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
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

All Publication Details

      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
      Note:
      AFI Research Collection record
    • 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
Subjects:
Settings:
  • Eastern Europe, Europe,
X