The Touch of Class (6/8/1976) TV2 at 9:30 pm
When Irish logic is applied to Marxist theory, the results are both comic and catastrophic.
Shanks - Alan De Malmanche
Fintan Healey - Terry Cooper
Torn - Peter Bool
Maurice - Ross McPherson
Scully - Ross Sellwood
Bluey - Gabriel Prendergast
Miss Bown - Carol Armstrong
Nurse - Kay Gaylor
Workers - Dougie Allen, Arch Goodfellon. Les Holsted, Alasdair Whye
Written by Dean Parker
Designer - Tony Stones
Director - Brian Mcduffie
The Touch of Class, tonight's THIRTY MINUTE THEATRE comedy by Dean Parker, begins in a factory office where the manager is reading the Muldoon autobiography Rise and Fail of a Young Turk. The cameras cut to a Pommie stirrer from the factory floor. reading Das Kapital - opposed ideologies begin to range into industrial battle lines. But a third force complicates the issues even further.
Parker has been writing drama since 1972. His first performed work was in an Auckland factory and he has written many radio plays. Tonight's comedy, the first of his television plays to be screened, is described by the director, Brian McDuffie, as the funniest he has ever worked on. Other plays by Parker are being produced.
Harry's Cave (13/08/1976)
Harry's view of the world and himself is deeply affected by the return of a childhood sweetheart.
Harry Sims - Ken Blackburn
Jojo - Louise Pajo
Mrs Patchett - Yvonne Lawley
Vera - Patricia Hodgson
Lindy - Amanda McMullin
Nigal - Alan Brown
Tony - Adrian Kiernander
Written By Jan Prentice
Designer Logan Brewer
Director John McRae
Shadows in the cave LIKE THE SPECTATORS in Plato's cave watching only the shadows of the world as they flickered in the fire-light on the walls Harry, the hero of tonight's Thirty Minute Theatre play, lives in his own illusory world. As a 45-year-old bachelor who has lived all his life in the shelter of a domineering mother, he sees only what he wants to see - a childlike view untouched by adult reality - and when a former girlfriend reappears, he cannot admit that she is not the perfect creature he idolised before
Jan Prentice, author of Harry's Cave, is a 29-year-old librarian for the Country Library in Hamilton. She has always been interested in drama but having spent most of her working life in rural areas, formerly as a teacher, she was not able to get to the theatre very often, so she concentrated on television drama. reading books on the craft and observing techniques used by other playwrights on television. Her first attempt at writing for TV misfired but Harry's Cave, one of the early scripts that director John McRae looked over when he returned to New Zealand as TV2's head of drama, made it on the Thirty Minute Theatre series.
Fading Blooms (20/8/1976)
Assault and robbery begin the nightmare ordeal of an old woman who thereby makes discoveries about her son's true character.
Edith Bonner - Doreen Corrick
Roy Bonnner - Brian Sullivan
Velerie Bonner - Nancy Ross
Reg Jackson - Peter Bool
Dave Mitchell - Stewart Ross
Det Sgt Graham Cooper - Barry Smith
Jeff Morrison - Peter Sledmere
Written By Brent Leslie
Designer Michael Perry
Director Peter Sharp
Tonight's play Fading Blooms is by Brent Leslie, a 29-year-old journalist of Auckland. He has a BA in Philosophy, Politics and History from Auckland University and worked on the New Zealand Herald for two years before joining the NZBC in 1970. After a year's overseas travel in 1972 Brent came back to Auckland where he worked as a public relations consultant for one year. He began writing fiction freelance in 1975 - six scripts for A Going Concern, the Over the Fence segment in The Immigrants and this play Fading Blooms. A third play, The Ring, was to screen the following year on TV2. One of his short stories, The Blue Water Boys, was broadcast on Radio New Zealand.
His Worship (27/8/1976)
The forces of civic duty and high-mindedness have a show-down with alcohol and apathy in this comedy set in Puhinui on the Canterbury Plains. (Where?)
Dave Wright - Mervyn Glue
Millie Wright - Jill Wilcox
Charlie Guy - Ross Mcpherson
Joe Williams - Guy Bliss
Towo Clerk - Jonathan Elsom
Muriel (his wife) - Sara Jones
Tom Cowan - Richard Corballis
Written By Eddie Hegan
Designer Dugald Findlay
Director John Wansbrough
The Deb Ball (3/9/1976)They're all right but I wouldn't want one to marry my daughter or son
Racial intolerance in New Zealand
Lorna - Pav Seebold
Frank - Awric Slyfield
Hano Makuinui Menehira
Tony - Ross Duncan
Jenny - Jennifer Anderson
Tama - Hemi Rapata
Hana's Mother - Meri Meri Penfold
Mono's Father - George Tumaha
Barbara - Patricia Donovan
Betty - Errice Montague
Claire - Dianae Burtenshaw
Written by Jan Farr
Designer Logan Brewer
Director John Wansbrough
Rugby Burns (10/9/1976)
Can politics be kept out of sport? This play of conspiracy and arson examines the question.
Salty - Nevan Rowe
Don - Bevan Wilson
Simon Lex Calder
Geoff - Roy Billing
Mick - Chris Harding
Frank - Harold Kissin
Phyllis Mary De Koster
Ian Brownlie - Colin Mcdonald
Trevor - Roger Oakley
Berl - Lees Hunt
Tom Cooper John Batstone
Dan Smith - Merv Smith
Written By Dean Parker
Designer Tony Stones
Director Brian McDuffie
Tinkling Brass (17/9/1976)
Christianity and self-interest on a collision course - the causes are different, the casualties remain the same. (Final)
Leach - James Facer
Jack - Peter Tulloch
Chrstine - Maureen Edwards
Father Goiabourskl - Peter Sledmere
Charles - Guy Bliss
Nicholas Arthur Chapman
Rob - Mervyn Glue
Reverend Slope - Ross Mcpherson
Jim - Michael Hurst
Bishop - Terry Cooper
Matthew - Simon Phillips
Written by Graeme Farmer
Designer Dugaud Findlay
Director John Mcrae
Most people are prepared to help the disturbed and underprivileged from a respectable distance - as long as they don't move in next door. A young priest working among a community of so-called misfits and dropouts wants to buy a house to found a centre where such people can get help. But the sale of the house for this purpose is opposed by neighbours who feel their security and privacy will be threatened.
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