Australian
Screen

Clip description

The Sullivan family, like people everywhere, gather around their radio to hear the declaration of war. Featured in this clip are Dave (Paul Cronin) and Grace Sullivan (Lorraine Bayly); their children Kitty (Susan Hannaford), Terry (Richard Morgan), Tom (Steven Tandy) and John (Andrew McFarlane); divorcee and publican Maggie Hayward (Vicki Hammond), who receives the news alone; local gossip Mrs Jessop (Vivian Gray), with her lodgers Bert and Lili Duggan (Peter Hehir and Noni Hazelhurst); and the Kauffmans (Leon Lissik and Marcella Burgoyne), with daughter Anna (Ingrid Mason). The latter group, having already experienced racial abuse for being German, understand that now it will only get worse.

Curator’s notes

The declaration of war uses a mixture of specially recorded voice-over (John McMahon) cut together with historical recordings from Neville Chamberlain and Robert Menzies. The technique of using actual recordings and, later in the series, actual footage from the war added greatly to the credibility of the series. In 1976 when it was first aired, there were many in the audience who still remembered hearing that announcement live. Reliving the experience with an audience that included a younger generation did much to bring the characters in The Sullivans to life.

Note that the producers delayed the declaration of war until the end of the first week’s episodes of the series, counting on the fact that by this time viewers would be familiar enough with the regular characters to know what the declaration of global war meant to each of them. As a consequence the sequence is taut with emotion, even though most of the characters barely speak.

You can listen to the full Menzies Speech: Declaration of War (1939) on this website.