Village Wooing (1962 film)

1962 Australian TV series or program

Village Wooing

Ad in The Age 18 Jul 1982

Genre| comedy
Based on| play Village Wooing by George Bernard Shaw
Directed by| William Sterling
Starring| Michael Denison
Dulcie Gray
Country of origin| Australia
Original language| English
Production
Running time| 60 mins
Production company| ABC
Original release
Network| ABC
Release| 18 July 1962 (1962-07-18) (Melbourne)[1]
Release| 26 September 1962 (1962-09-26) (Sydney)[2]

Village Wooing is a 1962 Australian television play directed by William Sterling and starring Michael Denison and Dulcie Gray who were touring Australia at the time. It was based on the play by George Bernard Shaw.[3][4]

It was the first Australian TV production of a play by George Bernard Shaw.[5]

## Plot

[edit]

In the 1930s a young woman, "Z", an assistant in a village shop, determines to marry a man, "A". she meets on an ocean liner. She fails, but the two meet again when the writer is on a walking tour going through the woman's village on Wiltshire Downs. He fails to recognise her but she suggests he buy an annuity for an elderly shop owner and take over the business. He says if he did that she could stay on as an assistant but that she could make her own matrimonial arrangements.

He buys the business, and she then tries to convince him she has wifely qualities.

## Cast

[edit]

* Michael Denison as A
* Dulcie Gray as Z

## Production

[edit]

In June 1962 it was announced the ABC would broadcast an adaptation of the play with Michael Denison and Duclie Gray.[6] Denison was touring Australia at the time in a production of My Fair Lady; his wife Gray flew out to Australia at the end of June to meet him and to appear in the play (she was not in the production of My Fair Lady; her last visit to Australia had been in 1956 when she appeared in a touring production of Tea and Sympathy).[7]

It was the first production at the ABC of a play by Shaw. It was produced in the ABC's Melbourne studios.[8]

## Reception

[edit]

The TV critic of The Sydney Morning Herald thought Denison "gave his part fluency and charm, bringing more poetry to the closing moments than one might have hoped for from the astringent Shaw" but thought Gray "was less suited to her role; she is the kind of English actress who cannot shed her trim upper-class charm, and her rural accent was unconvincing" and said Sterling's production was "quietly appropriate".[9]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "TV Guide". The Age. 12 July 1962. p. 33.
2. ^ "TV Guide". Sydney Morning Herald. 24 September 1962. p. 15.
3. ^ "Boyd, Q.C., is Dulcie Gray's pin-up". The Australian Women's Weekly. Vol. 30, no. 9\. 1 August 1962. p. 2 (Television). Retrieved 15 February 2017 - via National Library of Australia.
4. ^ Vagg, Stephen (18 February 2019). "60 Australian TV Plays of the 1950s & '60s". Filmink.
5. ^ "Woman in Pursuit". TV Times. 22 November 1962. p. 10.
6. ^ "Visiting Actor in TV Comedy". The Age. 2 June 1962. p. 3.
7. ^ ""Mrs Higgins" here Next Month". The Age. 16 June 1962. p. 8.
8. ^ "Untitled". The Age. 12 July 1962. p. 25.
9. ^ "Comedy By Shaw On Television". Sydney Morning Herald. 27 September 1962. p. 11.

## External links

[edit]

* v
* t
* e

TV productions of William Sterling

TV plays|

* Elizabeth Refuses (1957)
* In the Zone (1957)
* Ending It (1957)
* Rope (1957)
* Sound of Thunder (1957)
* Captain Carvallo (1958)
* Killer in Close-Up (1958)
* The Small Victory (1958)
* Box for One (1958)
* Gaslight (1958)
* The Governess (1958 film) (1958)
* The Lark (1959)
* One Morning Near Troodos (1959)
* A Dead Secret (1959)
* Black Limelight (1959)
* Ned Kelly (1959)
* Treason (1959)
* Heart Attack (1960)
* The Public Prosecutor (1960)
* Mine Own Executioner (1960)
* Macbeth (1960)
* Dark Under the Sun (1960)
* Who Killed Kovali? (1960)
* Two-Headed Eagle (1960)
* The End Begins (1961)
* Shadow of Heroes (1961)
* Call Me a Liar (1961)
* Hedda Gabler (1961)
* Night of the Ding-Dong (1961)
* Burst of Summer (1961)
* The Lady from the Sea (1961)
* The Big Deal (1961)
* The House of Mancello (1962)
* The Ides of March (1961)
* Murder in the Cathedral (1962)
* Light Me a Lucifer (1962)
* The Devil Makes Sunday (1962)
* The Hobby Horse (1962)
* The Music Upstairs (1962)
* Village Wooing (1962)
* Barnstable (1963)
* The Prisoner (1963)
* Uneasy Paradise (1963)
* The Fighting Cock (1963)
* The Chinese Wall (1963)
* A Man for All Seasons (1964)
* The First 400 Years (1964)
* Othello (1965)

Revues|

* Wild Life and Christmas Belles (1958)
* Trip-Tease and High C's (1959)

Ballets|

* The Soldier's Tale (1959)
* The Forbidden Rite (1962)

Operas|

* The Pearl Fishers (1963)

TV series|

* Compact (1965)
* Quick Before They Catch Us (1966)
* The Three Musketeers (1966-67)
* The Further Adventures of the Musketeers (1967)
* Sherlock Holmes (1968)
* Dr. Finlay's Casebook (1969)
* The Expert (1969)
* Counterstrike (1969)

Feature film|

* Return Journey (1961) (incomplete)
* Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972)

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