Alterations (film) explained

Alterations is a two-part 1988 Australian television film for the ABC shot in 1987 at Canberra. It deals with a married couple and their respective affairs.^[1]

Plot

Part One: Ann is having an affair with Michael, best friend of her husband Richard.

Part Two: What would happen if Richard had an affair with Eleanor.

Cast

• Richard Moir as Richard
• Angela Punch-McGregor as Ann
• Linden Wilkinson as Martha
• Steven Jacobs as Michael
• Gillian Jones as Rachel
• Alan David Lee as Robert
• Kim Krejus as Eleanor
• Karen Linley as Alice (child in 1983)
• Michelle Linley as Alice (child in 1986)
• Tim Drummond as Duncan (child in 1983)
• Scott Bartle as Duncan (child in 1986)

Reception

The Age called it "an enigmatic, might-have-been story of Adultery His, Adultery Hers in middle class Canberra, it is peopled with cold, unreachable characters who deliver Taylor's stacatto script - it barely contains a sentence of over three words - in deliberately stagey monotones."^[2]

The Sydney Morning Herald called it "more interesting than it was successful... nevertheless, it was a film well worth screening and watching."^[3]

Notes and References

1. Ed. Scott Murray, Australia on the Small Screen 1970-1995, Oxford University Press, 1996, p. 5-6.
2. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1300&dat=19880311&id=SpxjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=gJYDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1732,136100 Review in The Age 11 March 1988 p 8
3. News: TV Extra. Richard. Coleman. The Sydney Morning Herald. 26 March 1988. 62.