A Town Like Alice | |
---|---|
Based on | Novel by Nevil Shute |
Written by | Tom Hegarty Rosemary Anne Sisson |
Directed by | David Stevens |
Starring | Helen Morse Bryan Brown Gordon Jackson |
Theme music composer | Bruce Smeaton |
Country of origin | Australia |
Original language | English |
No. of episodes | 3 x 1 hour 45 minutes. |
Production | |
Producer | Henry Crawford |
Running time | 301 mins |
Production companies | Mariner Films Australian Film Commission Victorian Film |
Budget | $1.25 million [1] |
Original release | |
Network | Seven Network |
Release | 12 July 1981 |
A Town Like Alice is a five-hour 1981 Australian television adaptation of Nevil Shute's novel of the same name. Produced by the Seven Network, and directed by David Stevens, it was the second major adaptation of the book. [2]
In the United States it was shown on PBS under the Masterpiece Theatre banner, a rare non-British production to be so aired.
While generally faithful to the original book, there are several notable differences, the most significant right at the end.
It was the most expensive Australian television series at the time. It was filmed on location in England, Malaysia and western New South Wales. [3]
The series was a huge ratings success in Australia, getting a 49% viewing share. [4]
The series won an International Emmy Award for drama in 1981 [5] and won a Logie Award in the Best Single Drama or Mini Series category at the 1982 awards with Morse, Brown and Jackson winning Logies for their performances. [6]
Room at the Top is a 1959 British drama film based on the 1957 novel of the same name by John Braine. It was adapted by Neil Paterson, directed by Jack Clayton, and produced by John and James Woolf. The film stars Laurence Harvey, Simone Signoret, Heather Sears, Donald Wolfit, Donald Houston, and Hermione Baddeley.
A Town Like Alice is a romance novel by Nevil Shute, published in 1950 when Shute had newly settled in Australia. Jean Paget, a young Englishwoman, becomes romantically interested in a fellow prisoner of World War II in Malaya, and after liberation emigrates to Australia to be with him, where she attempts, by investing her substantial financial inheritance, to generate economic prosperity in a small outback community—to turn it into "a town like Alice" i.e. Alice Springs.
Rebecca Catherine Gibney is a New Zealand actress known for her roles on Australian television in The Flying Doctors, Halifax f.p., Packed to the Rafters, Winter and Wanted. She is a Gold Logie winner and has featured in a number of Australian films including Mental and The Dressmaker.
Shelley Alexis Duvall is an American actress and producer widely known for her portrayal of distinctive, often eccentric characters. She is the recipient of several accolades, including a Cannes Film Festival Award and a Peabody Award and nominations for a British Academy Film Award and two Primetime Emmy Awards.
Robert Alan Morse was an American actor. Morse started his career as a star on Broadway acting in musicals and plays before expanding into film and television. He earned numerous accolades including two Tony Awards, two Drama Desk Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Bryan Neathway Brown AM is an Australian actor. He has performed in over eighty film and television projects since the late 1970s, both in his native Australia and abroad. Notable films include Breaker Morant (1980), Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984), F/X (1986), Tai-Pan (1986), Cocktail (1988), Gorillas in the Mist (1988), F/X2 (1991), Along Came Polly (2004), Australia (2008), Kill Me Three Times (2014) and Gods of Egypt (2016). He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award for his performance in the television miniseries The Thorn Birds (1983).
Gordon Cameron Jackson, was a Scottish actor best remembered for his roles as the butler Angus Hudson in Upstairs, Downstairs and as George Cowley, the head of CI5, in The Professionals. He also portrayed Capt Jimmy Cairns in Tunes of Glory, and Flt. Lt. Andrew MacDonald, "Intelligence", in The Great Escape.
Geraldine James OBE is an English actress.
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Robert McKee is an author, lecturer and story consultant who is known for his "Story Seminar", which he developed when he was a professor at the University of Southern California. McKee is the author of Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting, Dialogue: the Art of Verbal Action for Stage, Page and Screen, Storynomics: Story-Driven Marketing in the Post-Advertising World and Character: The Art of Role and Cast Design for Page, Stage, and Screen. McKee also has the blog and online writers' resource "Storylogue".
Caroline Goodall is a British/Australian actress and screenwriter and producer. Awards and nominations include Best Actress nominations AFI Awards for her roles in the 1989 miniseries Cassidy, and the 1995 film Hotel Sorrento a Logie Awards Nomination for the mini series A Difficult Woman,and Best Actress award. Her film appearances include Hook (1991), Cliffhanger (1993), Schindler's List (1993), Disclosure (1994), White Squall (1996), The Princess Diaries (2001) and The Best of Me (2014).
Lisa Harrow is a New Zealand RADA-trained actress, noted for her roles in British theatre, films and television. She is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Nancy Astor in the British BBC television drama Nancy Astor.
Our Town is a 2003 American made-for-television film adaptation of the 1938 play of the same name by Thornton Wilder starring Paul Newman, who was nominated for both an Emmy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for outstanding acting. It was filmed at the Booth Theatre in Manhattan, where it played on Broadway in 2002. The production originated at the Westport Country Playhouse. The film originally aired May 24, 2003, on Showtime and was also shown on PBS as part of Masterpiece Theatre on October 5, 2003.
Helen Morse is an English-born Australian actress who has appeared in films, on television and on stage. She won the AFI Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for the 1976 film Caddie, and starred in the 1981 miniseries A Town Like Alice. Her other film appearances include Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Agatha (1979), Far East (1982) and The Eye of the Storm (2011).
Herbert James "Ringer" Edwards was an Australian soldier during World War II. As a prisoner of war (POW), he survived being crucified for 63 hours by Japanese soldiers on the Burma Railway. Edwards was the basis for the character Joe Harman in Nevil Shute's novel A Town Like Alice. The book was the basis for a 1956 film and a 1981 Australian television miniseries of the same name.
Dorothy Alison was an Australian stage, film and television actress
A Town Like Alice is a 1956 British drama film produced by Joseph Janni and starring Virginia McKenna and Peter Finch that is based on the 1950 novel of the same name by Nevil Shute. The film does not follow the whole novel, concluding at the end of part two and truncating or omitting much detail. It was partially filmed in Malaya and Australia.
David Stevens was an Australian writer and director, best known for his work on Breaker Morant, A Town Like Alice, and The Sum of Us.
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