Pardon, Miss Westcott! was billed as Australia’s first locally-written musical production for television.

Pardon, Miss Westcott was set in the Rum Rebellion days of the early 1800s and told the story of Elizabeth Westcott, the daughter of an English inn-keeper deported to Sydney for a trivial crime. Playing the lead role was Wendy Blacklock, who had returned to Australia after working in the United Kingdom.

On her way to Sydney, Westcott attracts the romantic interest of army officer Richard Soames (played by stage and television performer Michael Cole).

After serving her sentence, Westcott opens a tavern and becomes a hit on the Sydney social scene, including crashing a party at Government House.

Also featured in the play were actors Nigel Lovell, Queenie Ashton, Chris Christensen, Nat Levison and Michael Walshe.

Blacklock later became well known to television audiences in the 1970s as dizzy housewife Edie “Mummy” MacDonald in Number 96.

Pardon, Miss Westcott was written by Peter Benjamin and Peter Stannard, co-writers of the Australian stage hit Lola Montez, and performed live to air from the studios of ATN7, Sydney at a cost of £5000. The performance was recorded for delayed broadcast on GTV9, Melbourne, in December 1959.

The Melbourne screening of Pardon, Miss Westcott! is among the latest additions to Classic TV Guides:

• Thursday 31 July 1958 — SYDNEY 
• Saturday 26 September 1959 — MELBOURNE VFL Grand Final
• Saturday 17 October 1959 — ADELAIDE Adelaide Tonight debuts
• Saturday 19 December 1959 — MELBOURNE Pardon Miss Westcott!
• Friday 15 April 1960 — MELBOURNE Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal
• Saturday 25 November 1967 — VICTORIA 1967 Senate Elections
• Saturday 25 November 1967 — SYDNEY 1967 Senate Elections
• Saturday 25 November 1967 — ADELAIDE 1967 Senate Elections
• Tuesday 27 July 1971 — MELBOURNE Muhammad Ali Title Fight
• Thursday 29 August 1974 — SYDNEY Rush debuts
• Friday 28 July 1978 — MELBOURNE Australian Popular Song Festival
• Friday 28 July 1978 — SYDNEY Australian Popular Song Festival
• Tuesday 12 September 1978 — MELBOURNE Against The Wind
• Sunday 29 April 1979 — MELBOURNE First SBS test transmission
• Saturday 27 September 1980 — SYDNEY NSWRL Grand Final
• Sunday 22 April 1984 — SYDNEY 
• Saturday 4 August 1984 — MELBOURNE 
• Friday 25 August 1989 — MELBOURNE Young Achiever Awards
• Saturday 18 November 1989 — BRISBANE Season Final Hey Hey It’s Saturday
• Monday 27 May 1991 — WESTERN AUSTRALIA 
• Wednesday 13 April 1994 — MELBOURNE A Country Practice debuts on Ten
• Tuesday 5 November 2002 — MELBOURNE Melbourne Cup

Source: IMDB. TV Times, 18 December 1959