Friday Flashback: Two on the Aisle
Before David and Margaret, there was Ivan and Jim.
- Published by David Knox
- on
Before David and Margaret, there was Ivan and Jim.
This month marks 50 years since Two on the Aisle, Channel Seven’s film review duo of HSV7 musical director Ivan Hutchinson and media journalist Jim Murphy.
The show was a forerunner to The Movie Show (SBS, 1986–2008) and At the Movies (ABC, 2004–2014).
With little surviving footage, the show is almost completely forgotten today. But the recent discovery of a VHS dub of the show’s final episode from December 1975 recalls a series that forged a path for film appreciation on Australian television, during an exciting time in local theatrical exhibition when our national film industry was experiencing a significant creative renaissance.
Pre-recorded on Thursday afternoons, Two on the Aisle began as a late evening half-hour series each Friday. Depending on the duration of the film or program preceding it, broadcasting commenced anytime from 10.00pm to 12.15am! Shifting to Thursdays for 1974, the series reverted to Fridays from July, where it remained until its cessation in December 1975.
Guests included Frank Thring, Charles Tingwell and Graeme Blundell, visiting British performers John Le Mesurier, Michael Craig and Eric Sykes, playwright Robert Bolt, Exorcist author William Peter Blatty, American director Rouben Mamoulian, and many others.
Final-year episodes in the colour television era doubled in duration from 30 to 60 minutes.
Interviewed at TV World Media Museum in 2004, Murphy modestly reflected, “I suppose we were pioneers in Australia, as nobody else had done a movie review program [in that way] to that point.”
You can watch clips and read more in a blog at the National Film & Sound Archive.
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3 Responses
I worked for a period of time as a stagehand at Channel Seven when they were in Dorcas Street, South Melbourne and Ron Casey was General Manager. Two on the Aisle, like most HSV7 local productions, was run on a shoe-string budget. Every Thursday morning, I had to carry three heavy chairs from the upstairs boardroom (no lifts at the time) and take them down to a tiny presentation studio to be used as part of the set for the recording of the show. Ivan and Jim were absolute gentlemen, and the last time I saw them both was at the Rivoli Cinema in Camberwell. Ivan was then undergoing treatment for cancer.
I absolutely loved reading this – thanks very much, David! I only wish I could watch every episode, in full.
Way before my time, but I recall seeing the title card during the montage that marked the end of analogue television on HSV7 here in Melbourne in 2013.