Battlers, The

1 9 6 8 (Australia)
26 x 30 minute episodes

This half-hour drama series from Australia’s channel ATN 7 had the professional fight game as its background and concerned the training of a part-Aboriginal country boy (played by white actor Vincent Gil) as a boxer.

Scottish-born future Taggart star Mark McManus played Tolley McCall, the badly injured lightweight champion of Australia who visits a small country town to work out what to do with his future. There he meets Wayne Small (Gil), a bush Aborigine with a flair for fighting.

Tolley decides to take the kid under his wing and relive his own shattered career through the Aboriginal youth.

Carmen Duncan co-starred as Tolley’s wife, Janet, with Gordon Glenwright as Tolley’s manager, Bongo Byrne, and John Armstrong as his trainer, Monk.

Janet secretly welcomes her husband’s injury as the only thing which could make him quit boxing forever and so rescue their marriage.

Recorded on film and shot largely on location (including logging camps, county towns, La Perouse, and Sydney Stadium and Showground), the series was surprisingly polished and clearly had a reasonable budget. Two full-sized boxing rings were built at ATN 7’s studios.

The working title of the series was The Doongara Kid.

Wayne Small
Vincent Gil
Tolley McCall
Mark McManus
Janet McCall
Carmen Duncan
Bongo Byrne
Gordon Glenwright
Donna McCall
Janice Dinnen
Monk
John Armstrong

Video