Tributes - 2004

Ken Hannam

Film and television director. Born Melbourne, July 12, 1929. Died London, November 16, aged 75.

If Sunday Too Far Away (1975) was Ken Hannam’s only film – and many film buffs might believe that was so – he would have had a significant place in cinema history. The renowned film, set in the midst of a 1956 shearers’ strike, was a milestone of our much-vaunted film renaissance, moving Australia’s reputation from bawdy comedies to realistic period dramas. John Clancy, writing in Cinema Papers, excitedly proclaimed it “the best Australian film to emerge from the great revival.” According to British critic Leslie Halliwell, it was “almost the archetypal Australian outback movie”.

            Nonetheless, Hannam was not completely happy with the final film. His own director’s cut, never released, might well be one of the lost classics of Australian cinema.

It was part of a 50-year film and television career. As a child, Hannam had been devoted to the movies, inspired by no less a film than Citizen Kane. “I was transfixed,” he would recall of that movie, “but people were getting up and leaving, pouring out of the theatre!”

            Upon leaving school, however, he decided to become a radio announcer, joining Canberra station 2CA at age 17. After four years, he returned to Sydney, acting in plays and, occasionally, foreign television productions. In 1955 he became program manager at 2SM, producing his own series of travel programs. Ultimately, these were rejected, ostensibly because they sounded more like film soundtracks than radio shows.

            The medium of television, new to Australia, provided a more suitable outlet for his talents. He directed and produced such series as the kids’ show Captain Fortune and the first local television soap, Autumn Affair, as well as several TV plays.

            Hannam later moved to London, directing episodes of numerous series (The Troubleshooters, Colditz, Dr Finlay’s Casebook). He was in London when Gil Brealey, of the newly-formed South Australian Film Corporation, offered him Sunday Too Far Away. Moved by John Dingwall’s screenplay (and keen to return home), Hannam said that would happily do it for nothing – and as he later said, “I practically did do it for nothing.” (He was paid only $6000, with no residuals.)

            Hannam’s first cut focused on a young boy, Michael (Gregory Apps), his admiration for gun shearer Foley (Jack Thompson) and Foley’s fear of becoming like a retired gun shearer, Garth (Reg Lye), now a tragic alcoholic. “There were no beautiful vistas, because those men didn’t see beautiful vistas,” Hannam said. “It was a rough, gutsy film.” Thompson himself once suggested that Hannam’s original version was perhaps the finest achievement in Australian cinema.

            Financial concerns, however, convinced Hannam to take another television job during post-production. Upon his exit, Brealey – under government pressure to make a profit – interfered with the editing process. Removing most of Apps’ scenes, he took advantage of Thompson’s box-office appeal, making Foley the “hero”.

Angry and upset about these changes, Hannam returned to London, in the midst of a recession in television drama, and was forced to work in a factory. Meanwhile, Sunday won several Australian Film Institute Awards, including best film and best director. It later became a hit of the Cannes Film Festival.

            Hannam’s subsequent Australian film work was sparse. Producer Phillip Adams offered him Don’s Party (1976), but he was, according to Adams, “out of sympathy with the urban characters”. “Obviously, the man’s a raving romantic,” said Adams.

            Hannam did return, however, to make two films with producer Pat Lovell. Break of Day (1976), set in 1920, told of a romance between a former World War I serviceman and a bohemian woman. Hannam wouldconsider it his best film, but reviews were mixed. It was followed by Summerfield (1977), an eerie, Twilight Zone-style thriller. Though the acting and directing won faint praise, Summerfield failed to win audiences.

            Dawn! (1978), about the life of swimmer Dawn Fraser, had several problems – not least writer-producer Joy Cavill’s insistence on casting a Fraser lookalike, Bronwyn Mackay-Payne, rather than an experienced actor. Hannam had misgivings about this casting, and at one point was forced to take Mackay-Payne aside. “You’ve signed a contract to act in this role and you’re going to act it!” he ordered. The next day, she begrudgingly agreed.

            After the failure of Dawn!, Hannam returned to directing television in London,  including Bergerac, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, Hannay and the serial The Day of the Triffids (1981).

            Though he planned to divide his time between England and Australia, Australian projects were rare, with the exception of the miniseries Robbery Under Arms (co-directed with Donald Crombie), which was also released, in abridged form, as a cinema feature.

Often frustrated that he was always a director-for-hire, unable to arrange his own projects, he reduced his workload in later years, though some of his best work was on movie-length episodes of The Bill (when it was more police drama than soap-opera).

In Australia, however, he will always be known for Sunday Too Far Away. In a 2001 poll of the greatest films by Australian directors, it was ranked fourth. Not bad for a film that, in the view of the director (and much of his crew) was infinitely better in its earlier form.

Hannam is survived by his wife Madlena, their son Christopher, his daughter Vicki (by his first marriage), his grandchildren Jake, Nat and Zac, his brothers Don and Robert, and his ex-wives Lena Melocco, Wendy Dickson (production designer on Break of Day), and Maggie Boyden.