The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 189

Now Don is to oversee Sons and Daughters. He keeps an eye on the casting and watches all the episodes. One weekend he saw 38. "I thought they were great," he said. The original idea for Possession was Reg Watson's, president of drama at Grundy's, but it was developed by Bevan Lee, script editor and author of the first two hours.

He introduced the political thriller angle which was dropped about episode 34 in an attempt to find a more successful formula. "When a show is not successful all the elements are juggled to get it right," Lee said. Darien Takle: A great crew "I never apologise for it. I know the episodes I wrote for Possession were my best work. All the writers say that.

We used very good writers. I think in Australia too much is made of lack of success. Hill Street Blues was getting Possession-like ratings when it won all those awards. Here, as soon as something fails, people say it's shithouse. "I had always been galled by the criticism of serials, that you could turn it on three weeks later and nothing had happened.

I wrote it as much like a film as I could. I think if we made any mistake, we wrote it too fast." Bevan, who has been executive story What happens when a soap opera bubble bursts -vNV" v-- -A 0Mf rf Channel Nine's Possession will end in the next two weeks. PHILIPPA GEMMELL-SMITH reports on why the soapie came to a sad end. -lT 4 wit ti r-sr 3 HEN the bubbles of a 1 li soapie burst, it seems I 1 that of all the hundreds 'of people involved, the actors are hardest hit. 'When Channel Nine's nvv -a I i i 1 A ir im 'mi ftrT 1 mam rrff rf nJi' i i rf i i with Possession? Of the people who spoke to Good Weekend (only a few thought it was just a bad show) most advanced excuses and explanations: the quality of production aimed at was out of reach within the usual two hours a week of production required; it was conceived for an 8.30 pm adults only time slot but was produced for the 7.30 general time; it started off competing with Sons and Daughters just as Pat the Rat was being written out of the script so it did not collect a substantial audience at the beginning, the crucial stage; the time slot kept changing; it moved too fast, so viewers needed to watch every episode; changes had to be made after scripts had been written, resulting in poor quality episodes; the spymurder intrigue in the early episodes appealed to only a minority of the Australian audience which prefers the escapism of domestic dramas such as A Country Practice and Sons and Daughters; the spymurder intrigue should have been developed rather than written out of the script; Channel 9 only wanted six months' worth of Australian drama to make up its 104 hours of Australian content and prefers to buy cheaper overseas shows which rate just as well.

Channel 9's director of publicity, Sue Ward, said: "We did a complete series. We just didn't take up the option of a second series because it didn't rate." The person ultimately responsible for Possession is executive producer Don Battye, vice president of drama with the Grundy Organisation. He has been with Grundy's for over seven years and before that was with Crawford's where he worked on Homicide, Division 4, The Sullivans and The Box. At Grundy's he has worked on The Restless Years and Bellamy but his greatest success has been Sons and Daughters with which he has been associated for all its years. A 1982 Logie for the program sits on his desk.

Don Battye produced the first year of Sons and Daughters. He also effectively produced the first few episodes of Possession finished production last month, after only six months, many writers, producers, directors and crew slotted into other soapies, particularly those also produced by the Grundy Organisation: Sons and Daughters, Neighbours and, in Melbourne, Prisoner. Half of the crew was from Channel 9, half of the rest has continued with Grundy productions. But that option is not open to actors. "If you've played a sustaining role," said actress Darien Takle, "you can't be thrown immediately into another part because the body's still warm." The body Darien has vacated is that of Possession's Louise Carpenter, a cold, ambitious sexual predator who revealed her essential good nature when she fell in love with an ex-priest.

This sounds like regular soapie grist, the sort of character you could well find delivering bitchy lines on Dallas or Dynasty. These two shows, rating recently between 15 and 18, are, obliquely, models for Possession but this local program rated only 8 or 9 before its disastrous move to the Siberian time slot of 10.30 or 1 1 pm (no week seems to be the same on Channel 9). Since then it has rated between 2 and 5. Possession had its own rich, ruthless rural matriarch called, unsubtly, Elizabeth Macarthur, with a weak son who falls in love with inappropriate people such as a local greenie. Grundy's had tried the rich family formula unsuccessfully with Taurus Rising.

It works around the world for Dallas and Dynasty, so what went wrong ffjuzz 1 1 i LED Lr- Don Battye: Pilot was intriguing editor for Grundy's, left the company shortly before Possession went to air. "After 550 hours of television stories, my head was switching out a bit. I left to go freelance in December but I remained in an advisory capacity on Possession." Now he is in Melbourne working freelance on Prisoner and doing scripts for Sons and Daughters. Possession's directors worked on contract and like most of the production people have been absorbed back into the soapie network. Julian McSwiney and Graham Hodgson, two of the directors, are now also working on Sons and Daughters.

This will be Julian's third time back. He was filming on location at the Eastwood Hotel when I spoke to him. A smoke machine, mirror, a ball and coloured lighting transformed the lounge of the hotel into the Stiletto wine bar. A half-hour unit of the show was being 49 Above: Bevan Lee Right: Julian McSwiney Possession. "Every company has shows that don't work," he said.

"Each channel also you win some, you lose some. I don't know any company that has made a series of flops." Like several other people he made the point that although the ratings weren't high, Possession had a very loyal band of viewers. "People who more often than not stated that they didn't watch serials. But people who watch serials are the ones who make the shows rate. I won't deny I was disappointed.

"I thought the pilot was intriguing." GOOD WEEKEND 48.