Split Level (TV play)

{{Short description|1964 Australian TV play}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox television | image = | image_upright = | image_alt = | caption = | genre = | creator = | based_on = | writer = [[Noel Robinson (writer)|Noel Robinson]] | screenplay = | story = | director = [[Ken Hannam]] | starring = | narrator = | music = | country = Australia | language = English | num_episodes = | producer = Dick Cohen | editor = | cinematography = | runtime = 60 mins<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/122026462/?terms=%22diana%20davidson%22&match=1|newspaper=The Age|title=TV Guide|date=8 October 1964|page=28}}</ref> | company = ABC | budget = | network = [[ABC TV (Australian TV channel)|ABC]] | released = {{Start date|1964|10|07|df=y}} (Sydney)<ref>{{cite news|title=TV Guide|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/123865950/?terms=%22diana%20davidson%22&match=1|date=5 October 1964|page=31}}</ref> | released2 = {{Start date|1964|10|14|df=y}} (Melbourne)<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Age|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=rU0RAAAAIBAJ&pg=6498%2C1417625|title=Drama Sorts Out Domestic Rift|date=October 8, 1964|page=13}}</ref> }}

'''''Split Level''''' is a 1964 Australian TV play directed by [[Ken Hannam]] and written by [[Noel Robinson (writer)|Noel Robinson]].<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=The Bulletin| title=ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT When Will the Sleepy Giant Turn Over? Reassurance for an elderly relative |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-698907026|page=50|date=10 July 1965}}</ref> It aired on 7 October 1964 and was shot in Sydney at ABC's Gore Hill Studios.<ref name="smh"/>

Australian TV drama was relatively rare at the time.<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>

==Plot== Stephanie is married to architect Mike. They live in a house on Sydney's north with their two children. Stephanie hears gossip that an old school friend of hers, Rosemary, has been having an affair, leading to the end of her marriage. Over the course of the day, Stephanie realises that the man Rosemary has been seeing is Mike.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Age|title=TV Guide|date=8 October 1964|page=26}}</ref>

==Cast== *Diana Davidson as Stephanie Stewart *[[Leonard Teale]] as Mike Stewart *[[Jacki Weaver]] as Hilary *Elizabeth Pusey as Keith *Barbie Rogers as Rosemary *[[Ruth Cracknell]] as Alison, wife of Mike's business partner *[[Judi Farr]] as Vonnie, a friend of Stephanie's *[[Winifred Green (actress)|Winifred Green]] as Mrs Stewart *Eve Wynne as Mrs Conlon *[[Julianna Allan]] as Carol *Muriel Hopkins as Mrs Brooke *Joan Morrow as Janet *[[Max Phipps]] as Louis *Pat Hill *Joan Winchester *Leonard Bullen *Jonathon Constable

==Production== The original title was ''A Day in the Sun'' and ''The Woman Who Has Everything''. Jack Montgomery was the designer.

It was Noel Robinson's first original script produced for TV, although she had done a number of adaptations.<ref name="split">{{cite magazine |last=Vagg |first=Stephen |date=May 21, 2021 |title=Forgotten Australian TV Plays: Split Level |url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-australian-tv-plays-split-level/ |access-date=9 August 2024 |magazine=Filmink}}</ref> Director Ken Hannam said "this is the best constructed TV play to come to me from a local author. I have no doubt Miss Robinson will become a most important writer in the next few years."<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|date=5 October 1964|page=30|title=Sydney Woman Writer's Play|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/123865940/?terms=%22diana%20davidson%22&match=1}}</ref>

==Reception== According to the ''Sydney Morning Herald'' "as an exercise in how to make a very small amount of plot fill out an hour of television drama" the play "was technically a success" but "left a good deal to be desired" being "a soap opera transposed to the upper social scale with a faintly intellectual flavour of play-readings, feature walls and flower arrangements." The critic allowed that director Hannam "extracted welcome liveliness from plenty of scene and camera angle changes, and thus at least kept the eye busy even when the mind tended to wander."<ref name="smh">{{cite news|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|date=8 October 1964|page=16|title=TV Play on Channel 2|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/123866627/?terms=%22diana%20davidson%22&match=1}}</ref>

''Filmink'' wrote "It’s a simple script, one of details and observations rather than heavy conflict, but all grounded in truth... it is a very well-realised television play and a tribute to the skill of Noel Robinson, a writer that should be better known."<ref name="split"/>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *{{IMDb title|4094416}} *[http://colsearch.nfsa.gov.au/nfsa/search/display/display.w3p;adv=yes;page=1;query=Person%3A%22%2FPerson%2Fkey%2F76335-1%22;rec=0;resCount=10 Split Level] at [[National Film and Sound Archive]]

[[Category:1964 films]] [[Category:1964 Australian television plays]] [[Category:Australian television films]] [[Category:Films directed by Ken Hannam]] [[Category:1964 English-language films]] [[Category:Television plays by Noel Robinson]]