person or book cover
Script cover page (Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection)
form y separately published work icon Misadventure single work   film/TV   crime   thriller  
Issue Details: First known date: 1968... 1968 Misadventure
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'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.

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

      1968 .
      person or book cover
      Script cover page (Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection)
      Extent: 55p.
      (Manuscript) assertion
      Note/s:
      • The script is copied on pink paper, and contains neither character notes nor information on cast or crew members. The episode was initially designated '1O', but this has been crossed out in black felt pen and 'E4' written next to it (also in black felt pen). A notation in blue felt pen in the top right-hand corner of the cover page indicates that this script is numbered 4, and was designated for 'Monte' [Miller]. The cover page has been signed in red ink next to the copyright information.
      • The script is annotated throughout in blue ink. Most of the annotations are at the level of copy editing (such as corrections to typing mistakes): see, for example, page 6, where 'knew' has been changed to 'know'. Some are deletions of dialogue (see, for example, page 10) or alterations to dialogue (see, for example, page 22). An annotation on page 32 removes a character from a scene. Annotations on page 41 correct some words in the non-English portions of the dialogue.
      • The script also contains minor annotations in red ink. A note on page 34 changes the typed phrase 'darned light' to 'damned light'. Another on page 39 corrects a typing mistake.
      • Page 9 has a header that reads 'Amended Page' and is dated '14.10.68'. Following this is a page designated '9A', with a header that reads 'Additional Page', dated '14.10.68'. Page 26 is also labelled 'Amended Page' and dated '14.10.68'. It is followed by two additional pages (with the headers '26A' and '26B', both dated '14.10.68').

      Holdings

      Held at: AFI Research Collection
      Local Id: SC HUN : 57
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Crawford Productions ; Nine Network , 1968 .
      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: 57
Last amended 30 May 2013 16:11:00
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