Ben Hall

1 9 7 5 - 1 9 7 6 (Australia)
13 x 60 minute episodes

The storyline of this Australian series centred on the bushranger, Frank Gardiner, and two others who murder  a trooper and escape from custody. They head for Weogo, near Forbes, the home of Gardiner's 'woman', Kate Walsh. The trio take horses from another settler, Ben Hall. 

Hall pursues them but when troopers follow, Hall helps Gardiner escape. Hall then marries Biddy but a drought forces them off their property. He is then wrongfully identified as a perpetrator of a hold-up and murder, but a last minute confession saves him from the gallows. Hall moves to the gold fields and helps Gardiner in a stagecoach hold-up. He also helps organize the gold diggers in a strike for land rights, however a price is put on his head and he is finally killed by the troopers.

This was the largest Australian co-production to date, undertaken with two giant partners - the BBC and 20th Century Fox. The series cost $2 Million and was produced by the ABC at its film studios in Sydney's French's Forest as a mixture of cowboy adventure and Australian nationalism. 

The series took many poetic liberties which were challenged by several critics at the time. Most contentious at the time was the casting of British actor Jon Finch in the central role. If Ben Hall does have a fault, it is its length. At thirteen hours, the series was too long to maintain complete interest in the central thread.