''Misery Me'' is a 1959 Australian television movie, or rather a live television play, which aired on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

. It was a satirical comedy written by British playwright Dennis Cannan and had originally been a stage play. At the time, most TV plays presented on Australian television were adaptations of overseas stage plays. It is likely that the experience gained from these productions allowed ABC to later produce dramatic programs with more local interest, such as ''

Stormy Petrel Storm petrel or stormy petrel may refer to one of two bird family (biology), families, both in the order Procellariiformes, once treated as the same family. The two families are: * Northern storm petrels (''Hydrobatidae'') are found in the No ...

''. The program was originally shown in Sydney (on

ABN-2 ABC Television in New South Wales comprises national and local programming on the ABC television network in the Australian state of New South Wales, headquartered in Sydney. ABN or ABN-2 was the historic call sign of the Australian Broadcasti ...

) on 15 July 1959. A

kinescope Kinescope , shortened to kine , also known as telerecording in Britain, is a recording of a television program on motion picture film directly through a lens focused on the screen of a video monitor. The process was pioneered during the 1940s ...

("telerecording") was made of the program and later shown in Melbourne on 5 August 1959 (on

ABV-2 ABV is the call sign of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's television station in Melbourne, Victoria. History The station began broadcasting on 19 November 1956 and is transmitted throughout the state via a network of relay transmitters ...

). In 1959, two additional ABC stations began operations, in Adelaide and Brisbane respectively, and it is not known of the program was also shown in these two cities. The archival status of the program is not known.

Plot

A young couple make a

suicide pact A suicide pact is an agreed plan between two or more individuals to die by suicide. The plan may be to die together, or separately and closely timed. In England and Wales, a suicide pact is a partial defense, under section 4 of the Homicide Act ...

at a mountain resort. Matters are complicated by the arrival of two former suitors of the girl, Cornelia.

Cast

*Diana Davidson as Cornelia *

Gordon Glenwright Gordon Charles Glenwright (17 March 1918 – 25 May 1985) was an Australian actor, stage manager and playwright. Glenwright served as a lieutenant in the Australian Army during the Second World War World War II or the Second Worl ...

as Carlo Bambas *Lionel Stevens as Julius Ring *Barbara Eather *John Huson * Don Pascoe *Hugh Stewart

Production

The play had been performed in 1955 and adapted for TV on the BBC in 1955.

Reception

According to director

Alan Burke Alan S. Burke (September 15, 1922 – August 25, 1992) was an American conservative television and radio talk show host who was on the air primarily in New York City from 1966 to 1969 on WNEW-TV. Life He was born in Richmond, Virginia, in 19 ...

the play received "tiny ratings" like many ABC plays around this time. The critic from the ''Sydney Morning Herald'' wrote that the "oddly uneven ingredients of political satire and romantic farce" that featured in the play "were not mixed with enough smoothness" to make the TV adaptation "entirely satisfying" adding that the play suffered from being reduced to an hour ("hardly gave the players or the ideas time to properly ferment"). However he did think there that "when attractive acting was combined with flexible production" there were "some charming and amusing individual scenes."

References

External links