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Vale: Alan Seymour

Writer Alan Seymour, best known for The Potato Factory, The Dirtwater Dynasty and the play The One Day of the Year, has died.

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Writer Alan Seymour, best known for The Potato Factory, The Dirtwater Dynasty and the play The One Day of the Year, has died, aged 87.

He died in an aged care facility in Elizabeth Bay, Sydney, on Monday.

His stage play The One Day of the Year became a modern Australian classic, depicting conflict between an ANZAC veteran and his son. It became an inspiration for the sitcom The Last of the Australians starring Alwyn Kurts and Rosie Sturgess.

Perth-born Seymour left for London in 1961 with his partner Ron Baddeley, whom he had met in 1949. It was a relationship which lasted over 54 years until Ron’s death in 2003.

In London he became a successful television writer, producer and editor with the BBC. His television credits included Love Story, Blackmail, Tales of the Unexpected, Frost in May, The Box of Delights, The Lion the Witch & the Wardrobe, The House of Eliott, The Silver Chair, The Cinder Path, The Glass Virgin, The Wingless Bird, The Famous Five.

Australian credits included The Potato Factory, The Dirtwater Dynasty and Sara Dane.

Relatives and friends are invited to his funeral, to take place in the chapel of Walter Carter, 302 Oxford Street (opposite Denison Street), Bondi Junction on Thursday 26th March commencing at 2:30 pm.

4 Responses

  1. The One Day Of The Year was also a very early Logie winner. GTV9 staged the play for TV in 1962, starring Syd Conabere, Dennis Miller and Bunney Brooke. It won a Logie in 1963 for Best Drama, and Syd Conabere won Best Actor.

  2. The One Day of the Year was one of the very first Australian plays I ever read and was moved by. I also loved House of Eliott. It was such a great drama from the 90’s and the costuming marvelous of course.. Vale Alan Seymour. Thanks for enduring memories. It must be nice to join Ron in the heavens though.

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