person or book cover
Script cover page (Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection)
form y separately published work icon Dead Man Talking single work   film/TV   crime   thriller  
Note: Don Storey attributes this episode to Terry Stapleton, but the script lists Griffiths as the author.
Issue Details: First known date: 1968... 1968 Dead Man Talking
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

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: 60p.
      (Manuscript) assertion
      Note/s:
      • The script is copied on pink paper, and labelled 'Episode F.2' on the cover page: '64' has been written next to this in black ink. A notation in black ink in the upper right-hand corner of the cover page indicates that this is copy number 66, but there is no indication as to whom this copy of the script was designated. The cover page has been signed 'Ian Dewhurst' in black ink next to the copyright information: Dewhurst worked as best boy and gaffer on various Crawford productions.
      • There are no further signs of annotation on this copy of the script.
      • The script does not include character notes, but does include the following list of crew credits:
        Written by Howard Griffiths.
        Edited by Monte Miller.
        Typed by Pam Petersen, Margaret Younger, Christine Rook.
        Checked by Pam Peterson, Margaret Younger, Christine Rook.
        Roneod by Tony Lyson.
        The section below this for 'Producer's Remarks' has been left blank.
      • Page 50 has been stapled out of order at the end of the script.

      Holdings

      Held at: AFI Research Collection
      Local Id: SC HUN : 64
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Crawford Productions ; Nine Network , 1969 .
      Extent: 51 min. 10 secs (as at 14.10.68, according to the script)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: 64
Last amended 30 May 2013 16:19:33
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