| Image Upright: | 1.0 |
| Director: | William Sterling |
| Starring: | Don Crosby |
| Country: | Australia |
| Language: | English |
| Runtime: | 60 mins[1] |
| Network: | ABC |
| Released: | (Melbourne)[2] |
| Released2: | (Sydney)[3] |
| Released3: | (Brisbane)[4] |
The Big Deal is a 1961 Australian TV play.[5] Australian TV drama was relatively rare at the time.[6]
Herbie, a despatch worker at a plastics factory, dreams of being a millionaire, but he lacks the killer instinct. His friend Julian dreams of creating novelties from plastic.
The play had been broadcast in London and New York but this was its first production in Australia. Brenda Beddison and Morton Smith made their debuts in "live" drama.[7] Eight studio sets were constructed by Kevin Bartlett.[4]
The critic from the Sydney Morning Herald thought the play was "neither comical, subtle, ironic, nor in fact even, remotely entertaining" having "no plot worthy of the name, and its theme, tenuous to say the least, gained nothing from the hourlong treatment" with "dialogue of unrelieved stodginess, produced without imagination, dramatic sense or photographic skill."[8]