Birds in the Bush

Birds in the Bush
Created by David Croft
Written by David Croft
Directed by David Croft
Starring Hugh Lloyd
Ron Frazer
Alastair Duncan
Kate Fitzpatrick
Elli MacLure
Ann Sidney
Susan Lloyd
Briony Behets
Kate Sheil
Country of origin Australia
United Kingdom
No. of episodes 13
Production
Producer(s) Margaret Bond
Running time Approximately 30 minutes per normal episode.
Release
Original network Seven Network (Australia)
BBC1 (United Kingdom)
Original release 3 May 1972 (1972-05-03) – 26 July 1972 (1972-07-26) (Australia)

Birds in the Bush (also known as The Virgin Fellas and Strike It Rich) is an Australian/United Kingdom situation comedy series produced in 1972.[1]

The series was set on a remote Australian property run by seven beautiful but naive young women. When the property is inherited by an English water diviner (Hugh Lloyd) he and his Australian half-brother (Ron Frazer) and an assistant (Kate Fitzpatrick) begin living on the property and attempt to teach the nubile young women the ways of the world.

The series focused on the physical attractiveness of the young women, who all wore skimpy blue smocks and had names like "Abigail", "Lolita", "Tuesday", "Wednesday" and "Buster", along with Carry On-style innuendo.

Production

The series was written and directed by David Croft and was intended primarily for a UK audience. As UK television was by this stage transmitting in colour it meant that Birds in the Bush was also shot in colour, but this necessitated shooting the series on film rather than videotape, as the ATN7 television studios in Australia were yet to be converted to colour.

Reaction

The series began on air in Australia on 3 May 1972 but rated poorly there. Likewise UK ratings were low and the series run was cancelled there before all the episodes had been shown (it ran on BBC1 from 10 July 1972 until 21 August 1972). Just one season of 13 30-minute episodes was produced.

Cast member Kate Sheil, who played one of the naive girls, later said of her participation in the series that "I'm still trying to live that down because a lot of people hated it. We just run around saying these amazing things. I used to watch it for the scenery." [2]

Cast

References

  1. ↑ Albert Moran, Moran's Guide to Australian TV Series, AFTRS 1993 p 81
  2. ↑ Johnson, Jackie. Our Kate’s Image Turns Timid., TV Week. 24 October 1981, page 41

External links

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