AKA: Momma's Good Girl
Centred around the disruption caused to four Wellington households when the touring American pop star cancelled his engagement after announcing an alleged affair with a New Zealand housewife.
by Ian Cross
Betty Smith - Pauline D'Emden
Graham Smith - Ron Lynn
Agnes Brown - Dyllis Forrest
Colin Brown - John Mahaffey
Barbara Jones - Pamela James
John Jones - Peter Bland
Nina Robinson - Anne Flannery
Raymond Robinson - Jan Cochran
with Pauline Yerex, Leslie Wright, Briana Brimer, Charles Walker, and Barry Hill.
Produced for the NZBC by Brian Bell
Production began in mid-March 1967 and it was to be telerecorded on April 1.
Writer Ian Cross was widely known for his weekly television programme, Column Comment. The play revolves around an American pop star who, while touring the country, is introduced into the homes and lives of four New Zealand couples, and explores the effect of his startling announcement, when he later breaks off his engagement, that he has had an affair with a New Zealand housewife.
Viewers may already be familiar with the pop song of the same name written for the play; with lyrics by Ian Cross and music by Paul Griffin, it has been recorded by the Wellington pop group Sounds Unlimited, and broadcast on YD stations. lan Cross describes Momma’s a Good Girl as “‘a workshop exercise written to specifications; a light--hearted romp which hints at the possibilities in television for actors and technical staff”. His biggest problem was one that faced all the authors: that the play must involve a large cast to enable as many actors as possible to appear before the cameras. According to Mr Bell, the difficulty is that “television’s immediacy and intimacy tends to fine down the concentration to a small group of characters”
At one stage Mr Cross questioned whether a television play with a large cast should even be attempted, but after what Mr Bell describes as “‘a number of crisp telephone conferences and some gentle black--mailing”, he provided Momma, with a cast of 40, including 12 major parts. His other difficulty was that he found television dialogue completely different from literary dialogue; he discovered “‘the com--plications of the simplicity of spoken dialogue” Mr Cross says he learnt considerable respect for local acting and production; it is not a lack of local talent that has delayed this venture.
For him this first play is just the 50 yard mark; the milestone will come later when the writer has had enough experience to be allowed a completely free choice of subject and setting These first works are interesting for the possibilities they show: they are “‘television drama’s first unsteady walk as an infant”
Ian Cross turned his hand to churning out a pop song as the theme for this TV play. Cross said he threw some words together
. Music was written by Paul Griffin, a lecturer in accountancy at Victoria University. After taping by the Wellington group Sounds Unlimited, the HMV New Zealand decided to put it out commercially.
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