A Ride on the Big Dipper

28th episode of the 3rd season of Wednesday Theatre

"A Ride on the Big Dipper"

Wednesday Theatre episode

Episode no.

Season 3
Episode 28

Directed by

Christopher Muir^[1]

Teleplay by

Ron Harrison

Original air date

30 August 1967 (1967-08-30)

Running time

60 mins^[2]

Episode chronology

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"A Ride on the Big Dipper" is a 1967 Australian television play. It screened as part of Wednesday Theatre and had a running time of one hour.^[3]^[4]^[5]

Plot

Hugh Kenton, is a 25 year old draughtsman with an engineering firm who is assessed by an efficiency expert as having an all-time high rating as potential management material. He is sent to North Queensland to take charge of the company's branch office. Kenton rapidly proves that he is in deed a brilliant manager - far more so than his associates ever believed.

Cast

Terry McDermott as Clive Denning
Peter Aanensen
Alan Bickford
Fay Kelton
Lloyd Cunnington

Production

It was written by Newcastle journalist Ron Harrison. He later adapted it for radio.^[6] The radio version won an Awgie Award.^[7] It was shot in Melbourne at the ABC's studios in Ripponlea.^[8]

Reception

The Age said it "offered some fine parts and the actors did not disappoint."^[9]

The Sydney Morning Herald said "it held a tense interest."^[10]

The Bulletin called it "what TV drama should be. [Terry] McDermott gave a well-paced, intelligent performance as an efficiency - Frankenstein who got clobbered by his own mother in the cold, bloodless mayhem of business. Nothing novel or exciting in the plot, but everything so in seeing it in Australian terms; a believable drama of the times, with believable dialogue. As it was Harrison’s second TV play, and his first one-hour drama, I can only echo the ABC’s Phillip Mann, who said, "It was the kind of work we receive all too rarely, and we hope he intends to stay with it." A sense of drama seems to be the rare old some thing he's got, and here's hoping he is a stayer, because he seems to have the field to himself."^[11]

References

^ "TV Guide". Sydney Morning Herald. 28 August 1967. p. 15.
^ "TV Guide". Sydney Morning Herald. 30 August 1967. p. 21.
^ "WEDNESDAY". The Canberra Times. Vol. 41, no. 11, 778. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 28 August 1967. p. 19. Retrieved 23 March 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
^ "television". The Canberra Times. Vol. 41, no. 11, 780. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 30 August 1967. p. 28. Retrieved 23 March 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
^ The bulletin, John Haynes and J.F. Archibald, 1880, retrieved 22 March 2019
^ 1972 radio version at Austlit
^ "Awgie Award for Australian play". Sydney Morning Herald. 16 March 1969. p. 98.
^ "Untitled". 31 August 1967. p. 10.
^ "Teletopics". The Age. 14 September 1967. p. 9.
^ Robinson, Harry (31 August 1967). "On Television". Sydney Morning Herald. p. 8.
^ The bulletin, John Haynes and J.F. Archibald, 1880, retrieved 23 March 2019