Adventure Unlimited
GenreAnthology
Created byLee Robinson
Directed byKen Hannam
Robin Lovejoy
ComposerBruce Finlay
Country of originAustralia
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes10
Production
Executive producerHerb McIntyre
ProducerLee Robinson
EditorDon Saunders
Running time25 mins
Production companyWaratah Productions
Original release
NetworkChannel Ten (Sydney)
Release8 October 1965 (1965-10-08)

Adventure Unlimited is a 1965 Australian anthology TV series.[1][2] It was produced by Lee Robinson and associate produced by Joy Cavill. The directors included Ken Hannam. It was made by Waratah Film Productions a short lived company that came out of an unsuccessful attempt to gain a third commercial television licence.[3]

It has been described as "surprisingly obscure" considering the talent involved.[4]

Broadcast history

The series was made in 1963, but was not shown in Sydney until 1965, airing on Channel Ten on Friday nights at 7.30.[5] An episode appears to have aired on Thursday, 30 September 1965.[6]

It was not seen in Melbourne until 1968, where it started 15 September.[7] It sold to Canadian television and screened there in 1965.[1]

Episode 1 - "Summer Affair"

Directed by Ken Hannam, written by Michael Plant and Evan Green. Filmed by Carl Kayser and Ron Taylor.

Set on Hayman Island. A drama involving a rich heiress, her husband and a pretty young singer.

Aired Sydney 10 December 1965.[8]

Cast

Episode 2 - "The Witness"

Written by Joy Cavill, directed by Robin Lovejoy.

Set in Papua New Guinea – a nun from a Roman Catholic mission on the upper Sepik River was the witness to a murder in Sydney years before, and her testimony could result in a conviction. The story centres around plots to kill her while the police try to bring her back to testify.

Aired in Sydney on 5 November 1965.[9]

Cast

Episode 3 - "Adventure Unlimited"

Directed by Robin Lovejoy. Photography by Carl Kayser and Ron Taylor.

Set on the Great Barrier reef – two divers are commissioned by a steel company to survey the sands of a section of coast for limestone in the sands – the area is full of sharks and divers go on a shark killing spree when a strange boat turns up with armed men on board. The men steal the divers' boat and proceed to hunt them. The divers ambush them on their own boat and take them prisoner. It turns out they are bringing in illegal aliens.

Aired Sydney 22 October 1965.[10]

The episode was reviewed in the Sydney Morning Herald. Kylie Tennant said "besides being dull it was slow."[11]

Cast

Episode 4 – "The Coastwatcher"

Directed by Ken Hannam.[12]

The story of coast watcher Arthur Reginald Evans (Fred Parslow), who helped safe the lives of John F. Kennedy and the PT 109 crew after their boat was sliced in two by a Japanese destroyed in the Bracket Strait.

Aired Sydney 19 November 1965[13]

Cast

Episode 5 – "Crocodile"

Written by Lee Robinson and directed by Robin Lovejoy. Aired in Sydney 29 October 1965.[14][15]

Premise

Two crocodile hunters are on the trail of Melangie, a giant crocodile valued at £500 if it can be captured alive. The plans go astray when three American women tourists arrive in Arnhem land. They are to record the mating call of the crocodile.

Cast

Production

Gwen Plumb wrote in her memoirs that the episode was shot in 1961 in East Arnhem Land, 200 km from Darwin. Plumb wrote "we were told it was a rich man's safari camp where brave sportsmen from all over the world, and particularly America, shot crocodiles, water buffaloes, kangaroos - anything that moved. So Sophie [Stewart] and I packed a couple of cocktail frocks. It was the biggest dump you could ever imagine."[16] Plumb says conditions were unsanitary, water buffalo would wanted through the camp at will", and the camp 'was run by a looney called Alan Stewart who wore a pistol in his belt."[16] A crocodile was brought in from the aquarium in Darwin and Plumb says it passed out in the heat. She enjoyed filming at a lagoon, and a plane that flew in beer every night. "One night it didn't and we mutinied till they send another," wrote Plumb.[17]

Episode 6 – "The Buffalo Hunters"

Written by Cecil Holmes. Producer and directed by Lee Robinson.[18]

Filmed on the Northern Territory in West Arnhem Land – starring Grant Taylor as Ted Abbott, one of the Territory's leading buffalo hunters.

The National Film and Sound Archive listed this as episode 8 but it was the first (possibly second) episode aired in Sydney, on 8 October 1965.[19]

Cast

  • Grant Taylor as Ted Abbott
  • Jacqueline Knott
  • Gay Hartley as Julie Tamar
  • Alan Stewart as Sam Saunders
  • Yorkie Tilly as himself
  • Leonard Teale

Episode 7 – "The Silver Backed Brushes"

It was directed by Ken Hannam and shot by Bill Grimmond and Carl Kayser.

Set in 1942 in Madang, Papua New Guinea, about the Australian Army Women's Medical Service. It tells the true story of nurse Margaret Evans (Mary Reynolds), and her brief marriage to an Airforce pilot (Tom Oliver) which lasted only minutes, as he was killed shielding her with his body during an air raid immediately after the wedding. Written by Joyce Spelling (former colonel in chief of the Australian Women's Auxiliary), directed by Ken Hannam.[20]

It screened 3 December 1965 in Sydney and 13 October 1968 in Melbourne.[21][22]

Filming took place in New Guinea. It was one of the first professional roles in Australia for Tom Oliver who called the result "awful. Terrible."[23]

Cast

Episode 8- "Uncontrolled Territory"

Directed by Robin Lovejoy.

Set in the highlands of Papua New Guinea – a young Australian patrol officer who leads his party to search for the survivors of a plane crash near the Indonesian border. He becomes the first white man to contact a tribe of cannibals.

Aired Sydney: 15 October 1965[24]

Cast

Episode 9 – "Camel Patrol"

Written by Brian Wright and Lee Robinson. Directed by Robin Lovejoy.

Set in the Finke River district (NT) – a young officer takes over the district and undertakes a nine-week camel patrol where he realises the use of the camel and local trackers.

Aired Sydney 26 November 1965.[25]

Cast

Episode 10 - "The Rivals"

Directed by Ken Hannam.

Set in Mt. Hagen in P.N.G. – a district show takes place and sees a feud between two coffee growers, Gordan Gillespie (Alexander Archdale) and Bob Cole (Chips Rafferty) with Gordons' boss boy as prize. The competition is a draw & the Bossboy goes off to start his own plantation.

Aired in Sydney 12 November 1965.[26]

Cast

Production

Five episodes were shot in New Guinea – "The Rivals", "Uncontrolled Territory", "The Rescue", "The Witness", and "Silver Backed Brushes."

References

  1. 1 2 "SATIRE'S DIM OUTLOOK". The Canberra Times. Vol. 40, no. 11, 358. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 7 January 1966. p. 11. Retrieved 5 July 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ↑ Vagg, Stephen (18 February 2019). "60 Australian TV Plays of the 1950s & '60s". Filmink.
  3. ↑ Robinson, Lee (15 August 1976). "Lee Robinson" (Oral history). Interviewed by Graham Shirley. National Film and Sound Archive.
  4. ↑ Vagg, Stephen (6 May 2023). "Forgotten Australian TV Series: Adventure Unlimited". Filmink.
  5. ↑ "Spine chilling", Sydney Morning Herald 26 September 1965, p 83
  6. ↑ "TV Guide". The Sydney Morning Herald. 30 September 1965. p. 44.
  7. ↑ "With Chips". The Age. 12 September 1968. p. 29.
  8. ↑ "TV Guide". The Sydney Morning Herald. 6 December 1965. p. 14.
  9. ↑ "TV Guide". The Sydney Morning Herald. 1 November 1965. p. 13.
  10. ↑ "TV Guide". The Sydney Morning Herald. 18 October 1965. p. 15.
  11. ↑ Tennant, Kylie (25 October 1965). "Looking at it the way the young do". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 7.
  12. ↑ "Historic Rescue". The Sydney Morning Herald. 15 November 1965. p. 18.
  13. ↑ "TV Guide". The Sydney Morning Herald. 15 November 1965. p. 19.
  14. ↑ "Crocs and gators". The Sydney Morning Herald. 25 October 1965. p. 22.
  15. ↑ "TV Guide". The Sydney Morning Herald. 25 October 1965. p. 23.
  16. 1 2 Plumb p 155
  17. ↑ Plumb p 156
  18. ↑ Buffalo Hunters at National Film and Sound Archive
  19. ↑ "TV Guide". The Sydney Morning Herald. 4 October 1965. p. 19.
  20. ↑ "Based on True Story". The Age. 10 October 1968. p. 16.
  21. ↑ "Based on a true story". The Age. 10 October 1968. p. 16.
  22. ↑ "TV Guide". The Sydney Morning Herald. 29 November 1965. p. 17.
  23. ↑ "Magical Art of Acting and Eating". The Age. 29 January 1968. p. 2.
  24. ↑ "TV Guide". The Sydney Morning Herald. 11 October 1965. p. 17.
  25. ↑ "TV Guide". The Sydney Morning Herald. 22 November 1965. p. 15.
  26. ↑ "TV Guide". The Sydney Morning Herald. 8 November 1965. p. 13.

Notes

  • Plumb, Gwen (1994). Plumb Crazy. Pan MacMillan Australia.
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