Proposed Australian films of the 1930s to the 1960s

*Big Timber - from novel by William Hatfield  - announced 1935 - instead Cinesound filmed Tall Timber

*Call me when the Cross Turns Over - from novel by D'arcy Niland to be filmed in 60s with Diane Cilento and Sean Connery but not filmed

*Careful He Might Here You - optioned in 1963 by Josh Logan who wanted to make it with Elizabeth Taylor (who would've been great)

*Collits Inn - Frank Thring was going to film this musical but died

*Come Away Pearler - Colin Simpson novel optioned in 1954 by Joe Kaufman see here

*Come In Spinner - novel optioned in 1954 by Joe Kaufman

*Conn of the South Seas - Cinesound said in 1932 might remake The Adorable Outcast see here

*Desert Legion - Raymond Longford WW1 story

*The Delinquents - from novel adapted by Alan Seymour for producer Joseph Janni  and director Jack Lee - announced 1963

*Dig - story of Burke and Wills from Ralph Peterson script for Anthony Quayle  - announced 1957

*Don Bradman biopic - proposed by Ron Randell in 1952 see here

*Eureka Stockade - Ken Hall version 

*The Fatal Wedding - Cinesound said might remake this in 1933 see here - this may have just been a random announcement though Cinesound did make Silence of Dean Maitland

*Fisher's Ghost - sound remake by Raymond Longford of his 1925 hit - Tony Buckley says towards the end of

*For the Term of His Natural Life - Cinesound said in 1932 might remake it see here

*The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney - adaptaion of novel to be done by MGM in the late 40s with Greer Garson and Gregory Peck

*Ginger Murdoch - optioned by Frank Thring

*Gold Dust and Ashes - from novel by Ion Idriess announced 1935 by Cinesound see here

*The Green Opal - Chips Rafferty film about immigration

*The Haunted House - announced by Cinesound in 1938 see here 

*James Don't Be a Fool - EV Timms novel

*The Kelly Gang - Cinesound said in 1933 might remake it see here

*Les Darcy film - announced by Chauvel in 1947 to star Tommy Burns see here

*Life of Nellie Melba - proposed 1940 Cinesound film with Marjorie Lawrence

*The Long Shadow - 1947 Jon Cleary novel optioned in late 60s but not made 

*Mr Burke and Mr Wills - Burke and Wills story written by Terence Rattigan

*My Love Must Wait - novel about Matthew Flinders optioned by Charles Chauvel

*Naked Under Capricorn - published 1958 owned by Chips Rafferty

*Ned Kelly - directed by Karel Reisz starring Albert Finney announced 1963

*The One Day of the Year - Alan Seymour's play, filmed a few times for TV, optioned in 1970

*Overland Telegraph - 1939 announcement Frank Clune sold to Cinesound, he'd write it up in 1955

* Pearl of Great Price - late 30s Cinesound announced 1936 see here

*Pepper Trees  - Ealing film late 40s with Chips Rafferty and Tommy Trinder - scheduled for 1948 see here

*The Pioneers - Cinesound said in 1932 might remake it see here

*Redheap - novel by Norman Lindsay to be filmed by Thring 

*Return Journey - film about Burke and Wills which collapsed in the 1960s but resulted in a short

* Robbery Under Arms - Ken G Hall version, mentioned from the 1930s until the 1940s but killed off by Rank's interest and dud 1957 film

*Rudd's New Selection - announced in 1933 see here - became Grandad Rudd

*Sara Dane - from the novel, starring Sylvia Syms, proposed late 1950s

*Saturday to Monday - original of The Siege of Pinchgut - announced in 1950

*Sheepmates - started filming but abandoned

*Storm Hill - Eric Porter film announced in 1946

*Wake in Fright - directed by Joe Losey starring Dirk Bogarde - announced 1963 - there was also a proposed Morris West version

*Wards of the Outer March - novel adapted by Charles Chauvel  - announced in 1944

*When Cobb and Co Was King - novel optioned by Charles Chauvel

*Yellow Sands - Cinesound in late 30s - announced 1936 see here

Book review - "Wake in Fright" by Kenneth Cook

 The film is super faithful to this. You can "see" a film reading it with its evocative language. Just as empathetic, even more so - here Grant specifically acknoweldges that everything was his decision and that the townspeople are sad rather than bad. The rape sequence is subtle - Grant remembers something bad happened but not exactly what; he doesn't have a farewell scene with Doc.

An excellent book.

Book review - "They're a Weird Mob" by Nino Culotta

 Lovely. Funny. Warm. Can see why Aussies adored it - pokes fun at them but affectionate. Shows Australia to be embracing. Liked gags about unemployed radio actors hanging around. The romance is quick. Film version close to this except for romance - encounter at pub, meeting racists, meeting Italians, working for builders, builders wedding. Romance better in film except for dreadful hair scene. But the confrontation with her dad is here.

Peter Reynolds in Australia

 Piece here

Short feature review - "Silo 15" (1969) *** (warning: spoilers)

 A 45 minute film, written as a TV play, rejected by the ABC, shot for German TV, then filmed it won an  Awgie and was picked up in Sydney by an American commercials guy who filmed it in colour, sold it around the world and eventually Australian television.

A great idea -Jack Thompson and Owen Weingott are two men in a nuclear missile silo (not sure what country - Jack has an odd accent at times). There's a big explosion, they're cut off from base, Weingott wants to launch and Thompson doesn't.

Truth be told this is probably better suited to 30 minutes - there's some padding, waffly dialogue - but it's an terrific situation and builds to a decent climax (Weingott shooting Thompson, then discovering it was an earthquake). Part of me was hoping Weingott would have launched the missile but anyway. Written by Greg Martin who I'm not sure did anything else, at least not produced.

The Australian films of 1969

 When exactly did the Australian film revival begin? Stork in 1971? Naked Bunyip in 1970? Bazza McKenzie in 1972? In terms of public acceptance, yes.

Then there was the year of 1969. Gorton was in. TV quotas were in effect. There was a rising cultural nationalism, so it seemed. Homicide was a hugely popular show. As was Bellbird. Riptide sold.

So there was the adhoc films of 1969. Consider these

* Adam's Woman

* Age of Consent - Michael Powell returns to Australia after They're a Weird Mob. A good screenwriter, interesting source material, international star, sexy subject matter. 

*Colour Me Dead - one of three Reg Goldsworthy productions, all with B grade international stars.

*The Intruders - big screen version of Skippy. Public didn't go for it.

*It Takes All Kinds - more Reg Goldsworthy.

*Jack and Jill: A Postscript - Philip Adams goes to the movies.

*Little Jungle Boy/Strange Holiday - two Mendes Brown productions.

*Marinetti - an Albie Thoms joint. 

*Ned Kelly - big name director and big music star

*Rise and Fall of Squizzy Taylor

*The Set

*Three to Go (some of it filmed in 1969)

* Two Thousand Weeks - Tim Burstall's famous navel gazing flop.

* You Can't See Round Corners - cheap knock off of the TV series. Actually a good idea because you could condense the story for a film, and colour gave it a reason to do it

Movie review - "2000 Weeks" (1969) **

 A famed production - Tim Burstall's first feature, hyped at the time (apparently) then critically reviled and rejected by audiences. Colin Bennett bagged it which is apparently a thing in Melbourne because he wrote for (gasp) The Age. A look at reviews of Australian TV drama in the 1950s and 1960s though shows critics can't be relied upon to support local product. 

It's heavily influenced by swinging sixties cinema - jazzy music, moving camera, sexiness (the opening sequence has Mark McManus having sex with Jeanie Drynan), flashbacks to his childhood. It's the sort of film that feels as though it should be in French,

I'm being a bit mean. It's a bold attempt to do something. An arthouse Australian film that deals with cultural issues. It is the sort of thing that David Williamson would cover so effectively - mid life crises amongst the chattering classes, with infidelity, jealousy, male competitiveness - but he had that wonderful vicious humour and sense of story that's lacking here. Burstall wasn't a natural screenwriter - nor, based on this, was co-scribe Patrick Ryan.

There's glimpse of bare backs and shoulders and a bit of nipple. I wondered that if Burstall had gone the whole hog and put in proper nudity he would've had a hit. He certainly learned that lesson. It was probably too early in the late sixties - a few years later it was on for young and old.

Incidentally the superb Oz movies website makes an argument in favour of B60sennett's review, reprinting it in full (see here). I still think that review is super super mean. Still, there's no denying this doesn't hit the mark. It's long. And dull. And really problematic - I mean Mark McManus punches his wife after she admits to rooting someone else, then she takes off her clothes (that's when we get the nipple) and I think their relationship is rejuvenated? Is that right?

It has some strong things. Jeanie Drynan is beautiful - real movie star beautiful. The black and white photography is nice. It takes a big swing.

Movie review - "Adam's Woman" (1969) **

 A number of movies were made here in 1969-70 several with American money - Ned Kelly, Color Me Dead, etc - but none hit. This is a convict era melodrama with Beau Bridges, in the grand tradition of Alan Ladd in Botany Bay, as a convict determined to escape.

He flees with James Booth but is captured in bed with Tracy Reed (Booth manages to stay free). Bridges negotiates his freedom with Governor John mills who wants convicts to marry female convicts. Even though Bridges has time left on his sentence and wants to escape Mills lets him marry a wife - this ssection is very unconvincing. He picks Jane Merrow who gives the best performance in the film. They go and live on a property and this film turns into a two hander with them going through the tropes - he spots her swimming naked, there's shenanigans with a horse,they try to farm, she's feisty.

Bridges feels contemporary but you get used to him after a while. The main problem is that there's no sexual tension between him and Morrow - he's lechy and she's clearly traumatised from sexual assault.

"If you want me to keep my hnds off you, you stop looking so damn much like a woman," says Bridges in what I think was meant to be romantic.

Later on Bridges tells Harold Hopkins who is having marriage trouble with Helen Morse - they're another convict couple and she keeps charging him money for sex - "that a woman is like a good dog you've got to treat her right."

The other problem is the story lacks narrative drive. Bridges wants to escape but when he and Merrow settle there's farming montage stuff. James Booth turns up being bush rangy but then he disappears. Then all these other convict couples turn up and it's like "what's the story here". Then Booth turns up and knocks out Bridges and tries to manhandle Merrow and Bridges and Merrow get together... and there's still more than half an hour to go.

Then the film becomes about John Mills trying to prove the success of his plan against forces of businessmen like Peter O'Saughnessy. And they hold a dance/celebration and Booth has to appear again and there's a big violent shoot out which doesn't seem real. A lot of it doesn't.

The photography is beautiful and it was shot in Australia. I liked John Mills and Andrew Keir (a soldier who has a man crush on Bridges) and it was fun to see Aussies in support roles like Helen Morse (horny convict), Harold Hopkins, Tom Oliver, Clarissa Kaye, and Roger Ward as a flogger.

Fascinating that it exists. Also that Americans who normally keep the story cracking got bogged down. This goes over too long a period of time. Too much of it doesn't make sense. Like Mills really bends over backwards for Bridges. I wish they'd brought back Tracy Reed's character. But they have too many characters.

A mess. Ineptly made. But it has its pleasures.

Book review - "Stormy Petrel" by Rex Rienits (1963)

 This was a radio play then a TV serial then a novel so the material is thoroughly road tested. Rienits was a good, solid writer - better at structure than at dialogue but he knew how to dramatise. This one focuses on two men - Bligh and MacArthur - but has juicy support characters like fair weather Johnston and drunken judges advocate. It also has female representation with Bligh's daughter who loses a husband but finds love, and MacArthur's wife (whose part should have been bigger but at least she sticks up for her husband).

Rienits has great empathy for both Blight and MacArthur - Bligh is doing the Right Thing and is brave and kind but is also a terrible politician, cranky and officious, you can easily see why he would annoy people; MacArthur is greedy and power hungry but is given many chances to state his case. The arguments and conflict are clear, the world of Sydney at the time is skilfully evoked.

The character of Griffith the secretary who loves Mary is very effective- this is good soap and this was a great read.

Movie review - "Bungala Boys" (1961) **

Everyone loves Bush Christmas so it's a surprise it took the CTF so long to make another movie in Australia and even more surprising that it was such a dud.

Oh, maybe "dud" is too heavy. It's not very good. It has a strong "world" - surf clubs - but is mortally wounded by dubbing all the actors into this sort of cockney English. Even Leonard Teale. The kid actors are dubbed by people who seem to be too old.

The hero is a little kid who looks up to his elder brother who is a smug surf life saving prat. There's none of the easy egalitarianism of Bush Christmas - no decent female or black part. No decent villains either just some random delinquents who periodically come along to cause trouble.

The views of Sydney beaches are nice. That's about it.

TV review - "You Can't See Round Corners" (1967) various episodes ***

Creaky, often on the nose, the sets wobble. But its interesting - quite adult (Carmen Duncan and Ken Shorter have sex). Being a TV series it can explore the nuances of the novel more and I feel updating it to Vietnam from World War Two works.

Duncan is moving as the girl who loves Frankie. Ken Shorter is solid too. It is interesting to have such a down beat lead character. I mean, he's a deserter. So it was gutsy of Channel Seven.

TV script - "Burst of Summer" by Oriel Gray (1961)

Contemporary critics bagged the script for this. I think the critics were just incompetent and afraid of a show about black Australians. The script isn't amazing but it's solid - it builds to a great climax, the blinding of black Eddie by a racist white. It does admittedly exist uneasily alongside other subplots - black Don could work in the city as a lawyer but doesn't, to help his people; Peggy, is a former diner worker now a film star, a concept that isn't really needed (she could have simply had a higher education) but is at least different.

But the depiction of small town life is all too believable with its class divisions, racism, tension over jobs and real estate, bored small town men and women, focus around a diner.

The characters have meet on them probably because this was based on a longer play - the journo Clive who is in love with Peggy but who honestly also seems more interested in Don, Peggy who dreams of a better tomorrow (and is allowed to go off with the white guy), Merv the racist, Sally the bored grazier.

It's a shock to hear words like "boong" and what not - and the blinding of Eddie packs real punch.

Script review - "Light Me a Lucifer" (1962) by John O'Grady

Not as funny as its premise - Satan being sent to Sydney. Frank Thring played Satan and you know he would've been wonderful. O'Grady can't really think of what to do with Satan when he gets there. He meets a family (man, woman, daughter) and their neighbour... and they all feel fairly interchangeable. The most fun comes from satan's wife who tries to seduce all the men.

The people on land feel too similar they should have been differentiated and the role of Satan is mixed up with his helper, Stoker. They should have had Satan and his wife romance people more - if that was too sexy, then made Satan and his wife siblings so they were single.

Some funny lines and moments but doesn't have a story up to its concept, which is great.

Play review - "Norm and Ahmed" by Alex Buzo (1968)

A solid short play dragged out beyond its natural length - Buzo has a marvellous facility with words and dialogue but isn't so great on story. It's a chat between an ocker Aussie and a Pakistani student, kind of an unofficial sequel to The One Day of the Year. You could interpret Norm as being a closet gay. Wonderful language just very long.

Script review - "Close to the Roof" by Rex Rienits (1960)

A 1960 TV play Rienits, a copy of which is in the National Archives of Australia. It's a strong basic set up - two crims hide out after a robbery in the attic of an old Greek. There's some awful on the nose expository dialogue to start things off with the two kids of the old Greek but it picks up - all the characters are distinct, I like how it touches on the immigrant wishing he was at home, and it builds until the final shoot out. You actually didn't need to cut away to pool halls. Dramatically very sound.

TV series - "Whiplash" (1960-61) final four episodes

"Love Story in Gold" - fun episode with an outlandish premise...Graves is lured to a valley where he's forced to marry a woman who is the daughter of a convict. Neva Carr Glynn is great value as the materfamilias. Written by James Clavell! Margaret Newhill is the girl. The heart goes out of this when Glynn dies... you expect a big show down with the psycho but it never happens.

"The Secret of the Screaming Hills" - Graves gets a treasure map from a dying man. Some weird arse scenes digging in the desert with "ooh-ee-ooh" soounds. Felt slightly undercooked. Maybe I'm just getting over it.  Third last ep. Reg Livermore is in this.  Ken Goodlet. A few others. Too many others. These eps were better with only two or three guesties.

"Act of Courage" - Guy Doleman is back in another baddie role, a sundowner putting the moves on windowed mother Margo Lee, who has a kid Hondo style, Brett Hard. It's very Western style with Graves going to give evidence in a trial, "the Stewart brothers" wanting to stop him, the widowed marm. Ric Hutton is in it. Written by Hollywood writer, female Gerry Day.  The female influence is felt in putting Lee's character front and centre and also Doleman's enigmatic anti hero. The American influence comes in it being such an American story. The central situation could have had more tension.

"The Adelaide Arabs" - Graves gets robbed by some masked men. Strong cast including Chips Rafferty, Walter Pym. Nice to have horses. It was a little underwhelming though there's some decent action at the end and I always like Rafferty.

TV series "Whiplash" (1960-61) six more episodes ***

"Storm River" - Graves winds up at a deserted homestead where a hot woman (Anette Andre) dreams of escaping to the city to be a designer but is kidnapped basically by oppressive Grant Taylor and Taylor's dimwit son. Solid acting - Andre is gorgeous and went on to have a decent career in London. I like how Taylor was a frustrated writer. There's scenes in the swamps with canoes which is different. Graves reveals he went to Harvard!

"Flood Tide" - Graves gets holed up over night in a spooky mansion with a woman (Shirley Broadway). A man turns up, Barry Linehan... and he, or her, or both, might be insane. This was a terrific ep. Different but creepy. Less characters = more time for characterisations.

"Dilemma in Wool" - Graves and his bland offsider transport a Spanish couple. I liked the Spanish connection - Nigel Lovell is another one - but there's too much accent acting. It's a dull episode - I didn''t care, there's little action. I did like the reference to the merino industry.

"Dark Runs the Sea" - Annette Andre is back as a woman who gets kidnapped by a bushranger... only it seems there may be more to it. Guy Doleman is also back as the bushranger as is heavy set Joe McCormick as Andre's uncle. I like the cockatoo on the guys's head. Andre is flirty and a bit of a femme fetale - there was a misogynist strand through  alot of these shows, as was typical of the time - but she isn't all bad. She's fun - I wish Graves had been more in to her. There's an excellent fist fight at the end between Graves and Doleman on location at a waterfall.

"Magic Wire" - the one about the laying of the telegraph, a popular trope in Westerns. Robert Tudawali offers star power - it is a little disconcerting to see him continually popping up as different characters. Decent ep with whites mistreating blacks and then blaming them - all too believable.

"The Haunted Valley" - Bettina Welch is back in a different role. Ron Whelan from old Cinesound movies pops up. This is a more creepy noir-ish episode with Welch as a sort of femme fetale. Not bad.

TV series - "Whiplash" (1960-61) another six episodes ***

"Fire Rock" - one of Graves' assistants disappears in aboriginal grounds. His sexy wife Delia Williams asks Graves for help. This is a fun episode. Robert Tudawali has a decent sized part as an aboriginal helping track them - he's cut off from his tribe so has an arc. Wiliams overacts a little as Messalina in the outback but is a lot of fun and has an over the top death dying in boiling mud. Spooky aboriginal exoticism.

"The Hunters" - an adaptation of Morris West's novel The Naked Country. It's ideal because that novel was short and simple... the pursuit of a rancher (Philip Ross) by an aboriginal with Graves stepping in as the policeman. Bettina Welch is the frustrated wife who goes along to help trap him down. This features the two leading aboriginal actors of the era- Henry Murdoch and Robert Tudawali. Impressive sets of the cave at the end.

"Stage Freight" - highly enjoyable Stagecoach esque drama with Graves escorting a group of people and he's worried that a man and a woman who are murderers may be among the passengers. The group include an actress, an undertaker smuggling sly grog, a couple breaking up. Good tension; Margot Lee is tremendous fun as an actress. Written by Australian Ralph Peterson.

"Portrait in Gunpowder" - Graves escorts a French painter, Therese Talbert, across country.  She has a lovely romance with Graves, because both feel like equals. To make it better they wind up hostages by Stuart Wagstaff's gentlemen bushranger. This was fun. I loved how Wagstaff had to deal with his bogan bushranger helpers.

"Ribbons and Wheels" - Aussie writer Ralph Peterson came up with a strong idea: a former driver of Graves (Tom Farley) has gone to work for a shady rival coach line run by Grant Taylor. They use "passing off" to compete. It ends with a race. Fine fun - I wish Taylor's part had been bigger.

"The Wreckers" - I was wondering when Guy Doleman would turn up and here he is, as a bushranger who takes over the coach for nefarious means. Graves enlists Robert Tudawali. Despite him this feels very American but there's plenty of action and decent acting.

TV series - "Whiplash" (1960-61) six more episodes ***

"Sarong" - decent drama just geographically weird. Graves gets involved escorting women across country - they are a multi cultural bunch including an Indian and a Malay. Graves gets shot and left for dead... they wind up at a compound run by a despot who uses them for pearl diving. The pearl diving aspect is weird but in terms of action and twists this is good - Gene Rodenberry wrote it. Great to see multi cultural women even if they are "me want help you" types. Ending implies Graves is going to root them all. The villain is Joe McCormick who was the baddy in "Escape from Bathurst". A climax involves sharks.

"Stage for Two" - Graves has a bromance with an outlaw (Leonard Teale) being chased by other outlaws and the police. It allows for a decent relationship to emerge between Teale and Graves - Teale is a strong actor, which that superb voice, and he has a three dimensional part. Large death toll as usual!

"The Bone That Whispered" - there were a number of aboriginal themed episodes of this show. Graves goes looking for a white man who is the father of a little girl whose mother has died. The man is living with the aborigines, covered in boot polish - the third time I've seen that on this show (one was actually playing an aboriginal). Nigel Lovell is the man.

"Day of the Hunter" - real old style Western tale with Chips Rafferty as a poor but plucky squatter being picked on by vicious land owner Max Osbiston. Just thinking about it, this show would be better if Rafferty had played Graves' sidekick. Rachel Lloyd is the girl. No romance with Graves though. Rafferty's role is quite small. The third act involves Graves and his mates going through an ancient aboriginal land which involves Graves showing off his skill with a boomerang. Henry Murdoch is in this.

"The Canoomba Incident" - Graves and his partner set up shop at a town where all the men have gone to a gold rush. That's an excellent idea. Lew Luton is back as a bushranger - a different character. They don't do enough with the woman angle though there is a female bushranger. No romance for Graves but some for his offsider (with Janette Craig). They fall in love in one scene. Really that should have been enough for an episode - a sister who bushranged... the all female town idea was worthy of its own episode and is thrown away.

"The Rushing Sands" - a veteran coach driver wants to kill the person responsible for killing his son. There's talk of "the best gunman" and scenes in jail cells... it feels particularly American. Good acting from people like Gordon Glenwright and Nevil Thurgood. The strenght of this is the acting.

TV Series - "Whiplash (1960-61) Another six episodes ***

"The Legacy" - Peter Graves goes and visits a creepy old man Moray Powell. Betty Lucas is fun as a former maid who inherits a property that Graves wants to buy... only it really belongs to an aboriginal, the former owner's old adopted son... played by Reg Livermore in brown face. Well, brown body really. This is unfortunately. They hint at romance between Graves and Lucas but he's really keen to get rid of her and get Livermore running the place, running horses for Graves. Livermore plays an amiable child boy. But still it does have a plot about whites trying to con aboriginals out of land. Graves shoots Powell dead - I think Graves killed at least one person an episode.

"Barbed Wire" the always reliable Grant Taylor is a Western style baron who torments a plucky small landholder. A strong episode. Eric Reiman is a henchman of Taylors who engages in a whip duel with Graves - like in Rangle River and Kangaroo - and even better Robert Tudawali is a tracked for Taylor. Tudawali's presence is electric. The final resolution isn't entirely interesting and the story feels American but it's entertaining.

"The Twisted Road". Ben Gabriel is being transported to Brisbane (!) on a charge of murder, doctor Tom Farley is coming along to prove his innocence.  They big up Rachel Lloyd. I liked this one - Farley is a beloved doctor who actually hates his patients leading to murder. Farley is an excellent actor.

"Dutchman's Reef". Queenie Ashton hires Graves to find her son, Leonard Teale , who has run off to live with aboriginals. Teale is covered in brown make up. This is silly but works on its own terms. Robert Tudawali is in this briefly.

"Divide and Conquer" Graves helps Harry Dearth look for a pass through a mountain range and comes across some vicious bushrangers led by Owen Weingott; Colin Croft was just joined the gang. Noted aboriginal actor Henry Murdoch pops up in this as a black tracker.  This is a good episode - I think the makers were helped by the fact it was an American ish story but it does feel as though it works in Australia. Excellent work from Weingott and Croft, the latter as a more literate crook.

"The Remittance Man" - great fun with Stewart Wagstaff perfect as a gentleman bushranger. The character of Graves' sidekick, the younger kid, is undeveloped in this series. I mean the actor is fine... but more could have been done with it. He would have been better off as a comic relief style character or a woman... or a more wild, hot blooded character. Instead he plays it in the same dead pan style as Graves. I enjoyed Graves' relationship with Wagstaff.