Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), Wednesday 9 January 1974, page 18
SYDNEY SCENE WITH
A DASH OF EXTRA
SPICE
Channel Nine's new series, "Shannon's Mob", weaves thrilling plots from a web of international intrigue against familiar backgrounds of the
Sydney scene.
THEY'VE begun
shooting "Shannon's Mob," the new thriller series to be shown this
year on National Nine
Network.
If the first few episodes are any example it looks like being not only an exciting series with a cosmopolitan flavor, but also a marvellous travel film of Sydney.
A variety of locations in and around the city have
been used and the Harbor
figures prominently. For the first episode "Not Without Incident," the scene switches from an orange orchard at Dural, on the outskirts of Sydney, to the city markets, to a wharf in Balmain, and a boat trip on the Harbor.
Landmarks like the
Opera House, Bridge, city skyline form the background.
"Shannon's Mob" is
being made in color by
Fauna Films for local and
possible overseas distribu-tion. Each hour-long episode will be complete in itself and deal with illegal activities in the community of a political or criminal nature mainly
with international connec-tions.
Right: Greengrocers Mr. and Mrs. Pellini (Diana Perryman and Ron Had-drick) are questioned by Guardino, an international agent, about criminal activities in the city markets. A Kings Cross gambling den and a cockroach-infested ter-race house are other set-
tings for this secret-society drama.
They are problems that particularly concern the government and "Shannon's Mob" have been given the task of uncovering them.
The "Mob" is an
intelligence organisation headed in Canberra by Dave Shannon who never appears on the screen. Its official
name is Federal Intelligence and Security Control Organisation - FIASCO for
short.
The two undercover
agents assigned to Sydney are astute and daring types
named Andrew Blake
Secret agent Mike Jamieson (Frank Gal-lacher) on board the steamer John Oxley at Balmain jetty with a
member of the crew
(Anthony Wheeler) in
a scene from the first
episode of "Shannon's
Mob."
New Channel Nine series
(Robin Ramsay) and Mike Jamieson (Frank Gallacher). They will have sustaining roles throughout the 26 episodes, supported in each by leading Australian actors and actresses in guest
appearances.
All the scripts are fiction
based on a certain amount of fact. For instance, "Not Without Incident" highlights the opposing views of
Serbian and Croatian
migrants.
An important political visitor from a Balkan country is due to arrive in Sydney by sea. He is being protected by the government.
A crowd of welcoming migrants have hired a boat, the John Oxley, to greet him in mid-Harbor. FIASCO gets wind of a plot to assassinate the VIP, and Mike and Andrew are assigned to
uncover it.
John Oxley is the real
name of the boat. It is an old steamer of 500 tons that was once a Queensland harbor pilot boat. It is tied up at Nicholson Street Wharf, Balmain, an inner city suburb, as an exhibit administered by the Sydney
Cove Waterfront Museum, who lent the boat for the film.
The passengers on the
boat - about 100 men, women, and children - were real migrants, recently arrived in Australia, staying at the South Coogee migrant hostel, and hired as film
extras.
In this episode Tom Farley plays Pillitz, the important visitor.
The second episode, dealing with Mafia-type underground activities, is titled "Nothing Else to
Lose."
Guest actors in this
episode are Diana Perryman
and Ron Haddrick as Mr.
and Mrs. Pellini, frightened Italian greengrocers, and Alexander Hay as an international agent chasing a
crook on the run from the
United States, with the help
of "Shannon's Mob."
Both Robin Ramsay and Frank Gallacher are ex-
perienced actors. Robin is perhaps best known to TV viewers as the late Charlie Cousens of "Bellbird."
On stage more recently he has played Pontius Pilate in "Jesus Christ Superstar," and appeared in the Old Tote production of "The Threepenny Opera" at the Sydney Opera House.
Frank has had a good deal of stage experience, and on television has played roles in "Boney" and "Division 4."
JOYCE BURNARD