Cirrus

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.

Latest Issues

VIEW ALL ISSUES (C852439)

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

The script held in the Crawford Collection in the AFI Research Collection contains the following character notes (excluding regular characters):

'HARRY THOMAS: 30 years old. But mentally he's about 10. He looks normal enough, but when he speaks we see and hear the child. Harmless.
'JEFF DAVIS: 12 years old. A quiet, friendly boy and a diabetic. When he meets up with Harry, he understands Harry's need for a friend.
'TIM BENSON: 12 years old. Mischievous, always in trouble, without really meaning any harm.
'BOBBY CLARK: 12 years old. He's very like Tim and follows him in everything, they're buddies.
'MRS. JUPP: 45 years old. A sour faced woman. The Thomas' neighbour, not happy.
'MRS. DAVIS: 30 years old. Hardworking, pleasant woman. A little too easy going with Jeff perhaps.'

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.

Affiliation Notes

Writing Disability in Australia

Type of disability Unspecified intellectual disabilities.

Type of character Primary.

Point of view First person.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

1975 .

Script cover page (from the Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection)

SoloOneEp13Cover_FXRo.jpg

Extent: 23p.
(Manuscript) assertion

Note/s:

The Crawford Collection contains two copies of the script, both copied on blue paper and both labelled 'Code: 12515'. Unlike previous scripts for the series, neither has the outer, illustrated cover page.

Copy 1 shows no indication of to whom this copy of the script was designated and shows no signs of annotation.

Copy 2 has 'Sally Gardner' written in the top right-hand corner of the cover page in black ink. (There is no Sally Gardner among the cast for this episode and no Sally Gardner has been traced among Crawfords’ staff. The make-up/wardrobe crew member for this episode is Sally Gordon, however.) '12515' is written below this in blue felt pen.

Copy 2 is annotated in blue felt pen. In addition to the annotation on the cover page, there are blue-felt pen markings on the character list (the addition of actors’ names next to four of the roles, and ticks next to each characters’ name, barring the dog). There are also blue felt pen notes on page 4, adding to the prop notes: where 'haversack' has been written in black felt pen (see note below), a blue felt pen note adds the haversack’s contents in a vertical list (apple / ball of string / penknife / can coke / insulin / hypodermic syringe). A similar note also appears on page 8. There are no further blue felt pen annotations on this copy of the script.

Copy 2 is also annotated in black felt pen. These annotations, as with similar annotations to the script for episode one, mark the necessary props for specific scenes. As with the script for episode one, these annotations include underlining when the prop is identified explicitly in the stage directions. In most cases, however, these annotations are expanded on with lists of required props running vertically down the margins. In some cases, these lists are further expanded in blue felt pen, presumably at a later date (see note above).

Copy 2 is also annotated in red ink, seemingly in the same hand as annotated episodes 1-8 and later scripts. These annotations are alterations and additions to the dialogue, deletions of sections of dialogue, and in some cases deletions of scenes or sections of scenes (see, for example, page 9).

The file also contains the following ancillary material:
1. Cast list: a type-written cast list, with no confidential information.
2. Printed cast list, showing actors' contact information.
3. 6pp. copy of the script stripped to nothing but dialogue, copied on white paper. This script incorporates the alterations to dialogue and deletions of scenes made in copy 2 above.

Holdings

Held at: AFI Research Collection

Local Id: SC SOL : 13

Note:
AFI Research Collection record

Director: Rod Hardy ; Stewart Wright ; Mick Mills

Note: The script credits Hardy as director, Mills as first assistant director, and Wright as second assistant director.

VIEW FILM DETAILS

work

Publisher: Crawford Productions ; Seven Network

Melbourne, Victoria,: Crawford Productions ; Seven Network , 1976 .

Extent: 23 min., 42 secs (according to the script)p.

Note/s:

Storey lists this as episode nine.

Series: form y Solo One Sonia Borg , Phil Freedman , Gwenda Marsh , Everett de Roche , Peter Schreck , Vince Moran , Keith Hetherington , John Drew , Keith Thompson , Denise Morgan , Tom Hegarty , Melbourne : Crawford Productions , 1976 Z1814905 1976 series - publisher film/TV children's adventure detective Abstract
A spin-off from Crawford Productions' Matlock Police, Solo One transferred motorcycle officer Gary Hogan from the fictional town of Matlock to the real town of Emerald in the Dandenong Ranges, where the program was filmed on location.

The program, an attempt to capitalise on Gary Hogan's popularity with child viewers of Matlock Police and less adult in focus than its predecessor, wasn't renewed for a second season, after Cronin moved on to Crawford's war-time drama, The Sullivans. Don Storey, in his Classic Australian Television, notes that the program 'was very successful and received much critical acclaim', but Moran, in his Guide to Australian TV Series, counters that 'Cronin, though lovable both to Crawford's and the Victorian Police, who were advisors on the series, was far too long in the tooth to be playing this kind of role'.
Number in series: 13