person or book cover
Script cover page (Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection)
form y separately published work icon A Matter of Immunity single work   film/TV   crime   thriller  
Issue Details: First known date: 1968... 1968 A Matter of Immunity
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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 printed on pink paper and labelled 'Episode E8' on the cover page: '62' has been written next to this in black ink. A notation in blue felt pen in the upper right-hand corner of the cover page suggests that this was copy number 62, though that might be the episode number repeated. There is no indication of to whom this copy of the script was designated.
      • There are no further signs of annotation on this copy of the script.
      • Pages 28 and 33 have been stapled out of order at the end of 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, Margaret Younger, Christine Rook.
        Checked by Pam Petersen, Margaret Younger.
        Roneod by Phillip Barnett.
        The space below these for 'Producer's Remarks' has been left blank.
      • The script has been signed on the front cover in red felt pen, apparently by Tony Dyson who was (according to Crawford Productions tribute website [crawfordproductions.tv]) a boom operator.

      Holdings

      Held at: AFI Research Collection
      Local Id: SC HUN : 62
      Note:
      AFI Research Collection record
Note: Neither the script nor the usual alternate sources suggest a director for this episode.
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Crawford Productions ; Nine Network , 1969 .
      Extent: 47 min. 56 secs (as at 4/10/68, 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: 62
Subjects:
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