Class of ’74/Class of ’75

1 9 7 4 – 1 9 7 5 (Australia)
290 x 30 minute episodes

Debuting in 1974, this Australian drama serial about the students and staff of Waratah High School was made by the Grundy Organisation for Channel Seven, Sydney, and aired five nights a week, complete with catchy theme tune from rocker Brian Cadd.

By concentrating on the older kids and the teachers, parents and other adult figures, Grundy’s were amongst the first to recognise that a young segment would be a vital part of the overall audience for soap opera.

Class of ’74 had the usual set of changing relationships between teachers and students, although in 1974, it featured an illicit, but never explicit, relationship between a shy schoolboy and the headmaster’s wife.

The show continued the following year, updating itself to Class of ’75.

The series featured veteran actor Leonard Teale (showing his age after a long innings in Homicide) as the recently promoted headmaster, Charles Ogilvy.

The scheming deputy head, Donald Blair, was played by English actor John Hamblin (more familiar as a Play School presenter), and sultry English teacher Mary Dunstan was played by Jeanie Drynan.

The cast also included Gordon Glenwright (pictured in overalls above) as the school handyman, Hubbard. He never seemed to do any work but occupied a spot under the stairs where he sucked on a pipe as everyone spoke about what they did or intended to do.

In lead-up publicity, the show was hyped for its sexiness, despite being set for a pre-8.30 pm timeslot.

The programme did particularly well in Australia in its first year, sandwiched between the 7:00 news and quiz show The Great Temptation on Channel Seven.

Episodes 1 – 191 were in black and white and episodes 192 – 290 were in colour.

As a 13-year-old boy, I found the show a veritable feast of lovely girls – especially Carla Hoogeveen as leggy love-struck Julie Armstrong, Abigail as Angelique, Briony Behets as Jorja, Megan Williams as Ann Watson, and my all-time fave at the time, Anne Lambert (as Peggy ‘the Iceberg’ Richardson) – later to find fame in seminal Aussie film Picnic At Hanging Rock (1976).

Joanne Samuel played rebellious head girl Sue Taylor.

TRIVIA
Many of the exterior shots in Class were filmed at St Ignatius’ College, Riverview, in Sydney.

Ann Watson
Megan Williams
Nora Hayes
Barbara Llewellyn
Julie Armstrong
Carla Hoogeveen
Barry Collins
John Deidrich
Peggy Richardson
Anne Lambert
Jorja Jones
Briony Behets
Jane Potter
Angela Punch
Angelique Dupree
Abigail
Tom Carter
Marty Rhone
Mary Dunstan
Jeanie Drynan
Charles Ogilvy
Leonard Teale
Tony Bianco
Adrian Bernotti
Dennis Braithwaite
Peter Bensley
Evie
Gaynor Sterling
Sue Taylor
Joanne Samuel
Gary Evans
Vince Martin
Sam Wandsworth
Patrick Ward
Hubbard
Gordon Glenwright
Mike
Terry Peck
Donald Blair
John Hamblin
Maureen Blair
Janet Kingsbury
Greg Simpson
Christopher Cummings
Peter Cooper
Jeremy Chance
Faith Adam
Anne Charleston
Loretta Day
Bronwyn Winter
Father Paul Kennedy
Alan Lander
Glen Turner
Chuck Danskin
John Ward
Kevin Wilson
Graham Blair
Gregory Apps
Tim
Chris Benaud
Dean Howard
Greg Bepper
Gina Ferrari
Peta Toppano