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A Ride on the Big Dipper

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"A Ride on the Big Dipper"
Wednesday Theatre episode
Episode no.Season 3
Episode 28
Directed byChristopher Muir[1]
Teleplay byRon Harrison
Original air date30 August 1967
Running time60 mins[2]
Episode chronology
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A Ride on the Big Dipper is a 1967 Australian television play. It screened as part of Wednesday Theatre and had a running time of one hour.[3][4][5]

Plot

Hugh Kenton, is a 25 year old draughtsman with an engineering firm who is assessed by an efficiency expert as having an all-time high rating as potential management material. He is sent to North Queensland to take charge of the company's branch office. Kenton rapidly proves that he is in deed a brilliant manager - far more so than his associates ever believed.

Cast

  • Terry McDermott
  • Peter Aanensen
  • Alan Bickford
  • Fay Kelton
  • Lloyd Cunnington

Production

It was written by Newcastle journalist Ron Harrison. He later adapted it for radio.[6] The radio version won an Awgie Award.[7] It was shot in Melbourne at the ABC's studios in Ripponlea.[8]

Reception

The Age said it "offered some fine parts and the actors did not disappoint."[9]

The Sydney Morning Herald said "it held a tense interest."[10]

The Bulletin called it " what TV drama should be. [Terry] McDermott gave a well-paced, intelligent performance as an efficiency - Frankenstein who got clobbered by his own mother in the cold, bloodless mayhem of business. Nothing novel or exciting in the plot, but everything so in seeing it in Australian terms; a believable drama of the times, with believable dialogue. As it was Harrison’s second TV play, and his first one-hour drama, I can only echo the ABC’s Phillip Mann, who said, “It was the kind of work we receive all too rarely, and we hope he intends to stay with it.” A sense of drama seems to be the rare old some thing he's got, and here's hoping he is a stayer, because he seems to have the field to himself."[11]

References

  1. ^ "TV Guide". Sydney Morning Herald. 28 August 1967. p. 15.
  2. ^ "TV Guide". Sydney Morning Herald. 30 August 1967. p. 21.
  3. ^ "WEDNESDAY". The Canberra Times. Vol. 41, no. 11, 778. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 28 August 1967. p. 19. Retrieved 23 March 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. ^ "television". The Canberra Times. Vol. 41, no. 11, 780. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 30 August 1967. p. 28. Retrieved 23 March 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. ^ The bulletin, John Haynes and J.F. Archibald, 1880, retrieved 22 March 2019
  6. ^ 1972 radio version at Austlit
  7. ^ "Awgie Award for Australian play". Sydney Morning Herald. 16 March 1969. p. 98.
  8. ^ "Untitled". 31 August 1967. p. 10.
  9. ^ "Teletopics". The Age. 14 September 1967. p. 9.
  10. ^ Robinson, Harry (31 August 1967). "On Television". Sydney Morning Herald. p. 8.
  11. ^ The bulletin, John Haynes and J.F. Archibald, 1880, retrieved 23 March 2019