person or book cover
Script cover page (Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection)
form y separately published work icon The Kaufmann File single work   film/TV   crime   thriller  
Note: Griffiths is attributed authorship of this episode on the strength of the initials 'H.G.' next to the episode title on the cover page.
Issue Details: First known date: 1967... 1967 The Kaufmann File
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

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

Notes

  • This entry has been compiled from archival research in the Crawford Collection (AFI Research Collection), undertaken by Dr Catriona Mills under the auspices of the 2012 AFI Research Collection (AFIRC) Research Fellowship: see The Writer in Australian Television History.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

      1967 .
      person or book cover
      Script cover page (Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection)
      Extent: 64p.
      (Manuscript) assertion
      Note/s:
      • The script is printed on pink paper, with neither character list nor information on cast or crew members. The AFI Research Collection holds two (identical) copies of this script, but only one is held in this file. The script is dated '12.9.67' on the cover page.
      • This is the first Hunter script (considering them in episode order) where the episode title is typed onto the cover page, instead of being added in ink or pencil.
      • A notation in blue ink in the top right-hand corner of the cover page indicates that this script is numbered '39' and was designated for Lois Simpson. (The Crawford Productions tribute website [crawfordproductions.tv] suggests that Lois Simpson was Dorothy Crawford's personal assistant.) The cover page has been signed in black ink in the bottom left-hand corner.
      • The script is annotated in blue and red felt pen on page 34: a series of ticks (alternately blue then red) against dialogue at the bottom of the page, and a signature in the bottom left-hand corner of the page in red felt pen, accompanied by the date '10.11.67'.
      • The script is annotated in blue ink on page 16, where a character's name has been struck from the stage directions. There are no further annotations on this copy of the script.
      • A note on the page immediately following the cover page reads, 'PLEASE NOTE: CHARACTER NAME "DAROFF" HAS NOW BEEN CHANGED TO "DARCY".' This change has not been made in the script itself.

      Holdings

      Held at: AFI Research Collection
      Local Id: SC HUN : 22
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Crawford Productions ; Nine Network , 1967 .
      Extent: 60min.p.
      Series: form y separately published work icon Hunter Ian Jones , Terry Stapleton , Douglas Tainsh , Howard Griffiths , Glyn Davies , David William Boutland , Melbourne : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1967 Z1814649 1967 series - publisher film/TV thriller

      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).

      Number in series: 22
Last amended 30 May 2013 15:51:48
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