Carol Raye obit

Vale: Carol Raye

Veteran performer / producer Carol Raye, best known for The Mavis Bramston Show and Blankety Blanks, has died.

 

She was not on the list.

Veteran performer / producer Carol Raye, best known for The Mavis Bramston Show and Blankety Blanks, has died aged 99 -just a week after being given an Order of Australia.

Raye was already a major film star in Britain when she emigrated to Australia, via Kenya, with her husband in 1964. But it was her creation of The Mavis Bramston Show, in which she was the lead actor, that made her a household name to Australian audiences.

In one episode alone it tackled a visit by the US Vice President to Australia, the introduction of female roller skating to Australia, homosexuality, censorship, price fixing, child endowment, the White Australia Policy, and how the introduction of computers would impact on office secretaries.

“I had just arrived in Australia and I joined Channel Seven as a producer and was told to come up with some ideas for a late night show. Seven’s ratings weren’t very good and they wanted to knock off Graham Kennedy. In Melbourne Tonight was a huge success,” she once told TV Tonight.

“I’d just come from England and was very influenced by a show that was a huge success in London, That Was The Week That Was with David Frost. It was really a journalistic satire.

“It wasn’t just lots of funny ha-ha jokes. It was political comedy.”

Coaxed into performing in its first season, she was joined by Gordon Chater and Barry Creyton, with music by Tommy Tycho and led by writer Michael Plant.

“Channel Seven’s General Manager said to me, ‘Carol the trouble with you is you’re far too BBC. Australians are not ready to laugh at themselves.’

“And I said ‘I don’t believe that. Everybody laughs at themselves if it’s funny.’

“So I was given 1200 pounds and told to make a pilot.”

One of the first female television executives in the country, Raye went on to work on Channel 10’s popular Number 96, playing Baroness Amanda Ashton von Pappenburg, before producing the series. The network had given a brief to producers: “Coronation Street, but a little racier”, and Raye emerged as one of the stars of a show that won multiple Logie awards.

Before arriving in Australia, Raye lived in rural Kenya with her husband, who worked with the Colonial Veterinary Service. She launched the BBC’s television service in the country, producing live content in three languages.

Raye would later feature in Number 96, and became its casting director followed by Blankety Blanks alongside host Graham Kennedy, both on 10.

Last week she was given an Order of Australia for significant service to the performing arts as an actor and producer.

 

Filmography

Film

Year     Title     Role     Type

1945    Strawberry Roan         Molly Lowe    Feature film

Waltz Time      Empress Maria            Feature film

Dressing Up                TV film

1946    Spring Song    Janet Hill / Janet Ware            Feature film

1947    Green Fingers  Jeannie Mansell           Feature film

While I Live (aka Dream of Olwen)   Sally Grant      Feature film

1949    The Good Companions           Susie Dean      TV film

Happy Week-End        Polly    TV film

1950    Triple Bill                    TV film

1954    No Rain at Timbura     Mrs Carol Massey      

1956    Ivor Novello                TV film

1979    The Journalist  Maggie            Feature film

1984    Man of Letters Ursula Panhindle         TV film

1985    Remember Me Jenny's mother TV film

Relatives          Aunty Joan      Feature film

Television

Year     Title     Role     Type

1964–1968      The Mavis Bramston Show    Various roles  

1965    Today with Carol Raye           Host    

The Peek Snatchers     Self     

1966    66 And All That          Host    

Australian Playhouse        The Woman     Teleplay: "Across the Bridge"

1967    The Delightfully Desperate, Daring and Different Doings of Daphne Davenport     Daphne Davenport            Teleplay

1969    The Pennyweathers                 TV pilot

Riptide Lauriana French          1 episode

1970    Tarbuck's Luck            Self      1 episode

1973–1975      Number 96      Baroness Amanda Von Papenburg / Claudine 35 episodes

1976    Up The Convicts         Lady Fitzgibbon         

This Is Your Life: Gordon Chater       Guest   1 episode

1976–1977      The Young Doctors     Rosalie Parker 15 episodes

1977–1978      Graham Kennedy's Blankety Blanks  Regular panellist         16 episodes

1977    This Is Your Life: Carol Raye Guest   1 episode

1978    Cappriccio!      Host    

Loss of Innocence       Julie     Miniseries, 1 episode

Chopper Squad           Eileen Traill     1 episode

Micro Macro   Team Leader  

Exploring the Psychic Mind   Host    

1987    Rafferty's Rules                      

1994    Mission Top Secret     Mrs. Jessie Burdock (uncredited)        1 episode

The Mavis Bramston 30th Anniversary Special         Herself TV special

2000    SeaChange      June Dawson   1 episode

2022    Pushing the Boundaries: The Mavis Bramston Show            TV documentary