Share
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
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.
