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Division 4 – The Return of John Kelso (1971)

play Violence – low
clip ‘Get stuck into him’

This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

Albert Crone (Edward Hepple) and Willie Aspinall (Robert McDarra), scared for their safety, have recruited George Flack (Gerard Maguire) to confront John Kelso (John Fegan). As Flack beats up Kelso, Albert, Willie and their neighbours Mrs Roche (Joan Letch), Mrs Wicks (Marguerite Loftus) and Mrs Laver (Christine Calcutt), watch through their curtains.

Curator’s notes

Communicating in whispered rumours and watching from behind closed curtains are motifs throughout this episode, building a portrait of a claustrophobic community caught in a cycle of cowardice and cruelty.

This disturbing sequence makes the street into a stage as the neighbours watch the spectacle from their windows. It is perhaps not quite the spectacle they might have expected – Kelso does not fight back and the scene is made all the more disturbing by this.