The Sullivans
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(The Sullivans was also the title of a 1944 Oscar-nominated film set during World War II and written by Eddie Doherty.)
The Sullivans was an Australian made drama television series produced by Crawford Productions which ran from 1976 until 1983. The series told the story of an average middle-class Melbourne family and the effect World War II had on their lives. It was a consistent ratings success in Australia, and also became popular in the United Kingdom.
The story began in 1939, with the declaration of war against Germany. From the outset the series focused on the Sullivan family of Gordon Street, Camberwell, Victoria, along with their neighbourhood friends, relatives, and other close associates.
Grace and Dave Sullivan (Lorraine Bayly and Paul Cronin) were the parents of the intellectual John (Andrew McFarlane) who was opposed to the war, while his more knockabout younger brother Tom (Steven Tandy) was keen to sign up and defend his country. Next son was Terry (Richard Morgan), a young rascal still in school. The youngest, the only girl, was the shy and conscientious Kitty (Susan Hannaford). Other key characters were Dave's brother, Uncle Harry (Michael Caton) and his syruppy wife Rose (Maggie Dence).
The family's close associates were Maggie Hayward (Vikki Hammond), the owner of the local pub The Great Southern, and Jack (Reg Gorman) the barman. Norm Baker (Norman Yemm) was a close family friend, as was the gossipy but sympathetic neighbour Ida Jessup (Vivean Gray) who initially appeared to be meddling and puritantical but actually held great strength and understanding. Mrs Jessup took in lodgers, the first of which were Bert and Lil Duggan (played by Peter Hehir and Noni Hazlehurst).
The majority of show's storylines related to the war, focussing either on its impacts on the family, or through locally-filmed scenes of fighting in northern Africa, Greece, Crete, the Netherlands, England, New Guinea and Malaya. All male members of the Sullivan family enlisted in the armed forces at some point in the series; one son (John) was lost at sea but was later found fighting alongside Jewish partisans in the Middle East.
The Sullivans attracted critical acclaim and was also one of Australia's most popular drama series, screening in half-hour episodes at 7.00 pm. Its popularity waned somewhat after 1979 following the departure of Lorraine Bayly. Bayly decided to leave the series, but unwilling to let such a popular actor who played a key central character leave the series, the producers of the series allowed her to take six months leave from the show. In the storyline her character Grace was sent to London, and a succession of pre-taped segments were interspersed through the period she was absent to maintain her presence in the series. These London-set segments featured actors specially imported from New Zealand, so that Australian viewers would not recognise familiar Australian actors in the scenes. After the break Bayly was still adamant she wanted to leave the series and so Grace was killed by a V1 bomb during a London air raid.
Despite her departure ratings remained high enough for the series to remain in production. In 1982 the war ended in the storyline and there were plans for the series to continue with examinations of elements of post-War Australian history such as the Snowy River hydro-electric scheme, however the decision of Paul Cronin to leave the series prompted the show's cancellation before any of this could come to fruition.
The series subsequently enjoyed global success after being purchased by networks in Britain and Europe as a daytime filler on the ITV Network. A midweek Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 12.30pm slot was the most used slot when the programme was aired among most ITV contractors. When ATV became Central Television on 1 January 1982 the series was dropped in favour of contemporary Australian serials Sons and Daughters ad The Young Doctors. Shortly after Central dropped the show, Yorkshire Television followed suit opting for local news programming instead.
Among the many short term cast members who worked on the series during its run, were several newcomers who later established successful careers, including Mel Gibson, Kerry Armstrong, Kylie Minogue and Dannii Minogue, Sam Neill, Gary Sweet and Sigrid Thornton.
External links
- [Crawford Productions]
- [Classic Aussie Soaps:The Sullivans]
- [The Sullivans], the 1944 Oscar-nominated film
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