"A Time to Speak" | |
---|---|
Wednesday Theatre episode | |
Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 14 |
Directed by | Patrick Barton |
Teleplay by | Noel Robinson |
Original air date | 7 April 1965 |
Running time | 60 mins[1] or 75 mins[2] |
A Time to Speak is a 1965 Australian television film, which aired on ABC. It is a period drama set around 1900. It was written by Noel Robinson.[3]
Australian TV drama was relatively rare at the time.[4] This was the third production to appear in three weeks.[5]
In the year 1900, a country doctor stands up to the corrupt leader of a religious community, the Community, whose members are forbidden contact with the outside world. The doctor treats a dying girl and finds himself coming into conflict with the head of The Community, the Elder.[6]
It was filmed in Melbourne with location footage at Montsalvat near Eltham.[7][8]
Cast members Raymond Westwell and Joan MacArthur were married in real life.[9]
The Australian Woman's Weekly TV critic called it "a meaty play", and said she "particularly liked the understated ending".[10]
The Canberra Times said it was "a good play, well suited to television, and simply loaded with righteousness enough for all those people who found the honest, healthy lust of The Swagmanwas not their . . , cup of tea."[8]
The TV critic for The Sydney Morning Herald said the play was "an uncommonly arresting drama about the conflict of personalities" in which the director "used the austere and sombre setting of a farm community lo good effect. Some of the scenes were rather abrupt, as was the ending, but generally tension was maintained well."[11]
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