| Director: | Bill Bain |
| Country: | Australia |
| Language: | English |
| Runtime: | 60 mins[1] |
| Company: | ABC |
| Network: | ABC |
| Released: | (Sydney)[2] |
| Released2: | (Melbourne)[3] |
The Little Woman is a 1961 Australian comedy TV play written by Patricia Hooker and broadcast on the ABC.[4]
It starred Sophie Stewart who had also been in the ABC's live play Fly by Night.
In a plush suburb on Sydney's North Shore, Marjorie, a young bride arrives home to find a series of surprises in store for her: her husband Henry, a Sydney businessman, keeps his wives instead of divorcing him, and they live together in a state of bliss; the new bride is his sixth. The household is run by Vera, his first wife. The others are a beatnik, a secretary, a glamour girl and a cook.[5]
Hooker was working as a shorthand typist in a city office in 1959 when she wrote the story at home in the evenings. She wrote it as a stage play and it was included in a night of one-act plays at the Genesian Theatre. To help it reach a wider audience, Patricia studied a book on TV technique and decided to revise the script as a TV play. The play takes place in real time.[7] [8]
It was shot in Sydney.[5]
The Sunday Sydney Morning Herald said it was "bright, breezy and well paced from start to finish. And while the theme (Henry keeps six wives)may raise a few "tut tuts" in some quarters it was handled with such racy good humour and wit that only the most straightlaced could quibble".[9]
The Sydney Morning Herald called it "a merry little farce" in which "the plot skidded and skated a bit" but praised the "splendid" performances of Wendy Blacklock and Sophie Stewart.[10]