A crew deserts a ship to find their fortune in the 1850s goldfields. After three weeks of digging and nothing to show for it, the crew get restless despite the efforts of Welshman Jones. The ship's captain turns up at their shanty and tries to exercise his authority. Only the tragic accident which causes a young apprentice to lose his mind prevents the crew from returning to the ship. The captain forms a relationship with a singer.[7][8]
It was one of 20 TV plays produced by the ABC in 1964 (and one of only three Australian scripts).[9] It was filmed in Melbourne.[3] Jennifer Wright and Stanley Walsh had just arrived in Australia from England and made their Australian TV debuts.[4]
Reception
The Sydney Morning Herald praised the performances of Lee and Wright as "professional" but complained about the "stiffness of the dialogue" and said "the direction of the crowds with their rhubarb-rhubarb voices and their tinned and infuriatingly phony laughter drove us for solace across the dial."[10]
^ ab"Z cars cop turns seaman in ABC play". TV Times. 25 August 1965. p. 9.
^"MONDAY". The Canberra Times. Vol. 39, no. 11, 223. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 2 August 1965. p. 2 (TELEVISION and radio GUIDE). Retrieved 20 March 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
^"'Combat' private in a ballad". The Canberra Times. Vol. 39, no. 11, 223. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 2 August 1965. p. 1 (TELEVISION and radio GUIDE). Retrieved 28 February 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
