person or book cover
Script cover page (Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection)
form y separately published work icon The Mirage File single work   film/TV   crime   thriller  
Note: Stapleton is attributed authorship of this episode on the strength of the initials 'T.S.' next to the episode title on the cover page.
Issue Details: First known date: 1967... 1967 The Mirage File
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All Publication Details

      1967 .
      person or book cover
      Script cover page (Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection)
      Extent: 61p.
      (Manuscript) assertion
      Note/s:
      • The script is copied on pink paper, and includes neither character notes nor crew information. It is dated '20.9.67' on the cover page.
      • A notation in the top right-hand corner of the cover page indicates that this is copy 15 of the script and that it is designated for 'Miss Crawford' (Dorothy Crawford). An indeterminate scribble in blue ink, likely initials, appears next to the copyright details on the front cover.
      • Notations in the top right-hand corner of the script, which appear to be cataloguing notes, indicate that this is the script for episode 23, and it has been catalogued as such in the Crawford Collection. But '24' has been written in blue ink next to Terry Stapleton's initials on the cover page. Both episodes 23 and 24 were called 'The Mirage File'.
      • The script is annotated throughout in green ink, red felt pen, blue felt pen, and blue ink. The annotations in red felt pen are primarily camera directions and additions to the stage directions. The annotations in blue felt pen are primarily alterations to dialogue. (See, for example, page 54 for both red and blue felt pen annotations.)
      • The annotations in blue ink are alterations to the dialogue and, in some cases, deletion of sections of dialogue. It appears as though these annotations were made to tighten the script. See, for example, page 53, where some dialogue has been struck out in blue ink, and two lengthy speeches have been made pithier: 'Correct me if I’m wrong, but these used to be the long range fuel tanks' becomes 'These used to be the long range fuel tanks, right?' and 'I can’t promise to understand, but would you mind explaining how this Radar Absorption Device works' becomes 'How does this thing work?'
      • The annotations show an ongoing process of editing. On page 53, for example, the blue ink annotations appear to postdate the blue felt pen annotations. On page 47, the blue ink annotations appear to precede the red felt pen annotations, which cross them out. And on page 36, the blue ink annotations are crossed out with blue felt pen.

      Holdings

      Held at: AFI Research Collection
      Local Id: SC HUN : 23
      Note:
      AFI Research Collection record
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Crawford Productions ; Nine Network , 1968 .
      Extent: Not given.p.
      Note/s:
      • Neither the script nor the alternate sources provide a director for this episode.
      • See notes to manuscript for more information on the numbering of this episode.
      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: 23
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