The Mavis Bramston Show was an Australian television satirical sketch comedy revue series that aired on the Seven Network from 1964 to 1968. Mavis was created, written, and co-produced by Carol Raye, who also starred in it and was inspired by the British TV satirical revue TV shows of the period, most notably That Was the Week That Was and Not Only... But Also.
The series was the first successful venture in this genre on Australian television. At its peak it was one of the most popular, albeit controversial, Australian TV programs of its time and it propelled many of the "classic" cast to national stardom, including its three original stars: Raye (who was already a major star in England as a film star), British expatriate comedian Gordon Chater, and Barry Creyton, as well as the series mascot portrayed by Maggie Dence.
Cultural impact The Mavis Bramston Show had a huge impact in Australia in the mid-1960s, heightened because of its unique place in the history of the Australian television industry. Australian television broadcasting since its inception in 1956 had rapidly become dominated by the socio-economic influence of the United States, and according to "The Vincent Report" in 1963 on the Australian media industry, it found that 97% of drama broadcast locally between 1956 and 1963 was produced in the US.
At least 80% of Australian TV programming by the early 1960s was sourced from the United States, and American TV series were consistently listed amongst the top-rated shows.
The few programmes that were made locally were usually low-cost copies of either proven American talk-variety or quiz show formats.
The absence of government-mandated local content regulations meant Australian TV producers faced enormous challenges in trying to compete against imported American (and to a lesser extent British) programs, which benefited from high budgets, an international talent pool, and huge economies of scale, thanks to their large domestic audiences and established worldwide distribution networks. These advantages were further enhanced by the fact that American producers and networks offered Australian channels attractive discount rates on bundled programming.
Despite the overwhelming dominance of imported programming, local production gradually increased in the mid-1960s for several reasons—the licensing of a third network in major cities (which ultimately became Network 10), the introduction of videotape technology (which permitted pre-recording and editing, and reduced production costs) and the enforcement of local production quotas on TV advertising, which helped to foster a local skill-base.
Mavis Bramston Mavis Bramston debuted only months after Crawford Productions landmark police procedural drama Homicide. Bramston demonstrated both that it was possible to make satirical TV comedy in Australia, featuring Australian issues and characters, and that there was a significant audience for such a show. As the first Australian-produced TV comedy series to become a national success with both critics and viewers alike, it is therefore considered a milestone in the development of Australian television. Many at the time expected that this honour would go to Graham Kennedy's variety series In Melbourne Tonight, which, although hugely popular in its home city, did not become a fully-fledged national hit until 1969. Writer Hugh Stuckey opined that this was in part because IMT faced strong competition from the shows it followed, the top-rating American variety series The Perry Como Show and The Andy Williams Show.
Mavis Bramston grew out of the recent local theatrical tradition of topical satirical revue—most notably the popular revues staged at Sydney's Phillip Street Theatre in the 1950s and 1960s but it was also strongly influenced by the British satire boom and especially by the contemporary British TV satirical comedy series That Was the Week That Was and Not Only... But Also.
Cast members The character of Mavis Bramston The in-joke of the series was that the title character "face" and mascot of the series only ever appeared in the opening credits; however, she would tour as the character making public appearances. Face Tenure Maggie Dence (AM) Dence was officially the character of "Mavis", but she did not appear in the first five episodes. A noted stage performer, she would later go on to appear in sitcom Kingswood Country and in numerous dramatic roles in soap opera/series. Noeline Brown (OAM) Brown was the original face and mascot of the series, but left the role to work in England. Upon returning to Australia however, Brown became a regular performer on the show.
Original cast Note: The cast was made up of the three regular stars and had a regular rotating guest line-up Actor Tenure Notes Ref Carol Raye (AM) 1964—1965, 1967, 1968 British-born dancer, singer, and film star, who after working in Kenya and then emigrating to Australia, appeared in theatre. Ray devised the series, wrote and produced the pilot, and was one of the regular screenwriters and co-producer alongside Michael Plant. She worked on the show alongside David Sale, Nan Whitcomb, and Barbara Angell, and was an original cast member alongside expat British-performer Gordon Chater and newcomer Barry Creyton. She would later feature in the series Number 96, written by Sale. Gordon Chater (AM) 1964—65 (original cast member) Chater was a British-born actor and comedian who migrated from England to Australia in the late 1940s, and was a prominent star in both theatre and radio. He went on to appear in the equally successful My Name's McGooley and was awarded the Gold Logie. The series also featured his future McGooley co-star Judi Farr. Barry Creyton 1964—66 Australian-born actor, singer, and writer, who came to prominence in theatre, most notably at The Phillip Street Theatre in revue and The Music Hall Theatre Restaurant.
Notable cast Name Tenure Notes Reg Livermore (AO) Hazel Phillips (OAM) 1965—1968 Miriam Karlin 1965 Replaced original star Carol Raye Ronnie Stevens 1965—1966 British actor, replaced original star Gordon Chater Barbara Angell 1966—1968 Angell also worked as a screenwriter on the series and commonly used the pen name Angela Barr Andonia Katsoras 1966—1968 Judi Farr 1965 Various characters June Salter 1965—1967 Appeared in pilot Johnny Lockwood Actor and comedian Ron Frazer 1966—1967 Actor and comedian
Other cast and guests The Mavis cast, which changed considerably over its three-year run, initially featured many imported or expatriate British performers alongside experienced Australian actors such as John Bluthal who was becoming well known in Britain, and Australian performers who were relative newcomers to TV but who, between them however, had decades of experience in theatre, cabaret and revue and music.
During its three-year run, other regular cast members and guests included singer Bryan Davies (1964), comic and (wife of Bobby Limb) Dawn Lake, as well as Neva Carr Glyn (1966), June Thody (1966) and Peter Reeves (1967) Barbara Wyndon and Al Thomas guest starred in some episodes.
Among the crew was a young production assistant, Peter Weir, who went on to become one of Australia's best-known and most successful film directors.
Show's title There are several versions of the source of the ironic joke behind the show's title. The most frequently quoted account is that it derived from an Australian theatrical expression. The nickname "Mavis Bramstons" mocked a phenomenon common at that time on the Australian stage. In the years after World War II, overseas actors (many of whom who were considered second-rate or well past their best) were often imported to star in local productions, even though there were local performers available who were as good or better than their overseas counterparts. One of the most famous examples of this trend was the "discovery" of actress and singer Jill Perryman; while understudying the much-loved Evie Hayes for the lead role in a 1953 production of the musical Call Me Madam, Perryman was able to make her critical breakthrough after Evie Hayes was sidelined by illness. Hayes and Perryman became great friends. Hayes later appeared as Perryman's mother in Funny Girl.
The stock persona of an imported second-rate actress became the central conceit of the series. The opening scene of each episode showed "Mavis", now brought to life as a parodic character, arriving at Sydney airport to be greeted by the waiting press; the irony was that although the show was called The Mavis Bramston Show, this was the only scene in which she appeared. Noeline Brown played the eponymous Mavis in the pilot and the first five shows.
Maggie Dence, however became the "face" of the series; she regularly featured in press articles and on magazine covers and was widely employed by the show's sponsor, Ampol, making well-attended promotional appearances all over the country.
Creation and development The show's creator and original co-star, Carol Raye, had enjoyed considerable success in the UK as an actor, singer and dancer, followed by a stint working for the national TV service in Kenya (where her husband worked for the Colonial Veterinary Service). In 1964 the couple had decided to emigrate to Australia, arriving in March of that year. Raye had asked friends in Britain for contacts in the Australian TV industry and this led to a meeting with (Sir) Charles Moses, then the General Manager of the ABC. He suggested that she should try her luck with Sydney commercial station ATN-7 and gave her a letter of introduction to Seven's general manager, James Oswin. That meeting was successful and Raye became one of the first female TV executives in Australia—she was appointed as Oswin's assistant in "Matters of Live Programming" and was given an office and a brief to watch local television and come up with ideas for new programs.
Inspired by the BBC's That Was the Week That Was, Raye suggested a show based on TW3's format of topical satire, and although initially skeptical, Oswin agreed and allocated a budget of AU£1500 for pilot episode. Raye then set about recruiting performers to fill the roles of TW3's stars Millicent Martin, Bernard Levin and David Frost. By chance, she had also been given an introduction to Gordon Chater, who immediately accepted her offer on the expectation that the new show would be a TV version of the famous Phillip St Revues, in which he had been starring.
During this period, Raye was also drafted in to help develop a show to be sponsored by the Bradmill textile company, and she was taken to The Music Hall at Neutral Bay, a popular theatre-restaurant presenting Victorian-style comedy-melodramas that featured considerable audience interaction. The show Raye saw that evening, The Evil That Men Do, co-starred the Music Hall's resident Villain and Villainess, Barry Creyton and Noeline Brown. Raye was impressed with Creyton's looks, his urbane style and his skills in handling the often rowdy Music Hall audiences, and immediately knew she had found her second co-star. Soon after this, Noeline Brown met the show's co-producer, Michael Plant at a party and he offered her the part of Mavis in the pilot episode.
To develop the script, Raye hired a team of writers including James Fishburn (who also acted as Executive Producer), John Mackellar, David Sale (who went on to write for the hugely popular 1970s soap opera Number 96), actor-writer Jon Finlayson (who had written a successful intimate revue in Melbourne with Barbara Angell), Melvyn Morrow (a writer of revues and later Director of Drama at Stonyhurst College and writer of A Song to Sing, O) and Ken Shadie, who had begun writing comedy sketches while working in Seven's engineering department; he also later wrote for Number 96 and co-wrote the script of the hit Paul Hogan film Crocodile Dundee.