New series begins tonight

Press, 26 August 1982, Page 19

New series begins tonight

A seven-part Australian drama series will begin on One tonight. The series is titled “1915" but the story actually begins in 1913. in the wheat-growing country around the town of Bindogundra. Walter Gilchrist and Billy Mackenziehave been friends since schooldays. Now, both aged 20 and on the brink of manhood. they are unsure about their futures.

Billy, always in and out of trouble, helps on his father’s farm and finds temporary employment on farms around the area. Walter’s father, finding he cannot meet the expense of educating two sons, recalls Walter from his University studies to help him on the property. Newspapers bring reports of the threat of war in Europe. Walter and Billy meet and fall in love with two Sydney girls. Frances and Diana, but the complications and delight

of young love and courtship are overshadowed by war. Billy and Walter enlist and, after a brief training period are shipped overseas and sent to the battlefront at Gallipoli. As they face the horror of war, their families and lovers scan the newspapers for casualty lists and contend with the problems and heartbreak on the homefront. Frances and Diana, forced by circumstances to go to the country, share a time of hope, of decision and of disappointment. The two young men are played by Scott McGregor and Scott Burgess. Like all Australians they had learnt at school about World War I and the heroic disaster that was Gallipoli. But both admit their knowledge had been sketchy before their involvement in the series. Neither had even been-too

certain where Gallipoli was. "It could never be the same, re-enacting it. but it has given me a slight idea of what it must have been like. It must have been horrific." says Burgess. He plays Billy, a bit of a larrikin who sees war as an adventure. Of the day-to-day hardships endured by the men in the trenches he says: “I guess I think more about that, the mental pressures they had to withstand, than anything else. "I never knew how close those trenches were. Sometimes there was only 100 feet between them. “They had to sleep, eat, urinate' in those trenches. They had lice and dysentry. They also had to kill people and’at the same time maintain some kind of sane balance. It must have been horrendous."

The series was written by Peter Yeldham. Internationally acclaimed. Peter Yeldham has written more than 15 feature films, including “The Comedy Man” (starring the late Kenneth More), "The Liquidator" (starring Rod Taylor and Trevor Howard). "Age of Consent” (starring James Mason and Helen Mirren) and "The Long Duel" (starring Yul Brynner. Trevor Howard and Charlotte Rampling).

“1915" has two directors. Chris Thomson and Di Drew, and has been sold to several countries including the United States.