Australian Biography - Charles "Bud" Tingwell

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Tingwell

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Super: CHARLES 'BUD' TINGWELL
BORN 1923, SYDNEY
ACTOR, DIRECTOR

Dissolve to:

Tingwell sync: Once I became a sort of a fairly established professional actor as a radio actor and, and did my movies in the late forties and things, I thought, I think if I'm really to prove I'm getting anywhere I should be in Hollywood by the time I'm thirty. And I suddenly, amazingly, flukily found I was in Hollywood just before my thirtieth birthday and I realised what a stupid, empty ambition that was. And what did it mean? Nothing.

Music

Photo. Tingwell as baby on beach at Coogee with mother

Tingwell v/o: Well, it was a close family, a Coogee family in Sydney and of course that

Photo. Tingwell riding on father's back on sand

meant the surf club where I got my nickname, I'm told, before I was born.

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: What's budding there?, was said on the front at Coogee when the pregnancy was becoming obvious with Mum.

Photo. Tingwell as baby on mother's knee

Tingwell v/o: So, you know, we had a strong connection with the water

Photo. Tingwell as toddler in sea with father

and, of course, I joined the surf club as I was sixteen and got my bronze medallion and did

Photo. Tingwell as child on tricycle

all the swimming training and all that.

Interviewer o/s: When was your first memory of seeing a film

Tingwell

or play or some actor performing?

Tingwell sync: Well, I found an old photograph the other day, that's got the, a

Photo. Tingwell and siblings in park with mother

Tingwell v/o: huge tree in a park at Coogee, opposite the surf club and it

Photo. Boomerang Theatre

used to be opposite the Boomerang Cinema which isn't there now. And I can remember seeing a

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: close-up on the screen in the Boomerang Cinema and I have a feeling I must have only been about two or three,

Photo. Tingwell and father with hands on hips

and screaming in horror. But that's a very, very early memory. So I'm kind of

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: surprised, looking back, that I ever went into films.

Interviewer o/s: What was your mother like?

Photo. Tingwell's mother

Tingwell v/o: Oh Mum was great. She was small, very energetic

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: and, I think, happily disorganised.

Photo. Tingwell's mother holding him by the hand

Tingwell v/o: I vaguely remember that the house was always full of other people,

Photo. Tingwell as toddler holding baby

like a relative who didn't have anywhere to stay so they'd stay with us. And I used to wonder

Photo. Tingwell in pedal car

occasionally, I wonder what it would be like if it was just us? Because I don't remember that. There was always somebody there.

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: But that was purely out of the goodness of Mum's heart.

Photo. Tingwell family

I remember being allowed to nurse Pat, my brother, when he was born. He was born at home. But

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: I didn't know, but just before that happened, Dad had lost, had been retrenched. He was one of two cost accountants in one of the big car companies and they kept the other guy and let Dad go. And Dad apparently used to do what a lot of fellows did, pretend to go to work. Especially in the last few months.

Interviewer o/s: Because he didn't want to worry her with the

Photo. Tingwell's father

baby due.

Tingwell v/o: Sure. I think he used pretend to go to work, dress up and, you know, and

Photo. Tingwell's father

then after Pat was born, she

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: found out. And that's when I think their real battles started. And then he got a job as a humble clerk in one the government departments, and

Photo. Tingwell's parents

Tingwell v/o: so, when he won the lottery in 1937, that was a huge deal. Five thousand

Photo. Tingwell home

pounds. Gosh, and he, bought the small house we were renting

Photo. View down Carrington Road

in Carrington Road and then put me and

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: my brothers down for Sydney Grammar School to give us the opportunities that he did not have

Photo. Tingwell and brothers

Tingwell v/o: because he left school so young.

Interviewer o/s: When did you first start performing?

Photo. Tingwell and brothers in school uniform

Well, it was at Randwick Intermediate High School. I remember sitting next to Owen

Photo. Weingott

Weingott, and our English master in first year, encouraged Owen and I

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: to try to do little, pretend radio plays because we were very, very keen on the new thing called radio drama. Radio serials.

Photo. Tingwell and Weingott dressed as cowboys

Tingwell v/o: Then Owen's ambitions started to

Photo. Tingwell and Weingott dressed as cowboys in mock fight

expand and he decided that he wanted to do a classroom

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: production of A Tale of Two Cities which I thought was pretty ambitious as it's about the French revolution. And my first role was Lucy Manette in a borrowed dress of Mum's in a boys high school and it was rugby league school and probably still is and I played full back and it was pretty embarrassing.

Photo. Tingwell as teenager bathing dog

Tingwell v/o: But he used to talk me into entering radio competitions. and

Newspaper article from 'Wireless Weekly' advertising 2UE Jack Davey radio competition

I got one of the leads in a radio serial with Jack Davey as a result of that. I was in the

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: deep end with some of the best radio actors that Australia had in those days.

Photo. Tingwell as young man

Interviewer o/s: What sort of a job did you get when you left school?

Tingwell: It was a

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: cadet announcer and panel operator. And a panel operator was the person who put the records on

Archival. Panel operator

Tingwell v/o: and flicked the

Archival. Radio studio

mike switch and sometimes, as a

Archival. Woman announcer in studio

cadet announcer, you had to introduce the

Archival. Panel operator putting record on turntable

big star announcer. But you used to have to change the needles for every record

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: and I've still got little scars on the fingertips where you had to screw them up tight otherwise they sounded funny.

Clipping from 'Wireless Weekly' dated March 22, 1941 with photo of Tingwell

Tingwell v/o: Suddenly the odd picture started to appear of Charles Tingwell, the youngest announcer at 2CH and then there was one stage where I was, at one stage,

Clipping from 'Radio Pictorial of Australia' dated May 1, 1941 with photo of Tingwell

the youngest announcer in Australia. And I,

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: ashamed to admit that, I loved all that. I loved the publicity and I really thought I'd arrived and…

Photo. Tingwell and others at 2CH publicity stunt in hospital. Zoom in to Tingwell holding microphone

Interviewer o/s: Were you paid well?

Tingwell v/o: Three pounds a week.

Interviewer o/s: Did you have a girlfriend?

Tingwell v/o: I, ah,

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: no, was a bit nervous about girls. You know, I wasn't too sure. All these strange reactions you got if you saw a pretty girl. I thought, and I hadn't read enough books about all that. But, I didn't feel anything, but at the end of one school year, I think it was my final school year, a great friend of Mum's had a daughter, Patricia. And Patricia said to me one day, you must meet Audrey Wilson.

Photo. Audrey and Bud

Tingwell v/o: I remember, can still remember, opening the front door in Coogee and seeing this breathtaking girl.

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: And I was gone from that moment on.

Photo. Audrey

Tingwell v/o: Then when I went away in the Air Force we were, will you

Photo. Detail Tingwell in Air Force uniform

wait for me? Oh yeah, of course. So we had the

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: understanding and I bought an engagement ring in Cairo,

Photo. Tingwell beside photo of Audrey

Tingwell v/o: so we got engaged.

Interviewer o/s: What did you do

Photo. Tingwell looking at photo of Audrey

in the air force ?

Tingwell v/o: I learnt to fly Spitfires and

Photo. Tingwell in uniform beside plane

things like that and did this pretty amazing sort of

Photo. Spitfire flying over pyramid

job of flying an aircraft loaded with sophisticated cameras

Photo. Tingwell in cockpit of plane

and flying over wherever the enemy were. And, some targets

Photo. Aerial of Athens [?]

were more dangerous than others and Athens was a tough one. Salonika was a really tough one.

Interviewer o/s: How did you

Tingwell

avoid being shot down?

Tingwell sync: Pure luck. Pure luck. Especially once we started a run, we had to fly straight and level and that gave the gunners plenty of time to have a good look at us.

Photo. Cloudy sky

Tingwell v/o: But one moment when I thought I was really crashing in a Spitfire, I got caught in bad cloud.

Photo. Tingwell in cockpit of plane

So I was probably at about five hundred miles an hour going down vertically.

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: And there was the water straight ahead of me. And I can remember letting everything go thinking, ah, this is it. And it was the calmest feeling I can ever remember having. It was extraordinary. Then I realised I hadn't hit the water yet, grabbed the control column, hauled back on it.

Photo. Tingwell in cockpit of plane

Tingwell v/o: And I staggered across the top of the water.

Tingwell. Slow zoom out to MCU

Tingwell sync: But I've never forgotten that extraordinary feeling of calm for probably only a split second but in my memory it was longer than that. Couldn't have been or else I'd have been in the water. And so I was safe.

Photo. Tingwell standing in cockpit of plane

Tingwell v/o: I think any of us who'd flown as long as, I suppose, I

Photo. Tingwell and flying squadron

had and, you know, a lot of others, we were all probably a bit of a quiet

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: mess inside that we weren't either too sure about or hid it well.

Photo Tingwell and fellow airmen in front of plane

Tingwell v/o: Maybe drank a few too many beers and things.

Interviewer o/s: Do you remember the homecoming?

Tingwell v/o: Very

Photo. Tingwell in uniform

much, yeah, yeah. And I've got a photograph to prove it which I didn't know had been taken.

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: Years and years later, well after the war, there was an article in a women's magazine about how to treat your man when he comes out of the services. And there was a photograph of two people kissing, you couldn't quite see their faces,

Photo. Audrey and Tingwell kissing

Tingwell v/o: and the woman's hand had a glove on it and a little bracelet

Photo. Same as previous. Slightly wider shot

on. And I recognised the bracelet. I'd bought it in Bethlehem.

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: And I raced into the newspaper office, can I see the original photograph? And then I saw the full print,

Photo. Detail. Tingwell's mother

Tingwell v/o: and there was Mum, Mum there,

Photo. Detail. Tingwell's Father

Dad there and my little brother, now

Photo. Full sized print of previous details. Tingwell's homecoming

towering over us. So I remember the homecoming terribly well, largely through that photograph.

Interviewer o/s: You didn't marry Audrey

Photo. Audrey and Tingwell's wedding photo

until six years after the war ended - why did you wait so long?

Tingwell v/o: Oh, we couldn't find a flat

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: and you didn't get married unless you could find a flat. And you had to have somewhere. And by then Audrey, it was tough for her because she loved the thought of flying. Her mother wouldn't let her join the Air Force. She wanted to join the Air Force when I did.

Archival. TAA jet in sky

Tingwell v/o: But eventually Audrey got into Trans Australia Airlines as an air hostess

Archival. Air hostess in plane

Tingwell v/o: as they were then properly called. And

Archival. Air hostess tends passenger

I remember ringing Audrey from Sydney saying, Darl, we can get married, I've got a flat.

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: And I remember the little pause that said, oh good. Because she was loving flying. The thing was

Photo. Tingwell and Audrey sign wedding register

Tingwell sync: the moment she indicated she was going to get married, she had to resign.

Photo. Audrey wedding photo

Tingwell v/o: You weren't allowed to fly and be married under those postwar regulations.

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: So, the pause was, oh dear, yes I'll get married but now I've got to lose this wonderful job.

Photo. Tingwell and Audrey

Interviewer o/s: How did you get your first role in a film ?

Tingwell v/o: My mother

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: said, ah, they're making a film called 'Smithy'; you'd make a wonderful Smithy and you know where Cinesound is. Why don't you go out? And I was a flight lieutenant and I had wings and

Photo. Tingwell in uniform smoking

Tingwell v/o: some service ribbons and things. And the casting director

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: said, "Have you come about a part?" I said, yes. "He said, "Is that your own uniform?" I said, yes. "Can you read lines? I said, yeah. He said, "Good, you're in, providing you bring your own uniform."

Excerpt -- 'Smithy' [1 shot]

Super: 'Smithy' -- 1946

Tingwell v/o: So they cast me as the control tower officer at the beginning of the film

Interviewer o/s: By the time you did your second

Photo. Still from 'Always Another Dawn'

film, you were playing the lead.

Tingwell v/o: Yes.

Interviewer o/s: What film was that?

Tingwell v/o: A film called Always Another Dawn. It was

Excerpt -- Always Another Dawn [3 shots]

Super: 'Always Another Dawn' -- 1947

set, had a naval background. It was sort of based on a rather gallant action by one of the Australian naval ships which was sunk in a naval battle.

'Always Another Dawn' film poster

Interviewer o/s: Did you have a love interest?

Tingwell v/o: Yes, Betty McDowell, she was the girlfriend.

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: Played by one of our very good actresses in Sydney at the time.

Excerpt -- Always Another Dawn [3 shots]

Interviewer o/s: Where did the chance to go to Hollywood to work on the film

Tingwell

'Desert Rats' come from ?

Tingwell sync: Totally out of the blue. I'd played the role with 20th Century Fox in 'Kangaroo'.

Photo. 'Kangaroo' still

Tingwell v/o: In '52 a very fine radio producer in

Photo. Tingwell

Sydney called Grace Gibson, suddenly decided she wanted to make

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: a television movie in 1952, four years before telly started in Australia.

Excerpt: Al Munch [7 shots]

Super: 'Al Munch' -- 1952

Tingwell v/o: So she decided the story line wouldn't be bad if we had an American ex-GI who stayed in Australia. And that was one of the reasons I was invited to Hollywood.

Newspaper article. Headline: 'Australian Actor Finds Hollywood Not Worth The Money Offering.'

Interviewer o/s: You knocked back a Hollywood contract to come home and work on a film with Chips

Photo. Chips Rafferty. Pan right to Tingwell

Rafferty. What was the attraction?

Tingwell v/o: We did things underwater that had never been done before.

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: They'd written in a scene, almost the inevitable scene in an

Excerpt: King of the Coral Sea [15 shots]

Super: 'King of the Coral Sea' -- 1954

Tingwell v/o: underwater movie. The man in the helmet gets caught and the airline is fouled and the water's going to rise up in the helmet

And the scene was me coming down gallantly with the aqua lung to see what was wrong, and seeing that he was trapped, and the water was filling up and I took the mouthpiece out of the aqua lung and put it up under the collar of the thing. Now, until we did it, we didn't know whether it'd work.

And that huge mass of bubbles and Chips' face appears. And he's got this wonderful grin on his face, the most realistic bit of acting you've ever seen because it worked.

So that was remarkable stuff.

Newspaper advertisement. Headline: 'There's a lady in distress'

Interviewer o/s: And your career was going well in Australia when you went off to London to finish 'The Shiralee'

Photo. Audrey and Tingwell

with Peter Finch. What made you stay there?

Tingwell v/o: We hadn't intended to stay.

Photo. Tingwell and Audrey

And I accidentally got trapped in London

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: for sixteen years. Because all sorts of amazing things happened.

Photo. 'Emergency Ward 10' Still

Tingwell v/o: I'd got that part in Emergency Ward 10, which was only to be a fill-in program

Photo. Tingwell surrounded by fans

and it took off like a rocket and we were all suddenly, you know, the number one show and things

Photo. 'Emergency Ward 10' Still

and, I did six years in that show on three month contracts.

Photo. 'Emergency Ward 10' Still

Live to air. No recording of any kind.

Photo. Tingwell with four nurses

And one of the publicity people worked out that the possible viewing

Photo. Tingwell signs autograph

audience per episode was twenty seven million.

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: And we begged him never to use those words again in front of us. Because we were live to air and the thought of half the population of the United Kingdom watching us was too alarming.

Photo. 'Emergency Ward 10' Still

Interviewer o/s: You were very much the love interest in 'Emergency Ward

Photo. Tingwell and other men with Beauty Queens

10'. How did Audrey feel generally about your screen romances?

Photo. Stills from '54321' [3 stills]

Tingwell v/o: She said something very wise to a dear friend of ours once and I was doing a stage play. And I had to kiss the leading lady about four or five times during the and she said to Audrey, aren't you worried that, you know, Bud

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: having to kiss this very beautiful girl. Aren't you worried that he might be enjoying it? She said, Audrey said, I'd be much more worried if he wasn't. And so I didn't take that as a, you know, have fun darling but I thought it was a rather wise thought.

Photo. Tingwell and Audrey in evening dress

Interviewer o/s: Was Audrey a good critic of your work?

Tingwell v/o: Ooh yeah. Ooh

Photo. Tingwell and Audrey in restaurant

yeah.

Interviewer o/s: Was she a severe critic?

Tingwell v/o: Relatively.

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: Knew, I think, like most actors my ego's a bit fragile. But, yeah, if she said, no, good Darl, it was probably alright. It was, how's that? Yeah, good Darl, yeah alright. Marvellous judge of scripts.

Photo. Tingwell and Audrey holding baby

Interviewer o/s: When your children were born during that time in London -

Photo. Tingwell holding baby

how did you like being a father?

Tingwell v/o: Oh, I,

Photo. Audrey pushing Tingwell and young child on swing

I loved that. It was great. I was at the birth of both of them.

Photo. Tingwell, Audrey Christopher and Virginia

I know with the morning Christopher was born,

Photo. Tingwell with Christopher and Virginia

he was born at twenty to eight And I always went crook at her, because her first words about

Photo. Audrey and Tingwell hold new born Christopher

him when she looked at him, she said, he looks like Edward G. Robinson.

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: What! But, yeah, that was great. And the same thing happened

Photo. Tingwell holds baby Virginia

Tingwell v/o: with Virginia, except that she didn't look anything like Edward G. Robinson.

Photo. Tingwell family around table wearing paper hats

Interviewer o/s: Did being one of the best known faces

Photo. Tingwell family on English street

in Britain bring any difficulties for you ?

Tingwell v/o: Yes,

Photo. Tingwell family beside car

I was doing a stage play and I went in to buy the cast a drink.

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: And a bloke got my autograph for his girlfriend. I had to borrow a pen, and as I was handing the pen back he said, thanks very much and whacked and punched me on the side of the head. I looked round, and he was quite a big bloke, young fellow. I said, what was that for? He said, "My girlfriend's a great fan of yours, so there."

Photo. Tingwell and two men look at girl in bikini. Women stand at back

Tingwell v/o: I thought, oh, thanks very much. But then there was a lovely photograph

Photo. Tingwell and Audrey with baby Christopher

on one of the afternoon papers of Audrey and I either bathing or weighing Christopher. And late

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: that night I got a threatening call about him.

Photo. Tingwell lifts baby Christopher. Audrey looks on

Tingwell v/o: But we were about to move to a house and the police said, do us a favour and don't be in the phone book. So

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: I've not been in the phone book anywhere ever since and it is a bit of a nuisance not being available to your friends, I suppose. But it wiped a lot of the glamour off fame, you know.

Photo. Tingwell family beside fireplace

Interviewer o/s: What eventually brought you back home to Australia?

Tingwell v/o: I played the lead in a comedy

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: in London for two years. A play called 'There's a Girl in My Soup'. And I wasn't the original guy, but I took over when it had three months to run and the enormously thing was that it took off and it ran for two years and when I left it folded. So my agent said, don't you dare leave London. I said, no, and that's when we came home to see my mum.

Photo. Tingwell's parents

Tingwell v/o: Dad had died when we were away, unfortunately. So that's what brought me back. Purely a sentimental personal trip home.

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: But I did have a letter from Hector Crawford before we left London, said, if you've got the time, I know you're on a personal trip, but do some work for us.

Excerpt 'Homicide' [4 shots]

Tingwell v/o: And I loved it so, and that's how, that's what brought us back.

Interviewer o/s: We know

Photo. 'Homicide' publicity still

Crawford's as a major commercial pioneer of a lot of the early Australian drama series,

Photo. Tingwell and Hector Crawford

but what was it like as a place to work?

Tingwell v/o: I loved it because in

Photo. 'Homicide' video tapes. Tilt up to Tingwell

a way it was like the very best of the old American big studio system but on a smaller scale.

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: And there was this marvellous feeling of, of show biz right across the board.

Photo. Tingwell behind camera wearing headphones

Interviewer o/s: And you did some television directing with them too, didn't you?

Tingwell v/o: Yes I did.

Photo. Tingwell holding clipboard in TV studio

Well, I had asked Hector if I stay on

Photo. Tingwell framing shot with hands

in 'Homicide', is there any chance of doing a bit of directing and producing?

Photo. Tingwell in baseball cap with headphones around his neck

And then I became a regular director on 'The Sullivans' and then produced a few things

Photo. Tingwell with movieola

here and there. And, so that sort of launched my

Photo. Tingwell in video edit suite

directing, producing career. And did a bit of acting

Photo. Tingwell looks over the top of his spectacles

as well, too.

Interviewer o/s: You've played a lot of

Tingwell. Slow zoom in to BCU

supporting roles and some people say that's not a very good idea for someone who's very earliest film role was a lead.

Tingwell sync: Yeah. I think I worked out that particularly in Australia, you can have a bit of trouble paying the rent if you only play leads. I love the fact that I was, frankly, happy to play anything.

Photo. Tingwell kissing horse's nose. Zoom out to CU (from ABC production, House Rules)

Tingwell v/o: And I'm still like that and I still do things that people say, you know,

Photo. Production still. Tingwell dressed and old bushman

should you have done that role? And, I don't know, I've, I've never been

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: mad about being a star. And, in fact I always remember hearing Peggy Ashcroft admonishing an interviewer when he said, and what does it feel like to be a star at your age or something? Oh, please don't use that word.

Photo. Tingwell in 'Breaker Morant'

Tingwell v/o: Now we all sort of know what it means we think but I've never had

Photo. Tingwell in 'Breaker Morant'

that ambition. I love being handed a good role,

Photo. Tingwell and others in 'Breaker Morant'

even if it's only a short role. And really, if you keep your

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: wits about you, you can learn from everything you do. And I used to love that. Still do.

Interviewer o/s: During the seventies and eighties you

Photo. Production still -- Tingwell and Sigrid Thornton

never stopped working, but then you seemed to give it up for quite a while.

Photo. Production Still -- Tingwell

Tingwell v/o: Yes, it was a while, mainly, dare I say,

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: because my wife became less and less well and was quite seriously ill. She was still at home and I was once described as the sole carer by the community people who came to the house to see if was safe, and to put handrails in and things like that. And I thought, sole carer? No, I'm just looking after my wife, you know, as you do. But, it suddenly alerted me to the fact that it was much more serious. So I was really restricting myself to doing voice-overs and things that didn't keep me out of the house very long.

Photo. Tingwell and Audrey

Tingwell v/o: So I think people had got into the habit of realising that I wasn't available.

Photo. Detail of previous. Audrey

I remember when Audrey died, I was, I was, you know, quite happy

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: to sort of sit there and do nothing and think a lot and probably get sick and not be very well, I would think. But it was only the work that saved me.

Excerpt -- 'The Castle' [4 shots]

Super: 'The Castle' -- 1996

Tingwell

Interviewer o/s: How important was it in your recovery from Audrey's death that you took that role, do you think?

Tingwell sync: Very important. It didn't stop the down sides. You know, home from the studio or wherever we'd been shooting. It still got a bit lonely and I think I would have, I would have loved her to have read the script.

Photo. Tingwell embraces Audrey

Tingwell v/o: But…

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: It also then, when the film came out, of course, we had this extraordinary reaction to it. And it said, oh, he's up and about again is he? He's doing a bit of work. So, that sort of, and since then, since 'The Castle', I've had I think the six busiest years I've ever had. It's been extraordinary.

Music

Excerpt -- Tulip [9 shots]

Super: 'Tulip' -- 1997

Interviewer o/s: You did a short film directed by Rachel Griffiths which was quite autobiographical. Was that hard for you?

Tingwell v/o: Yes, it was close to the bone. It was, you know, a chap getting over from, his wife had just died. And Rachel, as a director, was superb because I don't remember talking about anything else other than what the man was actually thinking because cameras are accurate and photograph that.

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: So, in every way, it worked as a wonderful experiment.

DVD Cover for 'Innocence' Slow zoom in to CU

Interviewer o/s: And then you made 'Innocence' with Paul Cox. Did you enjoy working with him?

Tingwell v/o: Oh yes.

Tingwell

Tingwell sync: To me he's the master director.

Excerpt 'Innocence' [4 shots]

Super: 'Innocence' -- 1999

Tingwell v/o: And, or in the case of 'Innocence', his, he told me that long before we made the movie, he had this, this feeling, this understanding that people don't change inwardly as they grow older but, and are capable of hatred, love, falling in love, all sorts of things. And then, in my own experience, of now being very much older, very accurate too.

Interviewer o/s: Right now, at this point in time, what are you thinking about your career? What's next for you,

Tingwell. Slow zoom in to CU

Bud?

Tingwell sync: I frankly have no ambitions at all left. Or no, I was always nervous about ambitions because they can lead you astray sometimes. However, I frankly just want to do what I'm doing. I have been asked by three or four publishers now to think about doing a book and I've at last agreed, God, this sounds awful doesn't it? I've agreed to do one.

Photo. Younger Tingwell dressed as cowboy

Tingwell v/o: But I confess I so love mucking about

Photo. Tingwell at 2UE microphone

and being an actor and, yeah, even

Photo. Tingwell and Jackie Weaver from ABC production, House Rules

directing a bit, that I don't want to not do what I've been doing,

Photo. Tingwell dressed as cleric

certainly over the last six years. It's been absolutely fantastic. If my health holds up,

Poster for 'The Carer'

I just want to potter along doing all those.

Photo. Tingwell with Steve Bisley

And none of them, I have to say,

Tingwell

Freeze frame at end of dialogue

Fade to black

Tingwell sync: I wonder if it's good for my career? I frankly don't care. Sounds like fun. Not fun, you know, beaut, the whole thing.

Music

Credits begin:

Interviewer
ROBIN HUGHES

Editor
KIM MOODIE

Director of Photography
NICHOLAS SHERMAN ACS

Sound Recordist
ROB WANLESS

Researcher and
Production Manager
KARINN CHEUNG

Sound Post Production
DIGITAL CITY STUDIOS

Online Edit
VISUALEYES

Transcripts
CLEVERTYPES

Music

Credits continue:
FILM AUSTRALIA PRODUCTION UNIT

Business Affairs Manager
SALLY REGAN

Production Liaison
ISABEL PEREZ

Production Accountant
LISA CALDER

Executive Producer's Assistant
REBECCA WEBB

Production Assistant
SALLY CREAGH

With Thanks To
THE TINGWELL FAMILY
CRAWFORD PRODUCTIONS
ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA
FILM AUSTRALIA LIBRARY
AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION
CONTENT SALES
ALAN HOPGOOD - BAY STREET PRODUCTIONS
AFI LIBRARY & RESEARCH SERVICES
MITCHELL LIBRARY, STATE LIBRARY OF NSW
SOUTH AUSTRALIAN FILM CORPORATION
JEFF BUSBY
DAVID PARKER

'Smithy' & 'Always Another Dawn'
courtesy of ScreenSound Australia,
The National Screen and Sound Archive

Still from 'Kangaroo' courtesy of
Twentieth Century Fox. All rights reserved

'Al Munch' courtesy of
Grace Gibson Radio Productions

'King of the Coral Sea'
courtesy of Penn Robinson

'Emergency Ward 10' photographs
courtesy of Carlton International Media Limited/LFI

'Homicide' footage courtesy of
Crawfords Australia and Seven Network

'The Castle' footage courtesy of
Working Dog Pty Ltd

'Tulip' courtesy of
Rachel Griffiths, Louise Smith & Zealot

'Innocence' courtesy of
Paul Cox, Illumination Films

Produced in association with
SBS-TV AUSTRALIA

(single card)
Series Producer &
Director
ROD FREEDMAN

(single card)
Executive Producer
MARK HAMLYN

(closer copyright logo single card)

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Film Australia Ltd
© MMIII
www.filmaust.com.au