Campaign for One
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}
{{Infobox television episode
| series = Wednesday Theatre
| image =
| caption =
| season = 1
| episode = 45
| director = Brian Faull
| teleplay =
- Anthony Church
- Marielaine Double{{cite news|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|date=22 November 1965|title=Eternal Orbit|page=14}}
| photographer =
| airdate = {{Start date|1965|11|24|df=y}}
| length = 60 mins{{cite news|title=Television|date=24 November 1965|page=14|newspaper=The Age}}
| guests =
| prev = The Casualties
| next = The Cruel Deadline
}}
"Campaign for One" is a 1965 Australian television film. A remake of an episode of the BBC series Wednesday Play, it aired in a 60-minute time-slot on ABC on 24 November 1965 in Melbourne, Sydney,{{cite news|newspaper=The Age|title=Studio Space Walk|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=kEUVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=3JYDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5516%2C3128273|date=18 November 1965|page=14}}{{cite news|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|date=22 November 1965|title=TV Guide|page=15}} and on 5 January 1966 in Brisbane.{{cite magazine|magazine=TV Times|title=ABC Play Launches Its Own Astronaut|date=29 December 1965|page=8}} as part of Wednesday Theatre.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article105874181 |title=A famous author lived near Canberra. |newspaper=The Canberra Times |date=22 November 1965 |accessdate=25 July 2015 |page=17 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article105874201 |title=MONDAY |newspaper=The Canberra Times |volume=40 |issue=11,319 |date=22 November 1965 |accessdate=20 March 2017 |page=18 |via=National Library of Australia}}
It was not unheard of during the 1960s for British anthology episodes to be remade for Australian television.
It was a rare Australian drama on a science fiction theme.{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-australian-tv-plays-the-astronauts/|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|access-date=8 August 2024|date=2021|title=Forgotten Australian TV plays: The Astronauts}}
Plot
Set in 1967, an English astronaut, Phil Osborne, is in orbit for the Allied Commission of German, English and American specialists. After completing a spacewalk, he announces that he has no intentions to return to Earth, due to his wife leaving him, and would prefer to die in space.{{cite news|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|date=22 November 1965|page=13|title=Eternal orbit|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/122802695/?terms=%22campaign%20for%20one%22&match=1}}
Partial cast listing
- Stanley Walsh as Phil Osborne
- Lynne Flanagan as Osborne's wife
- Michael Duffield
- Carl Bleazby
- Mark Albiston
- Edward Howell
Production
It was shot in Melbourne.{{cite news|newspaper=The Age|date=18 November 1965|title=TV Guide|page=36}} Faull said, "There was real suspense and a true-to-life drama about it. One couldn't help but feel that the situation could arrive sometime. We were producing Campaign for One at the same time space projects were going on at Cape Kennedy, and with all the news reports about, there was a feeling that the play was the real thing."
A large seesaw rig was used to simulate walking around outside an orbiting capsule.{{cite news|date=18 November 1965|page=1|title=Studio space walk|newspaper=The Age TV lift out}}
Reception
Reception was mixed. '"Canberra Times called it "an undistinguished play" and said it had a "preposterous pommy script".{{Cite web|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article105875003|title = ABC play misses|newspaper = Canberra Times (Act : 1926 - 1995)|date = 26 November 1965|page = 21}} By comparison Australian Women's Weekly (see section Death Wish in Space) called it "one of the best local TV productions for ages" and said the spacewalk sequence was "most skillfully produced".{{Cite web|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article51190883|title=Shintaro—|newspaper=Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982)|date=8 December 1965|page=15}}
The Sydney Morning Herald called it "brilliant" with "sustained tension, highly competent performances by a well-knit cast and whipped-up direction which left no one time to wonder what to do with his hands... a most exciting and professional job by any standards."{{cite news|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald |date=November 26, 1965|page=11|title=Sustained tension in television play|first=Leicester|last=Cotton|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/122803140/?terms=%22campaign%20for%20one%22&match=1}}
The Sunday Sydney Morning Herald called it "a nice, taut, well-produced bit of space drama... a gripping and highly credible thriller."{{cite news|date=28 November 1965|title=Escapee who gets the girls|first=Valda|last=Marshall|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/122803707/?terms=%22campaign%20for%20one%22&match=1 |newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald}}
See also
- Ending It – 1939 BBC TV short remade for ABC TV in 1957.
- Box for One – 1949 BBC TV drama remade for ABC TV in 1958
- List of live television plays broadcast on Australian Broadcasting Corporation (1950s)
References
{{Reflist}}