Dinner with the Family

Dinner with the Family is a 1959 Australian TV play. Australian TV drama was relatively rare at the time.[5] It featured English star Jessie Matthews in her first Australian TV appearance - she was touring the country at the time - and was shot in Melbourne.[6]

Dinner with the Family
Based onplay by Jean Anouilh
Written byPhilip Albright[1]
Directed byChristopher Muir
Country of originAustralia
Original languageEnglish
Production
Running time75 mins[2]
Production companyABC
Release
Original networkABC
Original release26 August 1959 (1959-08-26) (Melbourne, live)[3]
2 September 1959 (1959-09-02) (Sydney, taped)[4]

Plot

A young man, Georges, married for money and is unhappy because he has fallen in love with Isabelle. To escape from reality one night he hires actors to play his parents and a butler and invites over Isabelle. But George's parents are determined to save their son's marriage and turn up with George's worthless friend Jacques. Barbara is Jacques' wife.

Cast
  • Tony Brown as Georges
  • Joy Mitchell as Isabelle
  • Alan Tobin as Jacques
  • Jessie Matthews as Madam de Montrachet
  • Paul Bacon as Delmonte
  • June Brunelle as Barbara, wife of Georges' friend
  • Marcia Hart
  • Laurie Lange

Production

The play had recently been performed in Little Theatre in Melbourne starring Sheila Florence. It was announced in July 1959 that the ABC would film it with Jessie Matthews playing Florence's role.[7] Star June Brunell had recently returned from England where she appeared in The Flying Doctors TV series.[8]

Reception

The Sydney Morning Herald called it "a brave, but not really successful attempt to bridge the gap between quintessential theatre on the one hand, and the television screen on the other... Christopher Muir's production was precise, well-planned, and often Imaginative."[9]

The Age TV critic said "it was not the sort of play to set the Yarra on fire" but felt it was strong in the scenes in which Matthews appeared, although her role was relatively small.[10]

See also

References
  1. Marshall, Valda (30 August 1959). "TV Merry Go Round". Sydney Morning Herald. p. 104.
  2. "TV Guide". The Age. 20 August 1959. p. 35.
  3. "TV Guide". 26 August 1959. p. 5.
  4. "All the TV Programmes". ABC Weekly. 2 September 1959. p. 31.
  5. Vagg, Stephen (18 February 2019). "60 Australian TV Plays of the 1950s & '60s". Filmink.
  6. "JESSIE MATTHEWS ON TV". ABC Weekly. 2 September 1959. p. 12.
  7. "Jottings". The Age. 18 July 1959. p. 7.
  8. "Untitled". The Age. 20 August 1959. p. 26.
  9. "Anouilh's Play Televised". Sydney Morning Herald. 3 September 1959. p. 5.
  10. Janus (3 September 1959). "Miss Matthews Intriguing". The Age. p. 14.


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