All the Green Year

1 9 8 0 (Australia)
6 x 25 minute episodes

An elderly man named Charlie Reeves (Alwyn Kurts) recalls his teenage years in a seaside town in Victoria (Australia) in the years between the First and Second World Wars in this six-part miniseries for kids from the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC)

Each episode is introduced by the older Charlie as narrator – speaking directly to the camera while walking along the beach – before the episode then segues into scenes from 1929, with the younger Charlie played by Darius Perkins.

Stories follow 14-year-old Charlie and his best friend Johnno (Greg Stroud), the trouble they get into and their harsh and unfair treatment at the hands of the tyrannical local schoolmaster.

The two lads – low achievers at school – are constantly getting in trouble and being punished. When a gentler, more progressive teacher arrives, there is a glimpse of how the pair might bloom with a little more encouragement.

Charlie and his family have recently moved into Grandpa’s house, money is scarce, and Grandpa (Tom Farley) – an old sea dog – needs an eye kept on him.

All The Green Year was adapted from a novel of the same name by DE Charlwood. Although not autobiographical, Charlwood’s novel was loosely based on characters and memories from his childhood in Frankston (then a seaside town near Melbourne, now one of Melbourne’s outer suburbs).

The series – produced by Oscar Whitbread and directed by Douglas Sharp – was broadcast over six weeks from 27 October 1980.

Alwyn Kurts died on 4 May 2000, aged 84, from liver failure. Darius Perkins died in 2019 from cancer at the age of 54.

Older Charlie Reeves
Alwyn Kurts
Charlie Reeves
Darius Perkins
Johnno
Greg Stroud
Mrs Reeves
Monica Maughan
Mr Reeves
Alan Hopgood
Kitty
Pepe Trevor
Grandpa
Tom Farley
Squid Peters
Karl Hansen
Mrs Peters
May Howlett
Eileen
Gina Mendosa
Pianist
Kevin Hocking