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Notes
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Author's note: 'This story is based on the Australian Broadcasting Commission's television series, though old faithfuls among the viewing audience will say it never happened when Tony Buckland and Wrexell were in Bellbird : but because I wanted to continue this story logically from the first novel, I have made it so. The independent Bellbird film, which took portion of this book for its plot, concerns the newer residents - David Emerson, Max Pearson and Dr Liz - rather than the old-timers with whom I interest myself. As in the previous book, I should like to express my gratitude to the late Michael Wright for his contribution to the early Bellbird series.'
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also sound recording.
Related Works
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form
y
Bellbird
Barbara Vernon
,
( dir. Michael Jenkins
et. al. )agent
1967
Australia
:
ABC Television
,
1967-1977
Z1362910
1967
series - publisher
film/TV
Australia's first successful television soap opera, Bellbird was devised by writer Barbara Vernon and telecast by ABC Television between 1967 and 1977. The serial is set in a rural farming community, with the storylines examining the lives of various people from in and around the fictional township of Bellbird. Among the long list of characters introduced during the course of the series were the crusty farmer Jim 'The Colonel' Emerson and his glamorous wife Maggie, the local mechanic Joe Turner and his wife Olive, local policeman Constable Des Davies and his wife Fiona, the unpleasant stock and station agent John Quinney, and Jim and Marge Bacom, proprietors of the local pub that served as a central meeting place.
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form
y
Country Town : The Bellbird Movie
( dir. Peter Maxwell
)
1971
Australia
:
Avargo
,
1971
Z1463672
1971
single work
film/TV
A feature-film version of the popular ABC serial Bellbird, Country Town sees the district gripped by a severe drought and undergoing severe financial hardship. When young reporter Philip Henderson arrives to further investigate the town (having already published a series of articles that have outraged the local population), he is met with hostility and wariness. Old tensions and enmities are also stirred following Henderson's arrival, but the town eventually rallies together to hold a fund-raising gymkhana. A pub gathering later breaks into celebrations as the much-needed rains arrive.
The Aussie Soap Archive notes that while Country Town retains many of the main characters from the TV series, it is more a standalone piece of cinema than a television spinoff. Interestingly, many of the main television characters do not play pivotal roles in the film's narrative. Instead, they are incorporated into group scenes in the pub and at town meetings: 'Nevertheless they are well-integrated into the proceedings ... Their presence adds texture and complexity to the examination of the town and its travails. In their appearances, the various characters serve to present their own take on the events of the story and how things affect their own situation, resulting in a film that presents various viewpoints and seems to have a realistic scope. The repeated brief interludes where yet another batch of struggling farmers or business people falling on hard times are introduced do not become repetitive and successfully accentuate the severity of the drought problems'. (sighted 16 September 2009).
