Campbell CrawfordSome reminiscences of writing scripts forSouth African episodes of The Men From The Ministry |
One day I read in a newspaper interview of the Meehan father-and-son team that they were so busy writing, producing and directing shows for Springbok Radio that they had no time to branch out into TV work. That was all the encouragement I needed. I wrote a script called “A-Hunting We Will Go” for the Men From the Ministry show, found Tom Meehan’s address in the phone book and delivered the script to him. It was broadcast about a month later on 1 April 1979. After that I would call Tom to ensure that my story lines had not been done previously. During that period from April 1979 to March 1980 I wrote 13 scripts for the Men From the Ministry and one for “Father, Dear Father.” All were broadcast.
I remember calling Tom and asking him if Maureen Adair could do an Australian accent for a script which I called “Fair Dinkum.” Tom did not know if Maureen had such an accent in her considerable repertoire but told me to go ahead with the script anyway. That was recorded on 17 January 1980 and broadcast about a month later. Maureen handled the accent well. Also in this script I introduced an African gentleman called Okonkwo who did not speak English. He, naturally, becomes increasingly belligerent in dealing with John and Roger’s characters. Frank Graham played the part of Okonkwo. To help Frank, his lines were written in the Northern Nigerian Hausa language of which I had a slight knowledge.
At the time of these shows we had to be careful that the jokes would not cause offence. Tom’s guideline was that it was all right to have suggestive dialogue as long as subsequent lines cleaned it up. When I see what gets by on some of today’s television comedy shows I can only shake my head at some lines which were deemed to be too risque in the Men From the Ministry. In “To Bee or Not To Bee” in May 1979 the story begins by introducing the health theme of this episode. Mildred gets stuck in the lotus pose in the office. Lennox-Brown and Lamb are attempting to extricate her, one holding her around the middle and the other pulling her leg when Sir Gregory enters the room and asks what is going on. A tearful Mildred replies: “Oh, Sir Gregory, they’re trying to undo me.” This was allowed. Later on the two Men are sent on behalf of the Ministry of Health to what they think is Snedderswaite’s research farm for rejuvenation. They are discussing monkey and ape gland treatment as they stand on the doorstep. Lennox-Brown is telling Lamb to leave all the talking to him and continues:
Lennox-Brown: ... Remember, this ape gland treatment could bring about a medical revolution. Em ... by the way ... have you rung the bell yet, Number Two?
Lamb: Well ... er ... there was that little red-head in the typing pool but I don’t think —
Lennox-Brown: Number Two! I mean have you rung this door-bell yet?
This dialogue was excised. By today’s standards it seems quite tame.
The scripts were great fun to write. Hearing the laughter generated by one’s words during the Thursday evening recording sessions was always gratifying. I always had the basic plot in my head before I started to write the scripts in longhand. I would revise and edit them as I went along before sitting down at the typewriter. It took me anything from about 8 to 16 hours to produce a finished script of about 14 pages — but not all at the one time. I had my regular day job with Mobil Oil S.A. also and reserved the script writing for evening or weekends. With today’s word processors the time factor would have been reduced significantly.
I hope these few remarks will be of interest to aficionados of the show. I am certainly proud to have played a small part in its history.
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BOOK: Campbell Crawford, has compiled a book of 13 original scripts of The Men From The Ministry episodes broadcast in 1979 and 1980. It is available through Amazon. |
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This page was arranged by Gary Schajer, Vancouver, Canada.
gary@schajer.com