Adventure Unlimited is a 1965 Australian anthology TV series. It was produced by Lee Robinson and associate produced by Joy Cavill. The directors included Ken Hannam. It was made by Waratah Film Productions a short lived company that came out of an unsuccessful attempt to gain a third commercial television licence.
It has been described as "surprisingly obscure" considering the talent involved.
Broadcast history
The series was made in 1963, but was not shown in Sydney until 1965, airing on Channel Ten on Friday nights at 7.30. An episode appears to have aired on Thursday, 30 September 1965.
It was not seen in Melbourne until 1968, where it started 15 September. It sold to Canadian television and screened there in 1965.
Episode 1 - "Summer Affair" Directed by Ken Hannam, written by Michael Plant and Evan Green. Filmed by Carl Kayser and Ron Taylor.
Set on Hayman Island. A drama involving a rich heiress, her husband and a pretty young singer.
Aired Sydney 10 December 1965.
Cast
Tom Oliver
Clarissa Kaye
Ron Haddrick
Gabrielle Hartley
Episode 2 - "The Witness" Written by Joy Cavill, directed by Robin Lovejoy.
Set in Papua New Guinea – a nun from a Roman Catholic mission on the upper Sepik River was the witness to a murder in Sydney years before, and her testimony could result in a conviction. The story centres around plots to kill her while the police try to bring her back to testify.
Aired in Sydney on 5 November 1965.
Cast
Owen Weingott
Janette Craig
Bob McDarra
Don Philps
Bell Meek
Mike Maxwell
Episode 3 - "Adventure Unlimited" Directed by Robin Lovejoy. Photography by Carl Kayser and Ron Taylor.
Set on the Great Barrier reef – two divers are commissioned by a steel company to survey the sands of a section of coast for limestone in the sands – the area is full of sharks and divers go on a shark killing spree when a strange boat turns up with armed men on board. The men steal the divers' boat and proceed to hunt them. The divers ambush them on their own boat and take them prisoner. It turns out they are bringing in illegal aliens.
Aired Sydney 22 October 1965.
The episode was reviewed in the Sydney Morning Herald. Kylie Tennant said "besides being dull it was slow."
Cast
Murray Rose
Richard Meikle
Chips Rafferty
Alexander Cann
Ray Teale
Frank Bailey
Snow Johansen
Episode 4 – "The Coastwatcher" Directed by Ken Hannam.
The story of coast watcher Arthur Reginald Evans (Fred Parslow), who helped safe the lives of John F. Kennedy and the PT 109 crew after their boat was sliced in two by a Japanese destroyed in the Bracket Strait.
Aired Sydney 19 November 1965
Cast
Fred Parslow as Arthur Evans
Episode 5 – "Crocodile" Written by Lee Robinson and directed by Robin Lovejoy. Aired in Sydney 29 October 1965.
Premise
Two crocodile hunters are on the trail of Melangie, a giant crocodile valued at £500 if it can be captured alive. The plans go astray when three American women tourists arrive in Arnhem land. They are to record the mating call of the crocodile.
Cast
Chips Rafferty
Gwen Plumb
Mick Larkin
Sophie Stewart
Bonnie Walker
Production
Gwen Plumb wrote in her memoirs that the episode was shot in 1961 in East Arnhem Land, 200 km from Darwin. Plumb wrote "we were told it was a rich man's safari camp where brave sportsmen from all over the world, and particularly America, shot crocodiles, water buffaloes, kangaroos - anything that moved. So Sophie [Stewart] and I packed a couple of cocktail frocks. It was the biggest dump you could ever imagine." Plumb says conditions were unsanitary, water buffalo would wanted through the camp at will", and the camp 'was run by a looney called Alan Stewart who wore a pistol in his belt." A crocodile was brought in from the aquarium in Darwin and Plumb says it passed out in the heat. She enjoyed filming at a lagoon, and a plane that flew in beer every night. "One night it didn't and we mutinied till they send another," wrote Plumb.
Episode 6 – "The Buffalo Hunters" Written by Cecil Holmes. Producer and directed by Lee Robinson.
Filmed on the Northern Territory in West Arnhem Land – starring Grant Taylor as Ted Abbott, one of the Territory's leading buffalo hunters.
The National Film and Sound Archive listed this as episode 8 but it was the first (possibly second) episode aired in Sydney, on 8 October 1965.