Alas, colourblind casting and race-swapping are de rigeur in the movie and television industry, particularly under the direction of a female.
Diversity in Period Dramas: Does History Matter?
Echo Chamberlain
Mervyn Bendle’s series of three articles in Quadrant is of particular interest to me because the 1960s is the setting of my Sixties Series. The articles make interesting background reading for my series.
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Mervyn Bendle, Quadrant, Dec 06 2025
This is the first of three articles that tracks a young woman’s intellectual and emotional journey through the 1960s in Australia. It was inspired by the book, play, film, and TV series, Ladies in Black, set around Christmas 1959, which focusses on Leslie, a shy, naïve, bookish, and mousy 16-year-old schoolgirl who takes a summer job in the high-end fashion section at Goode’s, a prestigious Sydney department store, while awaiting her exam results.
An only child in a working class family, Leslie had excelled at school and looks forward to going to university, where she can study literature and pursue her dream of becoming a poet. At Goode’s she is befriended by the older sales assistants and becomes part of their lives, changes her name to a more poetic and feminine ‘Lisa’, is introduced to the many social and cultural changes happening to Australian society, and begins her transformation into a confident, stylish, and worldly-wise young woman.
Or does she? This series of articles looks at the world that another fictional young woman, Liza (name changed for copyright reasons), might enter after she leaves her holiday job and begins literary studies at the University of Sydney. It briefly reviews the international scene at the height of the Cold War as it impacted on Australia, and the nature of Australian society as it left the conservatism of the 1950s and plunged into the radical changes of the 1960s. It then takes a more detailed look at life in Sydney at the time, including the activities of the ‘Sydney Push’, the bohemian vanguard of intellectual, cultural, and romantic life that flourished around the University, and into which any young aspiring poet and intellectual like Liza would have been drawn.
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Liza didn’t know what to make of it! It was if those exciting movies, The Wild One (1953) and Rebel Without a Cause (1955), had both come to life in Sydney! Kevin Simmonds was renowned as “Australia’s most fearless jail escapee whose Hollywood looks made him a teen idol as he ran circles around police”. Kevin (right) had been in trouble with the police since he was 14 for car theft and burglary, and after several stints in Boys Town and a Youth Training Centre, he eventually spent two years in Goulburn Gaol. A talented singer and musician – he had even cut a few records – he charmed the magistrate into sending him there because of its music program and, he said, because he wanted to hone his skills so he could go straight when he was released. In reality, he just wanted to be reunited with a mate so they could plan the jobs they’d do when they got out.
It seems reasonable for someone (not necessarily white) who cherishes historical accuracy to object to a coal-black African actress playing lily-white Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, in a television drama.
But, no, to wonder about the point of this egregious case of race-swapping is to trigger howls of racism. Even worse, to suspect the purpose of white replacement and erasure is to send the white-haters into paroxysms of rage. How dare you object to our racism?
Alas, colourblind casting and race-swapping are de rigeur in the movie and television industry, particularly under the direction of a female.