They Were Big, They Were Blue, They Were Beautiful

Set in Sydney, two men (Stewart Ginn and Kevin Brennan), after being released from prison, unintentionally become involved in a baby kidnapping plot.

• Stewart Ginn
• Kevin Brennan
• June Salter as Ginn's girlfriend
• Fifi Banvard as the landlady of the house
• Diana Davidson
• Gordon Glenwright

The original script, by Ross Napier, won third prize of £400 in the £3,000 Shell Australian TV drama competition.{{cite news|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=14 June 1959|title=TV Merry Go Round|first=Val|last=Marshall|page=70}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article189927666 |title=T. V. HIGHLIGHTS |newspaper=The Biz |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=17 June 1959 |accessdate=14 September 2017 |page=21 |via=National Library of Australia}}

First prize when to a play about Victoria's "Black Friday" on 13 January 1939, "The Day Called Black," by Robin Cornfield. Second prize went to "The Bed by the Window" about a hospital murder by Paul Chidlow. The first prize for adaptations went to Charles Phillips for an adaptation of the Henry Lawson story "Send Around the Hat." Second prize went to Catherine Hamilton for an adaptation of the Emlyn Williams play, The Druid's Rest. James Downing won third prize for adapting the Victorien Sardou story, "The Black Pearl." The judges, Harry Dearth, Royston Morley, and John McCallum, said the standard of entries was disappointingly low.{{cite news|title=Win to Vic in £3,000 TV Play Quest|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=11 March 1959|page=9}}{{cite news|newspaper=The Age|date=12 March 1959|page=27|title=Use of Bushfire Shots in Prize Winning Play|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/122319501/?terms=%22They%2BWere%2BBig%2C%2BThey%2BWere%2BBlue%22}}

Napier rewrote the play after submitting it for the prize. He called it "a light drama with a humorous element." Brett Porter producer of Shell Presents said "So far we have concentrated on topline American plays. These have proved very successful... But we need a proportion of good Australian plays if we are really going to produce first-rate TV drama for Australian audiences. We are making every effort to assist local writers and to introduce them to the particular problem of writing plays for TV."{{cite news|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|date=1 June 1959|page=15|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/121439866/?terms=%22brett%2Bporter%22|title=First Australian Drama Planned}}

It was the first TV appearance for Stewart Ginn and Fifi Banvard. Kevin Brennan had impressed in Johnny Belinda.{{Cite news|newspaper=The Age|date=11 June 1959|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/125948969/?terms=%22They%2BWere%2BBig%2C%2BThey%2BWere%2BBlue%22|page=23|title=Prize Winning Play to Be Introduced on TV}}

Australian's governor general, Sir William Slim visited the set and watched dress rehearsals.{{cite news|title=Gov Gen at ATN|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=28 June 1959|page=7|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/121466654/?terms=%22They%2BWere%2BBig%2C%2BThey%2BWere%2BBlue%22}}

The budget of the show was £3,070.{{cite news|title=Applications|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=27 November 1959|page=14}}

The TV critic for the Sydney Morning Herald wrote that the "chief fault" of the play was it "stretched half an hour's worth of material over an hour-long format" and "the direct, waist-high frontal attack of director David Cahill's cameras. A little more imagination in the choice of angles and distance would have considerably reduced this monotony of observation" however it praised the touches and thought "the actors served... [the writer] well.{{cite news|title="Live "Shell" Play on Television |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=29 June 1959|page=4|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/121468231/?terms=%22They%2BWere%2BBig%2C%2BThey%2BWere%2BBlue%22}}

The Sunday Sydney Morning Herald said the production "left me a shade disappointed. Author Ross Napier proved to be a skilled and professional manipulator of words and dialogue but he developed one joke... far too long."{{cite news|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|first=Valda|last=Marshall|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/121552338/?terms=%22They%2BWere%2BBig%2C%2BThey%2BWere%2BBlue%22|title=TV Merry Go Round|date=5 July 1959|page=86}}

The Woman's Weekly critic called it "embarrassingly bad to watch".{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article44798327 |title=Good telecasts make TV real magic box |newspaper=The Australian Women's Weekly |volume=27 |issue=10 |location=Australia |date=12 August 1959 |accessdate=1 March 2017 |page=58 |via=National Library of Australia}}

The Age said "there was not much to enthuse about" calling the play "feeble, thin and unfunny."{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=96UUAAAAIBAJ&pg=7179%2C2048830|newspaper=The Age|date=13 August 1959|page=14|title=Prize Play Feeble, Thin and Unfunny}}

In 1992 June Salter said it was the worst play or show she had ever been in.{{cite news|title=Low Cut Lines|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=17 January 1992|page=43|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/120438538/?terms=%22They%2BWere%2BBig%2C%2BThey%2BWere%2BBlue%22}}

• List of television plays broadcast on ATN-7

• {{AustLit|7188051|q=yes}}
• {{IMDb episode|3573128}}
• [http://colsearch.nfsa.gov.au/nfsa/search/display/display.w3p;adv=no;group=;groupequals=;holdingType=;page=0;parentid=;query=they%20were%20big,%20they%20were%20blue%20Media%3A%22TELEVISION%22;querytype=;rec=4;resCount=10 "Big Blue and Beautiful"] at National Film and Sound Archive

{{David Cahill}}

Category:Television anthology episodes

Category:1959 Australian television plays

Category:Shell Presents

Category:1959 Australian television episodes

Category:1959 television plays

Category:ATN-7 television plays

Category:Television plays filmed in Sydney

Category:Television plays directed by David Cahill