hunter is executed by firing squad.

The stage directions for Hunter's execution are detailed. On page 52, they read:

'A FEELING OF EARLY MORNING FRESHNESS ABOUT THIS SCENE.

'FIRST SHOT IS OF SOME BIRDS PERCHED ON THE BRANCHES OF A TREE. THERE ARE DEWDROPS AT THEIR FEET.

'PULL BACK TO SEE HUNTER, HEAD ERECT, WALKING WITH TWO GUARDS ALONG THE COBBLED COURTYARD TOWARDS AN EXECUTION POST WHICH HAS BEEN SET UP IN FRONT ON [sic] A BLANK BRICK WALL AT THE END OF THE COURTYARD.

'HUNTER SEES NESTRI OUT OF THE CORNER OF HIS EYE, STANDING TO ONE SIDE OF THE YARD AS HUNTER WALKS PAST.

'THE WHOLE THING SEEMS UNREAL TO HUNTER.

'THERE IS A DREAMLIKE QUALITY ABOUT THE SCENE.'


On page 53, the stage directions read:

'HUNTER'S HANDS HAVE BEEN SECURED TO THE POST. ONE OF THE SOLDIERS WITH HIM PRODUCES A BLINDFOLD AND HOLDS IT UP. BUT HUNTER SHAKES HIS HEAD.

'THE SOLDIER HESITATES, THEN POCKETS THE BLINDFOLD.

'HE GIVES HUNTER A GLANCE OF RESPECT, AS HE WITHDRAWS TO THE SIDE, OUT OF FRAME, WITH HIS COMPANION.

'HUNTER LOOKS UP AT THE SKY FOR THE LAST TIME.

'CLOUDS DRIFT ACROSS THE SKY.

'CUT TO A MEDIUM LONG SHOT OF HUNTER AS HE LOWERS HIS HEAD AND LOOKS DIRECTLY AT THE CAMERA, WHICH IS IN THE POSITION WHERE THE FIRING SQUAD WOULD BE.

'WE HEAR THE FIRST ORDER SHOUTED, STILL ODDLY MUTED AND FLAT, AS WE BEGIN A SLOW ZOOM IN ON HUNTER'S FACE.'

The script held in the Crawford Collection has neither synopsis nor character notes.

Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1968
58
form y separately published work icon Crusader Terry Stapleton , Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1968 Z1914531 1968 single work film/TV crime thriller

The script held in the Crawford Collection has neither synopsis nor character notes.

Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1968
59
form y separately published work icon The Strangers David William Boutland , 1968 Z1915733 1968 single work film/TV crime thriller

The script held in the Crawford Collection has neither character notes nor synopsis.

Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1969
60
form y separately published work icon The Deep Water Ian Jones , 1968 Z1923403 1968 single work film/TV crime thriller

The first scene of this episode involves a character called Errol Bremner 'being interviewed by Mike Walsh on the "Today" set' (according to the stage directions). Tony Ward, who had already left his role as John Hunter on Hunter by this time, had himself been a current-affairs reporter in the early 1960s (first on Channel 7's Seven Days and then on Channel 10's Telescope) and would become one again in the early 1970s, when he joined the crew of Mike Willessee's A Current Affair.

The script held in the Crawford Collection has neither character notes nor synopsis.

Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1969
61
form y separately published work icon Hole in the Net Glyn Davies , 1968 Z1923827 1968 single work film/TV crime thriller

The script held in the Crawford Collection has neither character notes nor synopsis.

Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1969
62
form y separately published work icon A Matter of Immunity Douglas Tainsh , 1968 Z1923708 1968 single work film/TV crime thriller

The script held in the Crawford Collection has neither character notes nor synopsis.

Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1969
63
form y separately published work icon Neptune 1968 Z1923848 1968 single work film/TV crime thriller

The script held in the Crawford Collection has neither synopsis nor character notes.

Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1969
64
form y separately published work icon Dead Man Talking Howard Griffiths , 1968 Z1920366 1968 single work film/TV crime thriller

The script held in the Crawford Collection has neither synopsis nor character notes.

Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1969
65
form y separately published work icon The Send Off Terry Stapleton , 1968 Z1914538 1968 single work film/TV crime thriller

The final episode of Hunter, in which Kragg, realising that he has been exhausted by the sequence of deaths he has experienced (including Lestrovic, Georgie Savage, and Hunter himself) and that his professional instincts have become dulled, resigns from COSMIC to marry his girlfriend Heidi Frankel.

The script held in the Crawford Collection has neither synopsis nor character notes.

Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1969

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

y separately published work icon The Writer in Australian Television History : The Crawfords Archive Catriona Mills (lead researcher), St Lucia : AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource , 2013 6955003 2013 website bibliography

The project is a collection of AustLit records based on the content of the Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection (AFIRC) at RMIT. A subset of the AFIRC’s main collection, the Crawford Collection contains scripts and ancillary material relating to Australian radio and television production company Crawford Productions, from the radio serials of the 1940s and 1950s to the demolition of the Box Hill studios in 2006. The Writer in Australian Television History is a collection of records for 318 episodes of Crawfords’ radio dramas and television series, spanning the period from 1953 to 1977.

Tasmania and the Cinema Adrian Danks , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , December no. 65 2012;
'Tasmania's intermittent relationship with the cinema dates back before the first feature film made on its rugged West Coast in 1925, Louise Lovely and Wilton Welch's now lost Jewelled Nights. In many ways what we might call "Tasmanian cinema" reflects the sometimes harsh, depopulated landscape of the island itself. Since the 1920s only a small number of feature films - and a larger number of short documentaries largely made by various state and corporate bodies - have been made or shot in Tasmania, with only the children's film They Found a Cave (Andrew Steane, 1962) standing in for the vast period between Norman Dawn's For the Term of His Natural Life in 1927 and John Honey's remarkable Manganinnie in 1980. But Tasmania also has an interesting place in the global imagination of Hollywood during this period, including its status as the actual birthplace of Errol Flynn, the fabricated place of origin of Merle Oberon, and the largely fantastical landscape of the much-loved Warner Bros. cartoon character, The Tasmanian Devil. Warner Bros.' denial of Flynn's origins, MGM's fudging of Oberon's Anglo-Indian ancestry, and the geographic indistinctness and confusion of the original Tasmanian Devil cartoons, highlight a freer approach to what might be termed the "imagination of Tasmania". (Author's introduction)
Kath, Kim and Baz to Rejuvenate Box Office After Show Garry Maddox , 2012 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 24 January 2012; (p. 12)
Untitled Nigel Randall , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Adelaide Review , October no. 380 2011; (p. 32)

— Review of Hunter Ian Jones , Terry Stapleton , Douglas Tainsh , Howard Griffiths , Glyn Davies , David William Boutland , 1967 series - publisher film/TV
Untitled Nigel Randall , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Adelaide Review , October no. 380 2011; (p. 32)

— Review of Hunter Ian Jones , Terry Stapleton , Douglas Tainsh , Howard Griffiths , Glyn Davies , David William Boutland , 1967 series - publisher film/TV
Kath, Kim and Baz to Rejuvenate Box Office After Show Garry Maddox , 2012 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 24 January 2012; (p. 12)
Tasmania and the Cinema Adrian Danks , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , December no. 65 2012;
'Tasmania's intermittent relationship with the cinema dates back before the first feature film made on its rugged West Coast in 1925, Louise Lovely and Wilton Welch's now lost Jewelled Nights. In many ways what we might call "Tasmanian cinema" reflects the sometimes harsh, depopulated landscape of the island itself. Since the 1920s only a small number of feature films - and a larger number of short documentaries largely made by various state and corporate bodies - have been made or shot in Tasmania, with only the children's film They Found a Cave (Andrew Steane, 1962) standing in for the vast period between Norman Dawn's For the Term of His Natural Life in 1927 and John Honey's remarkable Manganinnie in 1980. But Tasmania also has an interesting place in the global imagination of Hollywood during this period, including its status as the actual birthplace of Errol Flynn, the fabricated place of origin of Merle Oberon, and the largely fantastical landscape of the much-loved Warner Bros. cartoon character, The Tasmanian Devil. Warner Bros.' denial of Flynn's origins, MGM's fudging of Oberon's Anglo-Indian ancestry, and the geographic indistinctness and confusion of the original Tasmanian Devil cartoons, highlight a freer approach to what might be termed the "imagination of Tasmania". (Author's introduction)
y separately published work icon The Writer in Australian Television History : The Crawfords Archive Catriona Mills (lead researcher), St Lucia : AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource , 2013 6955003 2013 website bibliography

The project is a collection of AustLit records based on the content of the Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection (AFIRC) at RMIT. A subset of the AFIRC’s main collection, the Crawford Collection contains scripts and ancillary material relating to Australian radio and television production company Crawford Productions, from the radio serials of the 1940s and 1950s to the demolition of the Box Hill studios in 2006. The Writer in Australian Television History is a collection of records for 318 episodes of Crawfords’ radio dramas and television series, spanning the period from 1953 to 1977.

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