Split Level (TV play)

Split Level is a 1964 Australian TV play directed by Ken Hannam and written by Noel Robinson.[4] It aired on 7 October 1964 and was shot in Sydney at ABC's Gore Hill Studios.[5]

Split Level
Written byNoel Robinson
Directed byKen Hannam
Country of originAustralia
Original languageEnglish
Production
ProducerDick Cohen
Running time60 mins[1]
Production companyABC
Release
Original networkABC
Original release7 October 1964 (1964-10-07) (Sydney)[2]
14 October 1964 (1964-10-14) (Melbourne)[3]

Australian TV drama was relatively rare at the time.[6]

Plot

Stephanie is married to architect Mike. They live in a house on Sydney's north with their two children. Stephanie hears gossip that an old school friend of hers, Rosemary, has been having an affair, leading to the end of her marriage. Over the course of the day, Stephanie realises that the man Rosemary has been seeing is Mike.[7]

Cast
  • Diana Davidson as Stephanie Stewart
  • Leonard Teale as Mike Stewart
  • Jacki Weaver as Hilary
  • Elizabeth Pusey as Keith
  • Barbie Rogers as Rosemary
  • Ruth Cracknell as Alison, wife of Mike's business partner
  • Judi Farr as Vonnie, a friend of Stephanie's
  • Winifred Green as Mrs Stewart
  • Eve Wynne as Mrs Conlon
  • Julianna Allan as Carol
  • Muriel Hopkins as Mrs Brooke
  • Joan Morrow as Janet
  • Max Phipps as Louis
  • Pat Hill
  • Joan Winchester
  • Leonard Bullen
  • Jonathon Constable

Production

The original title was A Day in the Sun and The Woman Who Has Everything. Jack Montgomery was the designer.

It was Noel Robinson's first original script produced for TV, although she had done a number of adaptations.[8] Director Ken Hannam said "this is the best constructed TV play to come to me from a local author. I have no doubt Miss Robinson will become a most important writer in the next few years."[9]

Reception

According to the Sydney Morning Herald "as an exercise in how to make a very small amount of plot fill out an hour of television drama" the play "was technically a success" but "left a good deal to be desired" being "a soap opera transposed to the upper social scale with a faintly intellectual flavour of play-readings, feature walls and flower arrangements." The critic allowed that director Hannan "extracted welcome liveliness from plenty of scene and camera angle changes, and thus at least kept the eye busy even when the mind tended to wander."[5]

References
  1. "TV Guide". The Age. 8 October 1964. p. 28.
  2. "TV Guide". Sydney Morning Herald. 5 October 1964. p. 31.
  3. "Drama Sorts Out Domestic Rift". The Age. 8 October 1964. p. 13.
  4. "ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT When Will the Sleepy Giant Turn Over? Reassurance for an elderly relative". The Bulletin. 10 July 1965. p. 50.
  5. "TV Play on Channel 2". Sydney Morning Herald. 8 October 1964. p. 16.
  6. Vagg, Stephen (18 February 2019). "60 Australian TV Plays of the 1950s & '60s". Filmink.
  7. "TV Guide". The Age. 8 October 1964. p. 26.
  8. Vagg, Stephen (21 May 2021). "Forgotten Australian TV Plays: Split Level". Filmink.
  9. "Sydney Woman Writer's Play". Sydney Morning Herald. 5 October 1964. p. 30.


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