Spring & Fall

1 9 8 0 (Australia)
6 x 50 minute episodes
1 9 8 2 (Australia)
4 x 50 minute episodes

This six-part anthology of stand-alone plays from the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) premiered on Wednesday 13 August 1980 with ‘Close Comfort’ starring Steve Bisley and Lynette Curran as Ray and Carol.

Carol finds herself increasingly isolated and emotionally strained as the play tracks her growing realisation of a failing marriage and the lingering effects of a deeply unsettling event from her past.

‘The Last Card’ follows the descent of Charlie (Max Gillies), a once-successful insurance salesman who is rapidly destroying himself with drink. His drinking separates him from his wife, Mary (Robyn Nevin), and creates an unbearable life for his teenage daughter, Angela, and younger son Jimmy.

His work suffers, so he takes refuge in whiskey and wild women. He suffers blackouts, tots up a personal drink bill of $100 a week and refuses to face the issue, blaming his family for his problems.

It is uncomfortable viewing, with Charlie retching in the office washroom, embarrassing his son and daughter in front of their friends, and smashing up the kitchen in a drunken rage.

More a dramatised case history than a play, ‘Silent Cry’ looks at a woman whose marriage is crumbling, mainly because of an incestuous experience in her childhood. Michele Fawdon gives a superb performance as Laurie.  Edmund Pegge, Anne Haddy and Annette Andre co-star.

In ‘Winner’, the financial future of conniving property developer Garth McKinnon (Graeme Blundell) depends on winning a battle for waterfront land the locals want to keep as a children’s playground.

He takes on powerful but corruptible alderman Lou Bishop (Phillip Ross), and Bishop’s lifelong friend Bob Charles (Willie Fennell), who opposes any development of the site.

Bob’s seriously ill wife, Jess (Joyce Jacobs) – a pioneer feminist – dies suddenly, leaving a distraught and broken husband. Bishop and Garth then put forward their little “proposal”: develop the site as planned, but include the Jessie Charles memorial adventure playground.

Although McKinnon wins, a significant twist at the end helps to redress the balance.

Contemporary tragedy ‘The Slammer’ follows Phillip O’Donohue (Ian Gilmour), who has spent 19 of his 23 years in institutions and is paroled to face the pressures of an unfamiliar world. He struggles to go straight and battles hostile employers, alienated relatives and the temptation of the easier life of crime.

Barry Otto co-stars as parole officer Harry Dawson, with Gary Waddell as a criminal named Jacko.

‘Out of Line’ sees Jamie (Yves Stening) running away to Sydney’s King’s Cross red light district and becoming involved in drugs and prostitution. Ric Herbert co-stars as Sadie

The Spring & Fall series returned in June 1982 with four new episodes:

‘Every Man for Herself’ is set in a rag trade sweatshop, with Italian Angela highlighting the problems she and other immigrant members of the workforce face: Language problems, work-related injuries (and the resulting difficulty in keeping your job while getting cured), and problems at home – how can she work overtime when she has a family to bring up?

Taking on the position of shop steward with the union, Angela organises a sit-in with some of her workmates — the speed at which they have to work has gone up with no increase in money, and conditions are awful.

Nothing happens and her fellow workers are still persecuted in petty ways. But Angela is cunningly given an opportunity to earn more money by becoming a section head, the not-so-subtle implication being to forget about all this union business.

After a momentary hesitation, she accepts. In her position, who wouldn’t?

‘Perfect Company’ begins with young vandals terrorising crabby but harmless old Jessica (Ruth Cracknell). They wreck her garden, kill her cat, smash windows and cause her to break her arm.

Her daughter (Robyn Nevin) tries (unsuccessfully) to convince her to move into a granny flat, and after a second spell of vandalism, Jessica moves in with her best friend (Dorothy St Heaps).

‘Jimmy Dancer’ introduces Max Lawrence (Garry McDonald), a radio announcer dying from cancer. Max can’t come to terms with dying and hides behind his ability to make people laugh.

Judy Morris co-stars as his wife, Anne, with Leeanne Starr as their daughter Mardi.

The final play, ‘Thanks Brother’, stars Paul Chubb as Joe, a hardworking toolmaker supporting his union’s national campaign for shorter hours. A three-month strike ensues, causing hardship for everyone.

Other actors appearing in the 10 hour-long stories included Tracy Mann, Mark Hembrow, Arkie Whiteley, Sheila Kennelly, Maggie Kirkpatrick, John Hamblin, Penny Cook, Joe Hasham, Lex Marinos, Elaine Lee, Jay Hackett, Syd Heylen and Robyn Archer.

Episodes

Close Comfort | The Last Card | Silent Cry | Winner | The Slammer | Out of Line || Every Man for Herself | Perfect Company | Jimmy Dancer | Thanks Brother