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Touch the Sun – Top Enders (1988)

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clip 'You wanna race?'

Original classification rating: G. This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

Alice (Bennendine Woods) is learning to drive her mother Sue’s (Madeleine Blackwell) minimoke. At the lights Mick (Donald Dale), a classmate from school and his uncle Roy (Tom Lewis) are pretty impressed when they see her driving. Roy offers to race her and Alice takes him on. That night, Alice asks her mum if they are alright, worried that they might be different.

Curator’s notes

by Annemaree O'Brien

The tone of the story is set in this daring opening scene with young Alice casually driving the minimoke. The competitive ‘hoon’ aspect is acknowledged in a good natured way, but is tempered by Alice’s serious demeanour and her cool but determined acceptance of Mick’s friendly challenge to race. This scene was shot with all safety precautions taken, using stand-ins, clever use of the camera and judicious editing.

This side of Alice’s character really makes the story a much more interesting one but the idea of having a child driving a car did cause some disquiet at the time. Like the Australian Children’s Television Foundation’s earlier production Just Friends from the Winners series which portrayed smoking and shoplifting, Top Enders was criticised by a few who saw Alice’s behaviour as poor modelling. Still, considering the era in which this was filmed, it was perhaps more likely then, than now, to find children in the country able to drive at this age.

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australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

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ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

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