Ben Hall

'Ben Hall' premiered just months after colour television officially started in Australia, and was a revelation about what Australian TV was capable of doing. (We got our own colour TV about that time!) The BBC and 20th Century Fox had a hand in the production along with the ABC, which must have given it a bigger budget. Jon Finch (playing Ben Hall) had starred in Polanski's 'Macbeth' (1971) and Hitchcock's 'Frenzy' (1972), and had turned down the role of James Bond in 'Live and Let Die' (1973) - he brings great pathos to the role of a man who felt driven to outlawry. (Unlike the more famous bushranger Ned Kelly, Hall never killed anyone!) Brian Blain is also very good as the 'remittance man' (black sheep of a rich family, paid a 'remittance' to stay out of England) Sir Frederick Pottinger, who was completely out of his depth as the police inspector sent to catch Hall.