''One Morning Near Troodos'' (1956) was a British TV play by Iain MacCormick which aired on the BBC as part of ''

Sunday Night Theatre ''Sunday Night Theatre'' was a long-running series of televised live television plays screened by BBC Television from early 1950 until 1959. The productions for the first five years or so of the run were re-staged live the following Thursday, ...

''. It was the first British TV play about the

Cyprus Emergency The Cyprus Emergency was a conflict fought in British Cyprus between April 1955 and March 1959. The National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters (EOKA), a Greek Cypriot right-wing nationalist guerrilla organisation, began an armed campaign in s ...

Plot

A journalist in Cyprus is captured by

EOKA The Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston (EOKA ; ) was a Greek Cypriot nationalist guerrilla organization that fought a campaign for the end of Cyprus#Cyprus under the British Empire, British rule in Cyprus, and for enosis, eventual union with K ...

guerillas. British troops track down the guerrillas and the journalist leads them into a rebel ambush. A woman is attracted to a British soldier.

1959 Australian Version

Iain MacCormick was Australian and a number of his plays, originally written for British TV, were adapted for Australian television. The play was performed live on Australian TV in 1959. It was the ABC's 22nd live drama made in Melbourne.

Premise

In Cyprus there has been terrorist activity near Mt Troodos, leading to a large scale operation of British troops and police. Two British journalists arrive in the area: James Stark, is an unscrupulous and influential former MP, and Walters, his hard-drinking offsider. Walters does the work while Start takes the credit. They are not allowed into the fighting zone so make their headquarters in a nearby village. Start decides to deal with the terrorists himself, thereby bringing bloodshed to the village.

Cast

Edward Brayshaw Edward John Brayshaw (18 October 1933 – 28 December 1990) was an Australian actor who worked in Australia and England. Australian career He was a Melbourne-based actor in the 1950s and 1960s and often appeared on television and stage. He le ...

* Syd Conabere *Carol Armstrong as Lena, the Greek girl attracted to a British soldier *Lloyd Cunnington *

Frank Gatliff Frank Ernest Gatliff (31 December 1927 – 23 June 1990) was an Australian actor based in Great Britain. He appeared in several films (notably as Bluejay in '' The Ipcress File'') but mostly on TV, in such series as ''Gideon's Way'', '' The Baron ...

*Judith Godden * Ken Goodlet * Edward Howell *Robert Peach *Jennifer Clare

Production

The play had been performed on Melbourne radio in 1957 and repeated in 1959. It was rehearsed and filmed at ABC's studios at Ripponlea. There was some location filming on Melbourne streets. It had a cast of fifteen. A segment of the script was published in ''The Age'' as an example of TV scripts. The article said that Australian writers were typically paid between £60-£80 a script. Alexandra Atanassious was the Greek text adviser.

References

External links

1956 British TV play
at

IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

1959 Australian TV play
at

''One Morning Near Troodos''
at

AustLit AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource (also known as AustLit: Australian Literature Gateway; and AustLit: The Resource for Australian Literature) is a national bio-bibliographical database of Australian literature. It is an internet-based, ...

{{William Sterling Films set in Cyprus 1956 television plays British television plays Cyprus Emergency Films directed by William Sterling (director)