form y separately published work icon A Piece of String single work   film/TV   crime   thriller  
Issue Details: First known date: 1968... 1968 A Piece of String
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

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

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

    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Crawford Productions ; Nine Network , 1968 .
      Extent: 50 min.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: 55
      1968 .
      person or book cover
      Script cover page (Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection)
      Extent: 53p.
      (Manuscript) assertion
      Note/s:
      • The script is printed on pink paper and labelled 'Episode E.2' on the cover page. '55' has been written in black ink next to the episode code. A notation in green ink in the top right-hand corner of the cover page indicates that this was copy number 5, and a notation directly below that (also in green ink) indicates that this copy of the script was designated for script editor Monte Miller. The cover page has been signed in red ink next to the copyright information, apparently by Jim Simmonds (another Crawfords script-writer).
      • The script is annotated in blue ink. Annotations include changes to dialogue (see page 15), what appear to be suggestions on dialogue that can be deleted (also page 15), and modifications to stage directions (see page 22).
      • The annotations in blue ink appear to be in two different pens and two different hands: the examples on page 15 above are in one hand and the example on page 22 in another. These are the only examples of annotations in blue ink in the script.
      • The script is also annotated in red ink. Annotations include additions to stage directions (see, for example, page 16) and a note suggesting additional dialogue (on page 46, reading, simply, 'additional dialogue', with an line to end of a short speech). These are the only examples of annotations in red ink in the script.
      • The script does not contain character notes, but the final page does include a list of crew credits:
        Written by Douglas E. Tainsh.
        Edited by Monte Miller.
        Typed by Pam Petersen, Christine Rook, Margaret Younger.
        Checked by Pam Petersen, Christine Rook, Margaret Younger.
        Roneod by Doreen Arnold.
        The space below these for 'Producer's Remarks' has been left blank.

      Holdings

      Held at: AFI Research Collection
      Local Id: SC HUN : 55
Last amended 30 May 2013 16:07:04
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