{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2016}} {{Infobox television episode | series = Shell Presents | image = No Picnic Tomorrow.png | caption = Ad in SMH 9 Jan 1960 | season = 1 | episode = 11 | director = Rod Kinnear | teleplay = Barbara Vernon | photographer = | airdate = {{Start date|1960|01|09|df=yes}} | length = 60 mins | guests = | prev = Pardon Miss Westcott | next = Reflections in Dark Glasses }} "'''No Picnic Tomorrow'''" is an Australian television drama one-off which aired in 1960 on ATN-7 in Sydney and GTV-9 in Melbourne (as this was prior to the creation of the Seven Network and Nine Network). Part of the ''Shell Presents'' series of one-off television dramas and comedies, it was produced in Melbourne, but first shown in Sydney on 9 January 1960,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=y54UAAAAIBAJ&pg=4505%2C3180254|title=TV Guide|newspaper=The Age|date=21 January 1960|page=16}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Story of wedding conflict|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|date=4 January 1960|page=21|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/122786563/?terms=%22picnic%22}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/60-australian-tv-plays-1950s-60s/|magazine=Filmink|title=60 Australian TV Plays of the 1950s & '60s|date=February 18, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|first=Valda|last=Marshall|date=3 January 1960|page=77|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|title=Two new local plays on ATN|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/122786362/?terms=%22no%2Bpicnic%2Btomorrow%22%2Bshell}}</ref> and on 23 January 1960 Melbourne.
==Plot== An Australian woman, Gwennie, and a man of Greek descent, Tony, intend to marry. However Tony's mother decides to arrange a marriage between him and a Greek woman who is coming to Australia.
==Cast== *Margaret Browne as Gwennie *Robin Ramsay as Tony *Peter Aanensen as Mr Sweeney *Marjorie Archibald as Mrs Sweeney *Nina Black as Mrs Demetrius *Carol Armstrong as Greek girl *Bruce Archer
==Production== The drama was written by Barbara Vernon, best known at the time for writing the play ''The Multi-Coloured Umbrella'' (adapted for television in 1958), and who had previously written the ABC TV comedy one-off ''The Passionate Pianist'' in 1957. It was filmed at GTV-9 studios and on location in Melbourne.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Age|page=14|date=January 21, 1960|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=MDQ-9Oe3GGUC&dat=19600121&printsec=frontpage&hl=en|title=Untitled article}}</ref>
Margaret Brown filmed the role during a two-week break from her regular job.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Age|date=21 January 1960|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=MDQ-9Oe3GGUC&dat=19600121&printsec=frontpage&hl=en|title=Television Supplement|page=13}}</ref>
Duration was 60 minutes including commercials (running time excluding commercials is not known. ''Homicide'' episodes from the mid-1960s typically run 45–47 minutes, while some early locally produced hour-long programming on commercial television could run as long as 51 minutes).
==Reception== The TV critic from the ''Sydney Morning Herald'' thought "the promising basic situation" of the play "suffered, as written, from lack of richness in characterisation and dialogue and, as performed, from the flat low-voltage personalities of the mainly Melbourne players... the play's important dramatic issue... is stated... but not dramatised with any intensity."<ref>{{cite news|title= Live Drama Telecast From ATN 4|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|date=11 January 1960|page=6|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/122788020/?terms=%22no%2Bpicnic%2Btomorrow%22}}</ref>
Another critic thought it was "not up to the standard" of ''The Big Day'' but was "a fair effort" where the "cast, although inclined to be a bit too doggedly Australian at times, acted with sincerity and conviction."<ref>{{cite news|first=Valda|last=Marshall|title=TV Merry Go Round|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|date=17 January 1960|page=88|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/122789648/?terms=%22big%2Bday%22%2B%22john%2Bford%22}}</ref>
==See also== * ''A Little South of Heaven'' - 1961 ABC television play with a similar theme * List of television plays broadcast on ATN-7
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{AustLit|8033930|q=yes}} * {{IMDb episode|3602090}}
{{Rod Kinnear}}
Category:1960s television plays Category:1960 Australian television episodes Category:1960s Australian television plays Category:Shell Presents Category:Works by Barbara Vernon
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