Friday 19 July 2019
Saturday 6 July 2019
TERRIFIC TIMES
Back in 1960 before I sailed away to England, I worked with producer Roger Mirams on a children's series,
THE TERRIFIC ADVENTURES OF THE TERRIBLE TEN.
The series centered around a group of children who built their own town out of packing cases, somewhere in the Australian countryside.
Over three years I had the good fortune to learn my film craft editing and eventually directing many of these episodes.
The series sold internationally and was a great success. The first series was a pretty rough and ready, but as time went on and budgets increased the quality of story and production values improved.
Stanley Kramer had been in Melbourne filming ON THE BEACH and one of his sets was the interior of a submarine.
After completion of this film, the set was left behind - at the Melbourne Show Grounds, if I recall correctly. Roger was never one to miss an opportunity and wrote a script utilizing that set. THE GREAT SUBMARINE mystery. (What else?)
Before I left for the UK I directed a script by David Sale (creator of NUMBER 96 television series) TWO DAYS TO ZERO. It starred Frank Thring, who had just returned to Melbourne after making such films as Ben Hur and King of Kings.
When I offered him the part his reply was "Can you afford to pay me?" delivered in that theatrical style that he favoured. Frank was great and good to work with; he did it for Equity Minimum. When the film was offered to the BBC they declined it, stating " farce is often a family joke" Well, d'ah"
Roger on right.
I'm eternally grateful to Roger Mirams who allowed me to expand my experience on this series and others, as he did with so many other people.
Roger Eastgate Holden Mirams was a New Zealand-born film producer and director, whose career extended over 60 years. Mirams co-directed Broken Barrier, the only local dramatic feature film made in New Zealand in the 1950s, and later won a reputation for the children's television series he produced in Australia. Wikipedia
Born: 16 April 1918, Christchurch, New Zealand
Died: 26 February 2004, Sydney
Awards: Australian Film Institute Open Craft Award in Non-Feature Film,
I later worked with Roger on a few episodes of his other childrens series , and returned to work full time with him as Supervising Editor on THE ADVENTURES OF THE SEASPRAY.
Adventures Of The Seaspray
A Pacific Film Production in association with Screen Gems
Producer: Roger Mirams
Directors: Joe McCormick, Eddie Davis, David Baker, Rex Lipton
Writers: David Seidler, Bill Strutton, William Manville, John Pinkney, Robert Mansfield, John Sherman, Colin Free, John Warwick
Music Eric Gross
Aired: 1967 (ABC, 32 x 30 min)
These are the adventures of a charter schooner, of its Captain — journalist Dan Wells — and of his children as they roam the South Pacific
Later, I edited the Pilot Episode of SPYFORCE and a few other episodes. The series was produced by Roger and starred Jack Thompson.
But back to TWO DAYS TO ZERO
Enjoy the episode and have as much fun as I did making it.
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