AustLit

'It is about a precocious 13-year-old's passion for his doll-like and daffy sister-in-law.

'Rose [...] is a child-like creature who is more attuned to the adolescent wave-length of her brother-in-law than the neurotic tensions of her husband.

'Poor husband Michael (David Downer) is a dentist only because he flunked medical school, a taboo never to be mentioned in his parents' liberal Jewish home but when it is, Michael is sent spinning into gloom and Rose is sent spinning off with Norman (Tony Owen).

'Dad (Warren Mitchell) is a successful dress manufacturer and Mum (Myra de Groot) is a successful Jewish mother for whom chicken soup can cure every form of over-indulgence including sex to every form of under-achievement including sex.

'Michael is Mum's special target because after a couple of years' marriage he and Rose are still childless – a topic that is the subject for discussion with friends and relatives throughout their community.

'In the background we have Charles (Barry Otto), a faded wolf in garish clothing who has left his gin-swilling and nagging wife (Sandy Gore) to live with a strikingly glamorous model.'

Source:

'John Michael Howson', Australian Women's Weekly, 22 September 1982, p.184.