Killer in Close-Up
Killer in Close-Up was a blanket title covering four live television drama plays produced by the Australian Broadcasting Commission in 1957 and 1958. It could be seen as the first anthology series produced for Australian television.
The drama plays were based on real-life cases, dramatised for television by George F. Kerr.[1] They were, in order:
- “The Robert Wood Trial” (4/9/57) [2]
- “The Wallace Case” (20/11/57) [3]
- “The Rattenbury Case” (18/6/58) [4]
- “The Trial Of Madeleine Smith” (13/8/58) [5]
Production of the plays was split equally between the Melbourne and Sydney ABC stations, with the first and fourth being produced in Sydney, the second and third in Melbourne. Each ran for 25 minutes
"The Wallace Case" was based on the real-life Wallace case heard in England during 1931. The 30 minute trial drama starred Laurier Lange (aka Laurie Lange), Noel Howlett, Brian James, Norman Griffiths, John Morgan, Robert Stevens, and Campbell Copelin.
In Melbourne, the play aired against Chesebrough-Ponds Playhouse on HSV-7 (which consisted selections from US anthology series) and Douglas Fairbanks Theatre (aka Douglas Fairbanks Jr Presents, a British-American anthology production) on GTV-9, and was broadcast at 8:30PM.[6] In effect, viewers had a choice of three different half-hour self-contained dramas during that night.
The episode The Rattenbury Case may be held by the National Archives of Australia (per a search of their website).
References
- ↑ http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=pFBVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=i5UDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4879%2C2093871
- ↑ http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=wkBVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=4JQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3237%2C448714
- ↑ http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=pFBVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=i5UDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4879%2C2093871
- ↑ http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=RDBVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=7pQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6856%2C1734527
- ↑ http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=qHdWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=8OQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1959%2C2892341
- ↑ http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=pFBVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=i5UDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3754%2C2147541