1983 miniseries brilliantly dramatised modern history with insight and ripping performances.
Miniseries The Dismissal was a seminal dramatisation of modern history when it screened on 10 in 1983.
Max Phipps starred as Gough Whitlam, John Stanton as Malcolm Fraser and John Meillon as Governor-General Sir John Kerr.
The cast also included John Hargreaves, Bill Hunter, Ruth Cracknell, Robyn Nevin, Tom Oliver and an appearance by Stuart Littlemore. Peter Carroll’s mellifluous narration made all the difference.
Produced by Kennedy Miller it was directed by Phillip Noyce and George Miller, written by Terry Hayes, with cinematography by Dean Semler.
Here’s a rather quaint promo that ran at the time, voiced by Bruce Mansfield.
Actor John Stanton recently recalled making the series, telling TV Tonight he refused suggestions to play Fraser with heavy make-up.
“They wanted to do a lot of prosthetics and wigs but I said no. Either I’ll be believed as Fraser or I won’t. I think I was the only one who went without some sort of heavy work. Max Phipps shaved his head and wore that wig and but I thought there were some mannerisms about Fraser, particularly the public Fraser. I concentrated on the chin and the way he spoke. We had three weeks to workshop, and we looked at a lot of videos and had people talk to us about them,” he said.
“I remember we were shooting a scene in a studio with the Parliament. There was a terrible fracas because one of the extras, said something insulting to me, and he was removed.
“He said ‘Fraser was a bastard. Anybody who plays him is a bastard too!’”
Fraser, who had refused to watch the show, was eventually coaxed into a viewing by his wife.
“Tammy said to him, ‘I think you better watch this. You come out of it pretty well.’ So he got it all sent in from Channel 10 and he watched it. I think he said something like, ‘They got someone decent to play me. They should have got someone decent to play (Whitlam)’, which wasn’t really quite fair, because Max Phipps was a very good actor,” he maintains.