Taurus Rising
1 9 8 2 (Australia)
Taurus Rising was meant to be Dallas Down Under
but ended up being Dullest Down Under. Its hero was meant to be
meaner than JR Ewing but ended up just colder.
This was the soap that proved a rich swine has to lose now and
then if he wants people to love to hate him. Wickedness can be
boring.
This expensive disaster was created in 1982. The Grundy
Organisation spent $4.5 million on it - only to find that Channel
9 were screening it on Tuesday nights to clash with the extremely
successful Prisoner on Channel 10.
Eventually it was moved to a Saturday slot but the audiences
didn't perk up. What rose in July had sunk without trace by the
end of the year.
The Brent family and the Drysdale family were both big in the
construction industry and they wanted to destroy each other. The
men were faithless and the women were vengeful. The late Harry
Brent had loved and left old Isabella Drysdale who'd brought up
her family to hate the Brents.
Ben Drysdale, her son, had rogered Jennifer Brent who'd had a
son (hint, hint - his) and when Drysdale's wife found out she
drove off with their two little sons, then crashed and killed one.
She'd been batty ever since and Ben ('The Skyscraper King')
treated her like dirt.
As the series began Jennifer Brent (played by yummy Annette
Andre of Randall & Hopkirk : Deceased fame) and her son
Mike had inherited the family firm from Harry and had swept into
town breathing fire and fury. Drysdale had meanwhile found enough
time mid wheeler-dealing to fix his amorous attentions on
beautiful journalist Diane Craig whom he had set up in a lavish
flat, though she wanted to write an in-depth article about him.
But his problems really began when his disturbed grandson and
the new teacher hired to help were kidnapped . . .
Made on film (rather than video), Taurus Rising
certainly looked glossy. There were Rolls Royce's, private jets
and wood-panelled offices. And the actresses changed outfits five
times an hour.
But as Ben Drysdale, Alan Caswell never looked like a tycoon
who enjoyed all that loot. Perhaps knowing that he'd taken up
acting after ten years as a trimmer in the motor trade spoiled the
effect.
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