Friday Flashback: The dismissal | Television tonight

Miniseries The dismissal was a groundbreaking dramatization of modern history when it was shown 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 sweet 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 special promo that ran at the time, narrated by Bruce Mansfield.

Actor John Stanton recently recalled that he created the series significantly Television tonight he declined suggestions to play Fraser in heavy makeup.

“They wanted to make a lot of prosthetics and wigs, but I said no. Either I’m believed as Fraser, or I’m not. I think I was the only one who went without heavy work. Max Phipps shaved his head and wore that wig, but I thought there were some mannerisms about Fraser, especially the public Fraser. I concentrated on the chin and the way he spoke. We had three weeks for the workshop and we watched a lot of videos and had people talk to us about them,” he said.

“I remember we were filming a scene in a studio with Parliament and there was a terrible fight because one of the extras said something offensive to me and he was removed.

“He said, ‘Fraser was an asshole. Anyone who plays him is an asshole too!'”

Fraser, who had refused to watch the show, was eventually persuaded into a viewing by his wife.

“Tammy told him, ‘I think you better look at this. You’ll 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 have someone decent to play me. They should have gotten someone decent to play (Whitlam), which wasn’t really fair because Max Phipps was a very good actor,” he claims.