The Mavis Bramston Show
Encyclopedia
The Mavis Bramston Show was a popular and award-winning Australian TV satirical sketch comedy
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...

 series of the mid-1960s.

Introduction

The tremendous impact that The Mavis Bramston Show had in Australia in the mid-1960s was heightened because of its unique place in the history of the Australian TV industry. After its inception in 1956, Australian television broadcasting had rapidly become dominated by the socio-economic influence of the United States and (to a smaller extent) of Great Britain. By the early 1960s at least 80% of Australian TV programming was sourced from the USA and American TV series were consistently the top-rating shows. In 1963 the "Vincent Report" on the Australian media found that 97% of drama broadcast on Australian TV between 1956 and 1963 was American-made. The few programs that were made in Australia were usually low-cost copies of proven American talk-variety or quiz show formats.

Because of the lack of any effective local content regulation, Australian TV producers faced enormous challenges in trying to compete against imported American and British programs, which benefited from high budgets, an international talent pool and huge economies of scale, thanks to their large domestic audiences and established worldwide distribution networks. These advantages were further enhanced by the fact that American producers and networks offered Australian channels attractive discount rates on bundled programming.

Despite the overwhelming dominance of imported programming, local production gradually increased in the mid-1960s for several reasons—the licensing of a third network in major cities (which ultimately became the TEN Network), the introduction of videotape technology and the enforcement of local production quotas on TV advertising, which helped to foster a local skill-base.

Premiering only months after Crawford Productions
Crawford Productions
Crawford Productions is an Australian television production company founded by Hector Crawford; the present incarnation of the company, Crawfords Australia, is now a subsidiary of the WIN television corporation.-History:...

' landmark police drama Homicide, Mavis Bramston demonstrated both that it was possible to make satirical TV comedy in Australia, featuring Australian issues and characters, and that there was a significant audience for such a show. As the first Australian-produced TV comedy series to become a national success with both critics and viewers, Mavis is therefore considered a milestone in the development of Australian TV. Many at the time expected that this honor would go to Graham Kennedy's
Graham Kennedy
Graham Cyril Kennedy, AO was an Australian radio, television and film performer, often called Gra Gra and The King of Australian television.-Childhood:...

 In Melbourne Tonight
In Melbourne Tonight
In Melbourne Tonight, also known as "IMT", was a highly popular nightly variety television show produced at GTV-9 Melbourne from 6 May 1957 to 1970....

, which was hugely popular in its home city, but it did not become a fully-fledged national hit until 1969. Writer Hugh Stuckey opined that this was in part because IMT faced strong competition from the shows it followed, the top-rating American variety series The Perry Como Show and The Andy Williams Show
The Andy Williams Show
The Andy Williams Show is a television variety show which ran from 1959 to 1971 , and a short-lived run in syndication, beginning in the fall of 1976...

.

Mavis Bramston grew out of the recent local theatrical tradition of topical satirical revue —- most notably the popular revues staged at Sydney's Phillip Street Theatre
Phillip Street Theatre
The Phillip Street Theatre was a popular and influential Sydney theatre and theatrical company of the 1950s and 1960s that became well known for its intimate satirical revue productions.-History:...

 in the 1950s and 1960s -— but it was also strongly influenced by the British satire boom
Satire boom
The satire boom is a general term to describe the emergence of a generation of English satirical writers, journalists and performers at the end of the 1950s. The satire boom is often regarded as having begun with the first performance of Beyond the Fringe on 22 August 1960 and ending around...

 and especially by the contemporary British TV satirical comedy series That Was The Week That Was
That Was The Week That Was
That Was The Week That Was, also known as TW3, is a satirical television comedy programme that was shown on BBC Television in 1962 and 1963. It was devised, produced and directed by Ned Sherrin and presented by David Frost...

and Not Only... But Also
Not Only... But Also
Not Only... But Also was a popular 1960s BBC British television series starring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.-History:The show was originally intended as a solo project for Moore, called Not Only Dudley Moore, But Also His Guests...

.

The Mavis cast, which changed considerably over its three-year run, initially featured many imported or expatriate British performers (Carol Raye, Gordon Chater, Miriam Karlin, Ronnie Stevens, Hazel Phillips) alongside experienced Australian TV actors like John Bluthal (who was becoming well known in Britain) and Australian performers such as Salter, Creyton, Frazer, Davies, Brown and Livermore, who were relative newcomers to TV but who between them had decades of experience in music, theatre, cabaret and revue.

The original co-stars of the show were:
  • British-born singer-dancer-comedienne Carol Raye
    Carol Raye
    Carol Raye is an Australian-based theatre and television actress and comedienne.Trained as a ballet dancer, Raye was discovered by choreographer Freddie Carpenter at age 16. She played lead roles in many musicals and television programs in the UK...

     (1964-1965/1967/1968), who devised the show, produced the pilot episode and co-produced the early episodes with Michael Plant

  • British-born actor Gordon Chater
    Gordon Chater
    Gordon Chater was a comedian and actor.Chater attended Cambridge University to study to become a doctor but did not finish his degree. While at Cambridge he took part in many student revues.He arrived in Australia following World War II...

     (1964–1965), who migrated to Australia in the late 1940s and soon became prominent in Sydney theatre and radio, and

  • Australian actor, singer and writer Barry Creyton
    Barry Creyton
    Barry Creyton is an Australian actor and playwright.Creyton began his professional career in radio and revue in Melbourne, in Australia and became well-known in Sydney starring in and writing popular comedy-melodramas at the Music Hall theatre-restaurant in Neutral Bay...

     (1964–1966) who came to prominence in Sydney theatre, notably in the Phillip Street revues and the popular melodramas staged at the Music Hall
    The Music Hall (Sydney theatre)
    The Music Hall was a popular theatre-restaurant located in Neutral Bay, Sydney, New South wales, which operated from 1961 to 1980.Melbourne impresario George Miller and his wife Lorna opened the venue in a converted cinema at 154 Military Rd, Neutral Bay, in 1961...

     theatre restaurant at Neutral Bay.


During its three-year run, other regular cast members and guests included June Salter
June Salter
June Marie Salter AM was an Australian actress.-Biography:June Salter was born in Bexley, New South Wales, the youngest of six children. As a child she studied piano and elocution and attended Kogarah Secondary School...

 (1964 pilot, 1965–1967), Miriam Karlin
Miriam Karlin
Miriam Karlin, OBE was a British actress who worked on screen for over 60 years. She was best known for her role as Paddy in The Rag Trade, a 1960s BBC and 1970s LWT sitcom , especially for her catchphrase "Everybody out!"...

 (1965), John Bluthal
John Bluthal
John Bluthal is a Polish-born British film and television actor, mostly in comedy. He is best known for his work with Spike Milligan and for his roles in the television series Never Mind the Quality Feel the Width and The Vicar of Dibley.-Early life:Bluthal was born in Galicia, Poland, of Jewish...

 (1965), Ron Frazer (1965–1968), Hazel Phillips (1965–68), Ronnie Stevens
Ronnie Stevens
Ronnie Stevens may refer to:* Ronnie Stevens , British actor* Veronica Stevens, American female wrestler, sometimes known as "Ronnie" Stevens...

 (1965–66), Neva Carr Glyn
Neva Carr Glyn
Neva Carr Glyn or Neva Carr Glynn born "Neva Josephine Mary Carr Glyn" was an Australian contralto and actress born in Melbourne to Arthur Benjamin Carr Glyn , a humorous baritone and stage manager born in Ireland, and Marie Carr Glyn , née Marie Dunoon Senior , an actress with the stage...

 (1966–), June Thody (1966–), Barbara Angell
Barbara Angell
Barbara Angell – also known as Barb Angell and sometimes wrongly credited as Barbara Angel – Australian writer and actor was Australia's first female television comedy writer-entertainer...

 (1966–1968, also a scriptwriter), Andonia Katsaros (1966–1968), Peter Reeves (1967), Bryan Davies
Bryan Davies (actor)
Brian Davies is an Australian television actor.His television credits include hosting his own tv show the following series: "The Mavis Bramston Show", "Anything Goes", "A Curate in Bohemia" and "Matlock Police".-External links:...

 (1964–), Dawn Lake
Dawn Lake
Dawn Lake was an Australian television comedian, singer, entertainer and actor, whose career spanned more than four decades. Bert Newton described her as "our greatest comedienne - Australia's Lucille Ball"...

 (1967), Johnny Lockwood
Johnny Lockwood
Johnny Lockwood is an English, Australian-based actor and comedy performer, possibly best known for his role in the 1970s television soap opera Number 96, playing Hungarian Jewish deli-proprieter Aldo Godolfus.-Career:...

 (1967–1968) and Reg Livermore
Reg Livermore
Reginald Dawson Livermore AO is an Australian actor, singer, theatrical performer and television presenter.-Childhood:From a young age, Livermore demonstrated an interest in the performing arts...

 (1968). Barbara Wyndon and Al Thomas guest starred in some episodes. Among the crew was a young production assistant, Peter Weir
Peter Weir
Peter Lindsay Weir, AM is an Australian film director. After playing a leading role in the Australian New Wave cinema with his films such as Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Last Wave and Gallipoli, Weir directed a diverse group of American and international films—many of them major box office...

, who went on to become one of Australia's best-known and most successful film directors.

There are several versions of the source of the ironic joke behind the show's title. The most frequently quoted account is that it derived from an Australian theatrical expression. The nickname "Mavis Bramstons" mocked a phenomenon common at that time on the Australian stage. In the years after World War II, overseas actors (many of whom who were considered second-rate and/or well past their best) were often imported to star in local productions, even though there were local performers available who were as good or better than their overseas counterparts. One of the most famous examples of this trend was the 'discovery' of actress and singer Jill Perryman
Jill Perryman
Jill Perryman AM MBE is an Australian stage actress and singer, born in Melbourne. Her parents and her sister were all prominent in Australian theatre. At the age of 19, she joined J.C...

; while understudying a notably less impressive overseas actress for the lead role in a mid-Sixties production of the musical Call Me Madam
Call Me Madam
Call Me Madam is a musical with a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse and music and lyrics by Irving Berlin.A satire on politics and foreign affairs that spoofs America's penchant for lending billions of dollars to needy countries, it centers on Sally Adams, a well-meaning but ill-informed...

, Perryman was able to make her critical breakthrough after the imported star was sidelined by illness.

The stock persona of an imported second-rate actress became the central conceit
Central conceit
In drama and other art forms, the central conceit of a work of fiction is the underlying fictitious assumption which must be accepted by the audience with suspension of disbelief so the plot may be seen as plausible...

 of the series. The opening scene of each episode showed "Mavis", now brought to life as a parodic character, arriving at Sydney airport to be greeted by the waiting press; the irony was that although the show was called The Mavis Bramston Show, this was the only scene in which she appeared. Noeline Brown
Noeline Brown
Noeline Brown is an Australian actor and comedian. She has appeared in many films, television shows, plays and radio programs....

 (1964–1966) played the eponymous Mavis in the pilot and the first five shows. She was succeeded by Maggie Dence
Maggie Dence
Maggie Dence is an Australian actress who after high profile television comedy work became better known for several soap opera roles....

, who became the "face" of the series; she regularly featured in press articles and on magazine covers and was widely employed by the show's sponsor, Ampol
Ampol
Ampol, the Australian Motorists Petrol Company, was incorporated by Sir William Gaston Walkley in 1936 in New South Wales. This was in response to Australians' concerns about perceived inequitable petrol pricing, and allegations of transfer pricing by foreign oil companies to limit their tax...

, making well-attended promotional appearances all over the country.

Creation and development

The show's creator and original co-star, Carol Raye, had enjoyed considerable success in the UK as an actor, singer and dancer, followed by a stint working for the national TV service in Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

 (where her husband worked for the Colonial Veterinary Service). In 1964 the couple had decided to emigrate to Australia, arriving in March of that year. Raye had asked friends in Britain for contacts in the Australian TV industry and this led to a meeting with (Sir) Charles Moses
Charles Moses
Sir Charles Moses CBE headed the Australian Broadcasting Commission from 1935 until 1965....

, then the General Manager of the ABC
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...

. He suggested that she should try her luck with Sydney commercial station ATN-7
ATN-7
ATN is the Sydney flagship television station of the Seven Network in Australia. The licence, issued to a company named Amalgamated Television Services, a subsidiary of Fairfax, was one of the first four licences to be issued for commercial television stations in Australia...

 and gave her a letter of introduction to Seven's general manager, James Oswin. That meeting was successful and Raye became one of the first female TV executives in Australia—she was appointed as Oswin's assistant in "Matters of Live Programming" and was given an office and a brief to watch local television and come up with ideas for new programs.

Inspired by the BBC's That Was The Week That Was
That Was The Week That Was
That Was The Week That Was, also known as TW3, is a satirical television comedy programme that was shown on BBC Television in 1962 and 1963. It was devised, produced and directed by Ned Sherrin and presented by David Frost...

, Raye suggested a show based on TW3's format of topical satire, and although initially skeptical, Oswin agreed and allocated a budget of AU₤1500 for pilot episode. Raye then set about recruiting performers to fill the roles of TW3's stars Millicent Martin
Millicent Martin
Millicent Mary Lillian Martin is an English actress, singer and comedienne.Martin was born in Romford, England. She made her Broadway debut opposite Julie Andrews in The Boy Friend in 1954...

, Bernard Levin
Bernard Levin
Henry Bernard Levin CBE was an English journalist, author and broadcaster, described by The Times as "the most famous journalist of his day". The son of a poor Jewish family in London, he won a scholarship to the independent school Christ's Hospital and went on to the London School of Economics,...

 and David Frost
David Frost
Sir David Frost is a British broadcaster.David Frost may also refer to:*David Frost , South African golfer*David Frost , classical record producer*David Frost *Dave Frost, baseball pitcher...

. By chance, she had also been given an introduction to Gordon Chater, who immediately accepted her offer on the expectation that the new show would be a TV version of the famous Phillip St Revues
Phillip Street Theatre
The Phillip Street Theatre was a popular and influential Sydney theatre and theatrical company of the 1950s and 1960s that became well known for its intimate satirical revue productions.-History:...

, in which he had been starring.

During this period, Raye was also drafted in to help develop a show to be sponsored by the Bradmill textile company, and she was taken to The Music Hall
The Music Hall (Sydney theatre)
The Music Hall was a popular theatre-restaurant located in Neutral Bay, Sydney, New South wales, which operated from 1961 to 1980.Melbourne impresario George Miller and his wife Lorna opened the venue in a converted cinema at 154 Military Rd, Neutral Bay, in 1961...

 at Neutral Bay, a popular theatre-restaurant presenting Victorian-style comedy-melodramas that featured considerable audience interaction. The show Raye saw that evening, The Evil That Men Do, co-starred the Music Hall's resident Villain and Villainess, Barry Creyton and Noeline Brown. Raye was impressed with Creyton's looks, his urbane style and his skills in handling the often rowdy Music Hall audiences, and immediately knew she had found her second co-star. Soon after this, Noeline Brown met the show's co-producer, Micheal Plant at a party and he offered her the part of Mavis in the pilot episode.

To develop the script, Raye hired a team of writers including James Fishburn (who also acted as Executive Producer), John Mackellar, David Sale
David Sale
David Sale is an Australian-based author and television screenwriter. He has contributed to many TV drama series, provided special material for Australia's leading entertainers, and has worked as producer, director, actor and journalist....

 (who went on to write for the hugely popular 1970s soap opera Number 96), actor-writer Jon Finlayson (who had written a successful intimate revue in Melbourne with Barbara Angell) and Ken Shadie, who had begun writing comedy sketches while working in Seven's engineering department; he also later wrote for Number 96 and co-wrote the script of the hit Paul Hogan film Crocodile Dundee
Crocodile Dundee
"Crocodile" Dundee is a 1986 Australian comedy film set in the Australian Outback and in New York City. It stars Paul Hogan as the weathered Mick Dundee and Linda Kozlowski as Sue Charlton....

.

At this stage Raye was intending to work only as the show's producer, and she still needed to find a female lead; Chater suggested June Salter (who agreed to a guest appearance in the pilot) and they also approached Judi Farr
Judi Farr
Judi Farr is an Australian theatre, film and television actor best known for several situation comedy roles on Australian television.She first became known for her role of Rita in the situation comedy My Name's McGooley, What's Yours?...

 and several other actresses, but all were tied up with other work and could not commit to the lead role. Chater finally suggested that Raye should do the pilot herself, for fear that Seven would lose interest in the show and cancel, and although she was not keen to perform and co-produce, Raye agreed to do it.

Pilot episode and early shows, 1964

The production team needed to find a proper name for the new show (its working title was The Late Show) and, as noted above, the final choice was inspired by their desire to satirise the cultural cringe
Cultural cringe
Cultural cringe, in cultural studies and social anthropology, is an internalized inferiority complex which causes people in a country to dismiss their own culture as inferior to the cultures of other countries...

 that prevailed in Australian theatre.

According to Carol Raye, the name "Mavis Bramston" was suggested by Jon Finlayson, who cited an old Melbourne theatre tradition in which "an actress who's really daggy or over the top, or up herself" was nicknamed a "Mavis Bramston". With this in mind, they came up with the idea of a having a purported actress from England who is ostensibly brought in to star in the show, but in fact makes only a brief appearance.

During rehearsals it was decided that the show would open with Barry Creyton's song "Togetherness", which he had originally written for a Phillip St revue called At It Again; there were also topical songs with lyrics by David Sale and music by Seven's resident musical director Tommy Tycho
Tommy Tycho
Thomas Tycho AM MBE is a multi-talented Hungarian-born Australian pianist, conductor, composer and arranger. He was associated with musical productions on Australian television for many years from its inception in 1956, including such programs as The Mavis Bramston Show...

. It was filmed at the Macquarie Theatrette in Pitt Street, Sydney with Raye, Chater, Creyton, Brown and a guest appearance by June Salter.

The show opened with a heavily made-up Noeline Brown (as Mavis) in a mock interview with Jon Finlayson after which she performed a (deliberately awful) song-and-dance routine. The sketches included topical items about then Prime Minister Robert Menzies
Robert Menzies
Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, , Australian politician, was the 12th and longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia....

 and the Voyager disaster
Melbourne-Voyager collision
The Melbourne-Voyager collision, also referred to as the "Melbourne-Voyager incident" or simply the "Voyager incident", was a collision between two warships of the Royal Australian Navy ; the aircraft carrier and the destroyer...

; Oz
Oz (magazine)
Oz was first published as a satirical humour magazine between 1963 and 1969 in Sydney, Australia and, in its second and better known incarnation, became a "psychedelic hippy" magazine from 1967 to 1973 in London...

co-editor Richard Walsh
Richard Walsh
Richard Walsh was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Teachta Dála for the Mayo South constituency at the September 1927 general election...

 provided an "Oz News" segment; Gordon Chater performed his popular slapstick routine, in which he performed a comic monologue while covering himself with food then squirting the resulting mess off with a soda siphon; there was also a serious interlude with a reading of a poem written by an Aboriginal woman. The show concluded with the cast singing "Friends and Neighbours
Friends and Neighbours
Friends and Neighbours is a 1959 British comedy film directed by Gordon Parry and starring Arthur Askey, Megs Jenkins and Peter Illing. At the height of the Cold War, a working-class British family have to entertain two visitors from Russia.-Cast:...

" off-camera, while footage of mob violence, war scenes and the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...

 was played on screen.

The appearance of Richard Walsh
Richard Walsh
Richard Walsh was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Teachta Dála for the Mayo South constituency at the September 1927 general election...

 is notable because it established an explicit link between Mavis and the Sydney satirical magazine Oz
Oz (magazine)
Oz was first published as a satirical humour magazine between 1963 and 1969 in Sydney, Australia and, in its second and better known incarnation, became a "psychedelic hippy" magazine from 1967 to 1973 in London...

, which at that time was the subject of a highly publicized censorship controversy. The three Oz co-editors—Walsh, Richard Neville
Richard Neville (writer)
Richard Neville is an Australian author and self-described "futurist", who came to fame as a co-editor of the counterculture magazine Oz in Australia and the United Kingdom in the 1960s and early 1970s...

 and Martin Sharp
Martin Sharp
Martin Sharp is an Australian artist, underground cartoonist, songwriter and film-maker. Sharp has made contributions to Australian and international culture since the early 60s, and is hailed as Australia's foremost pop artist...

 – had recently been charged with producing an obscene publication
Obscenity
An obscenity is any statement or act which strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time, is a profanity, or is otherwise taboo, indecent, abhorrent, or disgusting, or is especially inauspicious...

, relating to satirical articles and photographs published in the magazine's early editions. In September 1964 the trio was found guilty of the obscenity charges, and there was a major public outcry when presiding magistrate Gerald Locke SM sentenced Walsh and Neville to six months' imprisonment with hard labour. When Mavis premiered the "Oz Three" were preparing their appeal against the verdict (which was ultimately quashed).

The Oz-Mavis connection was reinforced on 15 November, four days after the pilot aired, when the Mavis stars appeared at the Sydney University Theatre as part of a benefit to raise money for the Oz defence appeal. They performed a parody song entitled "Poof The Tragic Queen", which sent up the folk-song staple "Puff the Magic Dragon". The benefit also features radical Sydney rock band The Missing Links and Homicide star Leonard Teale
Leonard Teale
Leonard Teale AO , born Leonard George Thiele in Brisbane, was a well-known Australian actor of radio, television and films....

, who recited a "surfie" parody of Banjo Patterson's Clancy of the Overflow
Clancy of the Overflow
"Clancy of The Overflow" is a poem by Banjo Paterson, first published in The Bulletin, an Australian news magazine, on 21 December 1889. The poem is typical of Paterson, offering a romantic view of rural life, and is one of his best-known works.-History:...

.

The Mavis pilot was broadcast on ATN-7 (in Sydney only) on 11 November 1964 and it was an immediate success, with the Sydney Sun newspaper praising it as "... a fresh new show" that brought "authentic, biting, saucy, swinging satire to ATN". The film recording of the pilot episode survived and is now preserved in the collection of the National Film & Sound Archive in Canberra.

Seven soon announced that they were commissioning a series. It was evident that the chemistry between the three stars was a crucial factor in its success, so Seven insisted that Raye should continue as co-star, whereas she had hoped to find a permanent female lead to replace her, so she could concentrate on production; as a compromise, Seven agreed to ease her workload by appointing Michael Plant as co-producer.

Five more episodes were made during late 1964, but these were screened in Sydney and Canberra only; the Collection database of Australia's National Film and Sound Archive
National Film and Sound Archive
The National Film and Sound Archive is Australia’s audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting and providing access to a national collection of audiovisual materials and related items...

 suggests that only three of these first six episodes have survived.

Noeline Brown made a brief weekly appearance as Mavis in these first shows, but she soon tired of the one-joke role and was reluctant to take on the promotional duties required. Seven wanted her to retain her, but Brown intended to go to England and since Seven had neglected to sign her to a contract, she left the show, to be replaced by actress Maggie Dence
Maggie Dence
Maggie Dence is an Australian actress who after high profile television comedy work became better known for several soap opera roles....

, although she returned to the series after her visit to the UK.

National breakthrough, 1965

Mavis was an immediate success in NSW and this was replicated when it was broadcast nationally from early 1965. It created a media sensation and at its peak it became the highest-rating Australian TV series ever made up to that time, pulling in unprecedented 59% of the viewing audience. Capping its ratings success, the series won the 1965 Logie Award
Logie Award
The TV Week Logie Awards are the Australian television industry awards, which have been presented annually since 1959. Renamed by Graham Kennedy in 1960 after he won the first 'Star Of The Year' award, the name 'Logie' awards honours John Logie Baird, a Scotsman who invented the television as a...

 for "Best New Show".

The popularity of The Mavis Bramston Show quickly became the stuff of legend – it is said that QANTAS
Qantas
Qantas Airways Limited is the flag carrier of Australia. The name was originally "QANTAS", an initialism for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services". Nicknamed "The Flying Kangaroo", the airline is based in Sydney, with its main hub at Sydney Airport...

 pilots tried to re-arrange their schedules to be home on Wednesdays for the weekly broadcast, and in the national capital Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...

 local businesses reputedly contacted Seven, asking them to reschedule the show, because it clashed with late-night shopping and revenues were falling as a result of its popularity. Around 45 episodes were produced during 1965; fortunately the majority have survived and these are now archived in the NFSA collection.

Mavis almost immediately attracted controversy, but this only served to heighten its notoriety. Some local stations censored 'blasphemous' words and the term "kin oath" (a contraction of the Australian expletive "fuckin' oath") and in March 1965 Sydney Catholic clergyman Bishop Thomas Muldoon publicly announced that he intended to sell his shares in Ampol because it sponsored such an 'immoral' show. When one of the stars was quizzed by the press about the furore, they expressed surprise that a bishop would own shares, but this immediately generated more banner headlines declaring "Actor insults Bishop". According to Noeline Brown it was Barry Creyton who made the remark but another source quotes Gordon Chater as saying that he made the comment.

When the show went national Carol Raye quickly found that juggling performance and production with the demands of raising a young family were becoming too much, so Seven agreed to recruit a co-producer; on Gordon Chater's suggestion they hired Michael Plant, who had started out writing scripts for radio star Grace Gibson before moving to Los Angeles, where he worked in film and TV. He was also an experienced journalist, which assisted with the topical nature of the show's humour.

Despite the addition of a co-producer, Raye was soon exhausted by the frantic pace and she left the series midway through 1965. At this stage Seven still felt it necessary to import talent from the UK, and her place was taken by British TV star Miriam Karlin
Miriam Karlin
Miriam Karlin, OBE was a British actress who worked on screen for over 60 years. She was best known for her role as Paddy in The Rag Trade, a 1960s BBC and 1970s LWT sitcom , especially for her catchphrase "Everybody out!"...

, who was well known for her role as the gravel-voiced, chain-smoking shop steward in the popular BBC sitcom The Rag Trade
The Rag Trade
The Rag Trade was a British television sitcom broadcast by the BBC between 1961 and 1963 and by LWT between 1977 and 1978.The scripts were by Ronald Wolfe and Ronald Chesney, who later wrote Wild, Wild Women, a period variation of The Rag Trade....

. In 1966, when Chater departed, Seven brought in British actor-comedian Ronnie Stevens
Ronnie Stevens
Ronnie Stevens may refer to:* Ronnie Stevens , British actor* Veronica Stevens, American female wrestler, sometimes known as "Ronnie" Stevens...

.

Although the show continued to top the ratings, it was dealt another unexpected blow in late 1965 with the sudden death of Micheal Plant (from an accidental overdose of sleeping tablets). He was replaced by Peter Myers, who had previously worked as a writer of intimate revues in London.

During 1965–66 the focus of the sketches gradually shifted from topical political humour to broader social satire and more conventional revue-style material. Popular sketches included Chater's famous "Pie Eater" routine, in which he played a stereotypical Ocker
Ocker
The term "ocker" is used both as a noun and adjective for an Australian who speaks and acts in an uncultured manner, using a broad Australian accent...

 character in a singlet and handkerchief hat, who crams pies into his mouth while extolling the virtues of the "June Dilly-Potkins School of Charm" (a joke on the real-life deportment schools founded by former model June Dally-Watkins). Another recurring sketch was devised by and featured Miriam Karlin who, with Gordon Chater, played an elderly couple who sit on a park bench and talk to each other without communicating.

During 1965 the cast of local performers expanded, with regular appearances by James Kenney
James Kenney
James Kenney was an English dramatist, the son of James Kenney, one of the founders of Boodles' Club in London.His first play, a farce called Raising the Wind , was a success owing to the popularity of the character of "Jeremy Diddler"...

, June Salter
June Salter
June Marie Salter AM was an Australian actress.-Biography:June Salter was born in Bexley, New South Wales, the youngest of six children. As a child she studied piano and elocution and attended Kogarah Secondary School...

 and Hazel Phillips. Phillips, like Raye, had started out as a juvenile performer in her native Britain and got her break on Australian TV as one of the panelists on the popular 1960s talk show Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast (talk show)
Beauty and the Beast is an Australian panel television show that has appeared in numerous versions since the early days of Australian television. The first version began in 1963 on the Seven Network with host Eric Baume as the "Beast". Baume was later replaced by presenters including John Laws,...

, hosted by Eric Baume
Eric Baume
Eric Baume OBE was an Australian based journalist, radio presenter, actor and talk show host.Eric Baume was born Frederick Ehrenfried Baume in Auckland New Zealand in 1900. He moved to Sydney in the early 1920s and worked for as editor for several papers...

. Interviewed in 2007, she recalled her stint on the Bramston show:
"The Mavis Bramston Show was really interesting because you got to play something different every week. I did my impressions. I did Marlene and I did Marilyn ... it was such an original show at the time. And because it was all satirical and it was about the political scene of the time. I played the part of a schoolgirl every week to Barry Creyton's father and said, 'Daddy, why does the Prime Minister do so-and-so?' And he'd explain, you know. It would be that sort of stuff."


At the end of the year Gordon Chater announced that he was leaving the series. To replace him, the cast was augmented by imported British actor Ronnie Stevens
Ronnie Stevens
Ronnie Stevens may refer to:* Ronnie Stevens , British actor* Veronica Stevens, American female wrestler, sometimes known as "Ronnie" Stevens...

 and Australian actor-comedian Ron Frazer, who soon became a national star himself. Chater was subsequently recruited for a new comedy series, My Name's McGooley, What's Yours?
My Name's McGooley, What's Yours?
My Name's McGooley, What's Yours? was a popular Australian situation comedy series produced by ATN7 from 1966 to 1968.The situation involved a young couple, Wally and Rita Stiller , living in Balmain with Rita's father Dominic McGooley . Also in the regular cast was Stewart Ginn, and later Noeline...

which premiered in February 1967 and quickly became the most popular and successful Australian sitcom of the era.

1966–68

Despite the changes, the popularity of Mavis remained high through 1966 and it won three Logie awards that year – "Best Live Show", "Best Female Personality" (Carol Raye) and the Gold Logie for "Most Popular Personality on Australian Television" (Chater). Hugh Taylor succeeded Ron Way as director and the regular cast now comprised Creyton, Frazer, June Thody, Neva Carr Glyn
Neva Carr Glyn
Neva Carr Glyn or Neva Carr Glynn born "Neva Josephine Mary Carr Glyn" was an Australian contralto and actress born in Melbourne to Arthur Benjamin Carr Glyn , a humorous baritone and stage manager born in Ireland, and Marie Carr Glyn , née Marie Dunoon Senior , an actress with the stage...

 and Noeline Brown (recently returned from her stint in the UK), with guest appearances by Stuart Wagstaff
Stuart Wagstaff
Stuart Wagstaff AM is an Australian television and stage entertainer.- Early life :Wagstaff was born in Great Durnford, Wiltshire, England, and grew up on a farm with his parents and two older sisters. His father was very strict and emotionally abusive, and he received little affection from his...

, Arlene Dorgan, scriptwriter Barbara Angell, Bryan Davies
Bryan Davies
Bryan Davies can mean either:* Bryan Davies, Baron Davies of Oldham* Bryan Davies — Australian actor...

, Johnny Lockwood
Johnny Lockwood
Johnny Lockwood is an English, Australian-based actor and comedy performer, possibly best known for his role in the 1970s television soap opera Number 96, playing Hungarian Jewish deli-proprieter Aldo Godolfus.-Career:...

 (who later starred in Number 96) and Penney Ramsey.

Like Chater before him, Mavis made Ron Frazer a national TV star. One of his most popular roles was as a stereotypical Australian working-class character called "Ocker
Ocker
The term "ocker" is used both as a noun and adjective for an Australian who speaks and acts in an uncultured manner, using a broad Australian accent...

", and Frazer is now credited with popularising the term. He was also well known for his 'camp' character, whose regular catchphrase "my second-best friend" also gained wide currency at the time.

Mavis continued to generate controversy into 1966. On 12 February the Melbourne Age newspaper reported that the Broadcasting Control Board was to investigate a sketch on that week's show which sent up the recent retirement announcement by Prime Minister Robert Menzies. The sketch featured members of the cast asking questions that "put a humorous and false slant" on answers Menzies gave to reporters' questions at his farewell press conference. The Age item concluded with a comment from HSV-7's manager, Mr K. Cairns, who maintained that the sketch "in no way held Sir Robert up to ridicule", and stated that he had seen it himself and found it "extremely funny".

Barry Creyton left the series at the end of 1966 and went on to host his own short-lived variety series, The Barry Creyton Show, in Melbourne and in later years he worked extensively in theatre and revue.

There is very little extant information about the 1967 series, and as noted below it is believed that most if not all the tapes of these shows are now lost.

By 1968, with all the original stars gone, ratings were declining. It was at this point, after 18 months of writing for the show and making occasional guest appearances, that Barbara Angell was finally given a major role, jointly headlining the show with Ron Frazer. She threw herself into the task, reading every newspaper every day, with the plan of writing at least one topical song and two sketches every week and according to her, they managed to reverse the ratings slide:
"When Ron Frazer and I took over, we actually got the ratings up again. Because we worked terribly well together. We'd gone past the stage of the channel being convinced they had to bring in somebody from overseas because we weren't strong enough people to carry the show ourselves."


Angell also featured in one of the last events in the career of British comedian Tony Hancock
Tony Hancock
Anthony John "Tony" Hancock was an English actor and comedian.-Early life and career:Hancock was born in Southam Road, Hall Green, Birmingham, England, but from the age of three was brought up in Bournemouth, where his father, John Hancock, who ran the Railway Hotel in...

. Hancock's career had declined since his ill-advised 1961 split with longtime writing team Ray Galton and Alan Simpson (a move Hancock himself had later described as "professional suicide"). He was becoming increasingly affected by drugs and alcohol, as evidenced by his shambolic stage appearances in Melbourne in October 1967; at the time of his Australian visit he was in the process of divorcing his second wife.

Nevertheless, he was still a major star, and in March 1968 Seven brought him to Australia to star in a locally made series, Hancock Down Under. To help publicise the project, the station arranged for him to make a guest appearance on Mavis and Angell was chosen to appear with him because, she later recalled, "they had wanted someone who was not easily throwable, because he was terribly easily throwable and very unsure of himself".

On the day of the taping, Angell spent the morning at his hotel going through the sketch with Hancock, trying to reassure and relax him, then she left for the studio. Hancock arrived at the studio during rehearsals, but when it came time for his final camera rehearsal, he had disappeared and he remained missing for four days; in the event he had to be hastily replaced by actor Johnny Lockwood
Johnny Lockwood
Johnny Lockwood is an English, Australian-based actor and comedy performer, possibly best known for his role in the 1970s television soap opera Number 96, playing Hungarian Jewish deli-proprieter Aldo Godolfus.-Career:...

. Several months after his aborted Mavis appearance, Hancock took his own life in his Sydney apartment.

The Mavis Bramston Show was cancelled during 1968 and replaced by a short-lived variety/revue show called Anything Goes

In 1971 Seven produced a one-hour reunion special, Mavis's Back, which brought together many of the original cast including Chater, Frazer, Salter and Lockwood

Awards

The show and its cast won the following Logie Award
Logie Award
The TV Week Logie Awards are the Australian television industry awards, which have been presented annually since 1959. Renamed by Graham Kennedy in 1960 after he won the first 'Star Of The Year' award, the name 'Logie' awards honours John Logie Baird, a Scotsman who invented the television as a...

s:

1965
  • Winner of the Logie award for the Best New Show


1966
  • Winner of the Logie award for the Best Live Show
  • Winner of the Gold Logie
    Gold Logie Award for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television
    The Gold Logie Award has been awarded annually to the Most Popular Personality on Australian Television at the TV Week Logie Awards since 1960...

     award for the Most Popular Personality on Australian Television — (Gordon Chater
    Gordon Chater
    Gordon Chater was a comedian and actor.Chater attended Cambridge University to study to become a doctor but did not finish his degree. While at Cambridge he took part in many student revues.He arrived in Australia following World War II...

     – The Mavis Bramston Show)
  • Winner of the Logie award for the Best Female Personality — (Carol Raye
    Carol Raye
    Carol Raye is an Australian-based theatre and television actress and comedienne.Trained as a ballet dancer, Raye was discovered by choreographer Freddie Carpenter at age 16. She played lead roles in many musicals and television programs in the UK...

     – The Mavis Bramston Show)

Preservation

Unlike many contemporary Australian TV shows, a significant portion of The Mavis Bramston Show has survived to the present. The collection database of the National Film and Sound Archive indicates that the Archive holds copies of most of the episodes made between 1964 and 1966. However the database shows no copies of any program from the 1967 series, which are presumably now lost, and only compilations of highlights from the 1968 series, suggesting that the full original program tapes from that series are also lost.

These losses might be explained by contemporary changes in Australian broadcasting and production practices. The 1964–66 episodes of Mavis were evidently broadcast live and most survive on 16mm film, since it was the practice in the early 1960s for the major commercial channels in Sydney and Melbourne to record telecine
Telecine
Telecine is transferring motion picture film into video and is performed in a color suite. The term is also used to refer to the equipment used in the post-production process....

film transfers of these shows for distribution to regional and interstate TV stations. By 1967, however, most independent producers and Australian TV stations were using videotape but (as in the UK and the USA) a high proportion of videotaped Australian programming from the 1960s and 1970s was subsequently erased or otherwise disposed of.

External links



YouTube:
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