1 9 6 4 (Australia)
12 x 30 minute episodes
One rainy night a stranger (Ron Haddrick), suffering from amnesia and with no discernible heartbeat, is found unconscious on the doorstep of the Walsh family home in the Blue Mountains of NSW, Australia.
He is welcomed inside by high school principal Mr Walsh (John Faassen), his wife (Jessica Noad), teenage children Bernie (Bill Levis) and Jean (Janice Dinnen), and their school friend Peter Cannon (Michael Thomas).
Given that he speaks German and French as well as English, the family decide that the stranger must be Swiss.
‘Adam Suisse’, as he is quick to name himself, asks for employment at the school (St Michael’s) until he recovers his memory of who he is and where he is from.
Hired at St Michael’s as a languages master, Suisse turns out to have a gift for teaching even the most unruly of boys and is rumoured to have hypnotic powers.
Secretly searching his room, the three teenagers come across a strange electronic gadget emitting communications in an unrecognisable language and they discover the Stranger’s secret – he is an alien from the planet Soshuniss.
The teenagers decide to help him in his quest to find a new home on Earth for his people.
In the second series, the children have to enlist the help of the Australian Prime Minister (Chips Rafferty) when Peter is kidnapped by the aliens and taken to their planet.
Ron Haddrick starred as the enigmatic “visitor”, Adam Suisse in this early Australian-made black and white sci-fi series. Reg Livermore made an early television appearance as the ever-friendly Varossa.
Two series of six episodes each were produced in 1964 and 1965 by the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC). The first episode was broadcast on Sunday 5 April 1964 at 6.30 pm.
It was a major hit in Australia and sold to the BBC. The same production company also made the 1966 series, Wandjina!, starring a young Jacki Weaver.
Adam Suisse (The Stranger)
Ron Haddrick
Varossa
Reg Livermore
Mrs Walsh
Jessica Noad
Mr Walsh
John Fraser
Bernie Walsh
Bill Levis
Jean Walsh
Jannice Dinnen
Peter Cannon
Michael Thomas
Professor Mayer
Owen Weingott
Prime Minister
Chips Rafferty
