The Big Day (1959)

Directed by

Rod Kinnear

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This is a live television drama from 1959 about an ordinary person going through a routine day. It was part of a series of Australian-made plays, and it focuses on the small moments of everyday life.

gentlequietnaturalisticslow-pacedobservationalwarmmundaneordinary

What happens

"The Big Day" is an Australian television film, or rather a live television play, which aired in 1959. The fifth episode of the Shell Presents presentations of standalone television dramas, it originally aired 11 July 1959 on Melbourne station GTV-9, a video-tape was made of the broadcast and shown on Sydney station ATN-7 on 25 July 1959 (this was prior to the formation of the Nine Network and Seven Network). It was the first hour of drama made for commercial Australian TV which was written and produced by an Australian with an all Australian cast. It was called "a gentle study of an ordinary life." Shell Presents was a monthly series presenting locally produced television dramas and comedies. Most of these were adaptations of overseas dramas such as Johnny Belinda and One Bright Day, but a few were locally-written. Filmink magazine called this "one of those naturalistic slice of life dramas that they liked to do on TV in the late ‘50s off the back of the success of Paddy Chayefsky’s TV writing." Archival status of the program is unknown. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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