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Marianne — The Story of the Toymaker of Tiefencastel — Restored Video

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

“Marianne” is the last of the seven “Christmas Pantomimes” produced at GTV9, Melbourne, between 1957 and 1963. Subtitled “The Story of the Toymaker of Tiefencastel” it is a fictional story set in a Swiss mountain village. It was by far the most ambitious of these Christmas fantasies, with a number of professional actors and singers and two dance companies. The story takes place in two completely different “realms” — the town square of Tiefencastel, and the magical, miniature world of Toyland.

Gerrys Big Show in Pieces

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Earlier posts in this blog have documented some history and legacy of The Adventures of Gerry Gee, a unique children’s adventure series made at GTV9 circa 1959–1960 and originally shown on The Happy/Tarax Show.

The Fate of Gerry’s Big Show

Gerry’s Big Show was one of the stories in the series. It is in four parts.

The previous post “A Cross-Reference of Known Remaining Episodes of The Adventures of Gerry Gee” documents the known locations of three of these episodes:

The Songs of Denzil Howson and Margot Sheridan

Wed, 02 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

At least four of the Tarax Show Christmas Pantomimes, produced at GTV9 from 1957 to 1963, were in fact musicals and featured original songs with words by Denzil Howson and music by Margot Sheridan. In this post we will catalog these original songs, the lyrics and some recordings from the original soundtracks.

Denzil Howson and Margot Sheridan registered copyright on the words and music with the Australasian Performing Rights Association [APRA] in November 1964:

A Cross-Reference of Known Remaining Episodes of The Adventures of Gerry Gee

Thu, 06 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The previous four articles on this blog have catalogued an investigation into the fate of the film reels of The Adventures of Gerry Gee. These were:

A Peek into “The Adventures of Gerry Gee” Episodes Not Seen for 60 Years.
Another Episode of The Adventures of Gerry Gee Turns up in Private Hands.
A GTV9 Tipoff Regarding the Missing Episodes of The Adventures of Gerry Gee.
Missing Gerry Gee Episodes Re-Discovered at the NFSA.

A Discovery Timeline

A timeline of my discoveries about these film reels is:

Missing Gerry Gee Episodes Re-Discovered at the NFSA

Thu, 04 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

In the previous post, we determined that at least some of the missing episodes of The Adventures of Gerry Gee that had been re-discovered at GTV9 circa 1991 (a fact documented by both Ron Blaskett and Denzil Howson) had been retained in the GTV9 vault at Bendigo Street until the move to Docklands circa 2010. We also presented evidence from GTV9 staff member Peter Corrigan that these film reels had at that time been transferred to the National Film and Sound Archive. We even had an NFSA acquisition number to confirm the transfer.

A GTV9 Tipoff Regarding the Missing Episodes of The Adventures of Gerry Gee

Wed, 03 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Publication of the article The Mystery of the Lost and Found Episodes of The Adventures of Gerry Gee has turned up yet more leads about the whereabouts of the missing episodes.

In that article I mentioned how Ron Blaskett had written in his book “You, Me and Gerry Gee” that in 1991 some reels of the series had been re-discovered in the GTV9 archives:

“Denzil and I were called to GTV9 in October 1991, as some old film had been found in the archives — and here was the series that had been missing for 25 years — what treasures! Now we’ve had them transferred to videotape.”

Another Episode of The Adventures of Gerry Gee Turns up in Private Hands

Thu, 28 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

In February 2019 I received an email from a lady named Evelyn who had read the blog post on this website about the missing episodes of The Adventures of Gerry Gee:

I just thought I’d let you know that I have an episode of the show on 16mm film that goes for about 5–6 minutes. The condition of the print is okay but unfortunately it has been heavily used and there are many splices which sometimes interrupt dialogue. The title of the episode is “Gerry’s Big Show”, although I am uncertain what part. Should you ever require it for scanning, etc, please let me know as I would be happy to loan it to you, however I suppose it would be a last resort due to the splices.

A Peek into “The Adventures of Gerry Gee” Episodes Not Seen for 60 Years

Thu, 21 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Scanning The Adventures of Gerry Gee

If you’ve read the earlier post The Mystery of the Lost and Found Episodes of The Adventures of Gerry Gee, you’ll recall that:

A handful of full or partial episodes of the series on 16mm film are known to exist.
Four of these episodes were in Denzil Howson’s collection.
Work was proceeding on preparing these four episodes for digital scanning and restoration.

These four episodes have now been scanned at Cameraquip in South Melbourne on a Digital Vision Golden Eye scanner at 2K resolution. In addition the scans have been digitally processed to stabilise the image (i.e. to minimise the “jitter” characteristic of film) and to reduce somewhat the visible dust marks.

Progress Report on Restoring the Tarax Show Christmas Pantomimes

Wed, 20 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Restoration of the Tarax Show Christmas Pantomimes has been moving ahead in fits and starts. My initial focus has been on the final, most technically ambitious of these productions, “Marianne” from 1963. A digital scan of the 16mm kine has been stabilised to remove jitter and has been treated for removal of dust marks. The soundtrack is currently being repaired and restored, so making this available for your enjoyment is getting closer.

The Mystery of the Lost and Found Episodes of The Adventures of Gerry Gee

Wed, 21 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Do you remember The Adventures of Gerry Gee — the serial on the Tarax Show in which Gerry Gee solved crimes, saved maidens in distress or rescued his friend Ron Blaskett? They were innovative and imaginative and would be regarded as historical treasures today. But whatever happened to them? In this blog post I want to dig a bit deeper into the fate of those films.

Note: This blog post was updated with new information in September 2020.

The Adventures of Gerry Gee at the NFSA — A New Acquisition

Thu, 12 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Earlier this year I paid a visit to the National Film and Sound Archive Melbourne office and met with Helen Tully who is responsible for acquisitions of broadcast materials. The NFSA has recently acquired a 16mm reel containing two episodes of The Adventures of Gerry Gee — both from the story “Gerry at Gigantic”. (You can find a catalog entry for this acquisition here.)

The NFSA have scanned this new reel on their Scanity film scanner and Helen was able to show me a preview of the reel. The NFSA’s focus is on collecting and preserving. Copyright restrictions (often complex) and lack of resources limit how many materials they can make publicly available. However it is possible to request copies of holdings. Wouldn’t it be great to get these episodes up on The Tarax Show website!

Ron Blaskett’s Life Celebrated

Thu, 10 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Friends, colleagues and fans of Ron Blaskett came together on 4th May 2018 to pay tribute to the enduring career of Ron Blaskett, who passed away in April 2018 one day after his 96th birthday.

Although Ron had a professional career lasting 75 years, he is mostly remembered for his television work on GTV9 Melbourne, which was the focus of many of the reminiscences. Speakers included ex-GTV9 personalities Philip Brady and Susan-Gaye Anderson, and ventriloquist and collector Col Williams.