Otherwise Engaged (Wednesday Theatre)

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"Otherwise Engaged"
Wednesday Theatre episode
Otherwise Engaged photo.png
The Age 2 Jun 1965
Episode no.Season 1
Episode 21
Directed by Oscar Whitbread
Teleplay byJohn Cameron
Original air date2 June 1965 (1965-06-02)
Running time60 minutes
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"Otherwise Engaged" is a 1965 Australian television film which aired on ABC. Broadcast in a 60-minute time-slot, [1] it was written by John Cameron and produced in Melbourne. [2] "Otherwise Engaged" aired on 2 June 1965 in Sydney, and Melbourne, [3] [4] and on 23 June 1965 in Brisbane. [5]

Contents

It was part of Wednesday Theatre . The story was similar to A Private Island . [6]

Plot

As a result of pressures of running a large business, Henry Williamson finds he has been neglecting his duties to his family, providing unlimited funds instead of a husband and father's guiding hand. His son is lazy and fails his uni exams, his daughter Pamela is spoilt and is about to be married to a troublesome man called Bevin, and his wife Dorothy spends time making metal sculptures.

In an attempt to have a better family relationship, he takes them - and an employee, Tom - up in a plane to look at a country property he is thinking of buying and winds up on a Pacific island. Williamson insists his family stay there. [7]

Cast

Production

The play was written exclusively for television. It was the third TV play by John Cameron, who had also written Outpost and The Teeth of Wind . It was described as "a play without a message" and was shot in Melbourne. [9]

Cameron said in writing the play "I set out purely to entertain a television audience. This is a play written for television - it's not an adaptation of a stage play so the plot develops visually. It's one of those plays where you sit back and, I hope, enjoy it." [5]

Reception

The TV critic from the Sydney Morning Herald said "the play might have seemed more attractive in its corrective escapism if some of its palm-fringed, moon-visited settings had not been stirred so obviously by a studio breeze; and Oscar Whitbrcad's direction would have released more of the author's latent humour if his cast had been able to supply more than conventionally stiff realisations of conventional characters." [10]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "WEDNESDAY". The Canberra Times . Vol. 39, no. 11, 169. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 31 May 1965. p. 16. Retrieved 20 March 2017– via National Library of Australia.
  2. ↑ "The Sydney Morning Herald - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved 24 November 2023.
  3. ↑ "TV Guide". The Age. 27 May 1965. p. 26.
  4. ↑ "TV Guide". Sydney Morning Herald. 31 May 1965. p. 15.
  5. 1 2 "Kidnapped his family". TV Times. 16 June 1965. p. 14.
  6. ↑ Vagg, Stephen (18 February 2019). "60 Australian TV Plays of the 1950s & '60s". Filmink.
  7. ↑ "TV guide". Sydney Morning Herald. 31 May 1965. p. 15.
  8. ↑ "Untitled". The Age. 27 May 1965. p. 13.
  9. ↑ "Play Set in Sydney". Sydney Morning Herald. 31 May 1965. p. 14.
  10. ↑ "TELEVISION REVIEW Melbourne Production of "Otherwise Engaged"". Sydney Morning Herald. 3 June 1965. p. 8.


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