Me & Mr Thorne

Me & Mr Thorne is a 1976 Australian television movie starring Gordon Chater and John Farnham and directed by Paul Eddey. It was a pilot for a television series from Crawford Productions that was not accepted. However, the pilot was screened as a stand-alone film.

Development and production
The series was conceived and written by Terry Stapleton. It was shot in mid 1975 in Melbourne. "It gives me the chance to do some serious acting," said Farnham. John Farnham had appeared in a number of other shows for Crawfords, including episodes of Division Four and The Last of the Australians.

All three Australian commercial networks rejected the pilot, though it received an excellent review in Variety. Terry Stapleton said he felt this was because Australian networks considered it "too experimental". The pilot was also positive reviewed in TV Week which said "Gordon Chater’s performance as Thorne is a sheer delight... and Johnny Farnham is not far behind him. It is patently obvious from Me & Mr. Thorne that Farnham could very soon become one of Australia’s top acting talents... the sooner it becomes a regular series, the better."

According to Don Storey and Chris Keating: "At this time, Crawford Productions three police series (Homicide, Division 4 and Matlock Police) had all been axed in quick succession, and there was (and still is) strong suspicion within the industry that the axing was a deliberate manoeuvre by the three networks acting in collusion. The aim was to severely limit the viability of Crawford Productions and, by extension, severely inhibit the viability of Australian drama production and therefore weaken the case for Australian content regulations. In this climate, it was hardly surprising that Me & Mr. Thorne never went into series production." However Crawfords then created a sitcom vehicle for Farnham Bobby Dazzler.

The pilot screened in the United Kingdom on Granada Television in late 1977. It was played on British television again by Anglia Television in 1978.

A copy of the film and script is at the National Film and Sound Archive.

Premise
An eccentric bookseller, Reginald Thorne, who is obsessed by Sherlock Holmes, solves mysteries with his assistant, Bobby Farrell.

Cast

 * Gordon Chater as Reginald Thorne
 * John Farnham as Bobby Farrell
 * Beverly Phillips
 * Chuck Faulkner
 * Roger Ward
 * Katie Shiel
 * John Clayton as Det Sgt Merv Jackson
 * Denise Drysdale as Sally