Fifty years ago, Number 96 revolutionised Australian television drama, dripping with sex and licentiousness, entwining murders and explosions with trailblazing portrayals of sympathetic queer characters, and winning stratospheric viewer ratings five nights a week.
Airing from 1972 to 1977, and set in a building of flats, the country’s first prime time soap opera was also leavened with catchphrases, malapropisms, and the sitcom trope of trapping people together – or, as the late Bunney Brooke, who portrayed Flo Patterson, put it: “Dorrie and Flo and Herb arguing about a teabag in flat 3 while homosexuality, rape, black magic, nudity, incest, breast cancer, letter bombs and knicker snippers were running amok in the other flats.”
The varied tone drew on rapid-fire vaudeville traditions as much as nail-biting cliffhangers and plot twists racier than past TV and radio serials.
Some of the actors’ funniest recollections have been collected in a new book, Number 96: 50th Anniversary Album, edited by Nigel Giles; together, they explain the show’s success was due in large part to its raucous humour.
The following is an edited extract.
Norma’s Place
Number 96 had several communal meeting places – the delicatessen, the chemist shop, the launderette – but it was the wine bar where most of the laughs were had.
Sheila Kennelly (who played barmaid Norma Whittaker): Because the pub scenes required real beer for effective “pulling” from the taps, they were always scheduled as the first block of the day. By 11am Gordon [McDougall, who played Sheila’s husband Les] and Jim Elliott [Alf] would be quite woozy. Ron Shand [Herb] never drank, just hugged his glass. So, it was decided to create Norma’s Bar from which I could serve flat cola or coloured water as wine.
Jan Adele as Trixie O’Toole was always invited to tell one of her outrageously rude jokes just before a scene, so we’d all be genuinely laughing and jolly.
Dina Mann (Debbie Chester): I remember a scene with Jan Adele and Sheila Kennelly in the wine bar. Unbeknownst to Sheila the scene was already in the can, but having worded Jan up, [director] Brian Phillis asked for another take. Jan, as Trixie O’Toole, enters the wine bar and Norma says something along the lines of “How are you ducky?” to which Jan replied: “Gawd, what do you have to do to get a drink around here? I’m as dry as a nun’s cunt.”
Sheila didn’t bat an eyelid and continued to her last line.
Sheila Kennelly: An artist played by Owen Weingott decided to paint a portrait for Norma’s Bar which turned out to be similar to Chloe hanging in a Melbourne hotel – Norma reclining almost naked. Eunice Dyer, the Channel 10 artist who actually did the painting, was confronted by me in a neck to ankle caftan. “Couldn’t you pose in your undies?” she sadly asked. “No fear,” I replied. Eunice gave Norma a beautifully tilted bosom which I much preferred to the real thing.
Sex scenes and nudity
The series heralded full-frontal nudity on the small screen, with some actors contractually obliged to strip, while gay sexuality was presented as a vibrant part of life.
Harry Michaels (Giovanni Lenzi): An early scene called for a naked girl to writhe on top of me as I lay naked on a bed. Shaking with fear on those cold sheets, aware my new bride (in real life) would see the scene in a few weeks, I couldn’t get in the mood – or the right position for acceptable screen bonking. Director Brian Phillis was very quiet and helpful as I fluffed the first handful of takes, but his mood intensified. “Just another one, Harry, but for God’s sake look as if something is happening under there,” he demanded. The moment Brian said “Good, we’ve got it”, I grabbed the pillow, held it over my vitals and shot off the set, not really caring how much of a view everyone got of my unprotected rear.
Julian Rockett (Adam Shaw): I was the first male nude on colour TV in Australia. I did a shower scene which showed me in a side and back shot, singing a song Trixie O’Toole had written. During the rehearsal no water was used, however when we did the take the crew decided to play a joke on me and filled the barrel of water with heaps of ice so when I turned the water on, I got a fright. I reacted accordingly with a loud “Fuck!”
Candy Raymond (Jill Sheridan): I spent a year being part of the exhilarating Number 96 phenomenon, thinking I was a feminist guerrilla fighter behind the enemy lines on a special mission, being quoted in the media (only if I talked of my sex life and recipes) and being a jerk-off fantasy for gormless adolescent boys and grown-up blokes who weren’t getting any.
Fame and the tabloids
Fame on a par with the Beatles followed the Number 96 cast wherever they went, media outlets hung on every piece of gossip about them, and catchcries such as Dorrie Evans’s “Why wasn’t I told?” echoed across the country.
Johnny Lockwood (Aldo Godolfus): There was a special Spirit of 96 train from Sydney to Melbourne for the Logies. Press from all over Australia would meet in Sydney and travel with us to Melbourne. We would leave after work on Friday and make stops along the way to meet our country fans.
[I remember] Jimmy Elliott [Alf Sutcliffe] and [publicist] Tom Greer streaking through the dining car; Ronnie Shand [Herb] getting left at one stop and the fans lifting him and passing him over their heads until he was back on the train.
Lynn Rainbow (Sonia Vansard): I was cast as Sonia the chemist. Most people thought the chemist was my screen lover/husband, played by Joe James, who was actually a struck off doctor, Gordon Vansard. Our characters pretended to be brother and sister until Dorrie [Evans, played by Pat McDonald] caught us kissing! Was it incest? During rehearsals for one of those early scenes with Dorrie I misread “berserk” as “beresk”. Patty picked it up and made it Dorrie’s and it passed into daily usage all over the country.
Jeff Kevin (Arnold Feather): On several occasions my brother and I took Elaine Lee [Vera Collins] to the cricket test matches with other friends on the proviso that she disguise herself. I had to as well. Inevitably, our disguise would be penetrated by people around us and often because of Elaine’s vocal support for the opposing team (her voice was so distinctive). Once she had been discovered I would be as well. My brother didn’t appreciate people gazing at him and trying to work out which role he played in the show.
The mishaps
Pumped out five nights a week, production ran like a well-oiled ship – but tempers could be frayed if lines were flubbed or the tight schedule got bent out of shape.
Bunney Brooke (Flo Patterson): [In one storyline], Flo had won a year’s supply of frozen peas and everything we ate was a recipe with peas in it. We had to do one scene several times and I had had four or five bowls of this pea soup.
Pat McDonald and I were waiting to do a take and just as she went on the set my intestines gave way and I let fly with an enormous fart, which only Paddi [Pat] heard. She went on with her dialogue until I walked on and as soon as she saw me, we cracked up. The director was getting very cross and neither of us would say what had happened. Later on, a series of farts ensued, and my secret was out. So was the wind, thank God.
Karen Petersen (Christina Vettare): One day Bunney Brooke [Flo], cigarette in hand, asked me if I smoked. Who didn’t in those days? She showed me how to get my cigarette brand into shot whenever possible. A carton from the cigarette company, once a week, was the reward.
Roger Ward (Frank ‘Weppo’ Smith): Weppo Smith was a garbage collector who loved quoting Shakespeare … my inability to get the exact lines down proved a problem with the Shakespearean quotes. Director Brian Phillis confided, “Buddy, it’s OK to paraphrase and ad-lib the script, but you have to be spot on with Shakespeare.” So, I concentrated on the Shakespearean quotes religiously and made sure they were always word perfect.
A year or so later, I came across the writer Johnny Whyte. I mentioned the trouble he had caused by inserting those endless Shakespearean quotes. Johnny burst into laughter: “Oh my God, they weren’t Shakespearean quotes; I just rattled off a few lines with ‘thou’, ‘three’, and ‘thine’ interlaced, I wouldn’t have a clue about all that soliloquy shit’.”
Number 96: 50th Anniversary Album is published by Arcadia
