In the early days of Australian television, locally-made drama was largely limited to one-off plays — mostly by ABC.
One such production was Murder Story, a Sydney-based production that was an adaptation of an English story, based on a real-life murder case.
Murder Story starred John Ewart as Jim Tanner, a 19-year-old intellectually-disabled man who is sentenced to death for the murder of a police officer. His parents are played by Douglas Kelly and Neva Carr Glyn.
The production also starred Richard Meikle as Tanner’s accomplice, John Alden as the prison chaplain, and Don Crosby and Deryck Barnes (pictured above with Ewart) as prison officers.
Murder Story was broadcast live to air on ABN2, Sydney, in May 1958. It was “kinescoped” for broadcast in Melbourne — on ABV2 on Tuesday 15 July 1958.
Murder Story is among the latest additions to Classic TV Guides:
- Tuesday 15 July 1958 — MELBOURNE Murder Story
- Saturday 27 May 1967 — VICTORIA Federal Referendum
- Saturday 27 May 1967 — SOUTH AUSTRALIA Federal Referendum
- Saturday 27 March 1971 — SOUTH AUSTRALIA TV Week Logie Awards
- Saturday 20 May 1978 — MELBOURNE
- Sunday 24 May 1981 — WESTERN AUSTRALIA
- Friday 19 November 1982 — SYDNEY Premiere ABC series MPSIB
- Sunday 23 October 1983 — MELBOURNE
- Wednesday 7 March 1984 — SYDNEY
- Wednesday 7 March 1984 — VICTORIA
- Thursday 29 October 1987 — MELBOURNE
- Saturday 31 December 1994 — SYDNEY