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The Guardian
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Forty years later, Molly's final farewells on A Country Practice remain a blueprint for a good death
When I talk to Australian gen Xers about my new play, I invariably get the same response: a dramatic intake of breath, a hand swiftly covering the chest and an 'Oh my god! Molly! God! I was devastated.' The play imagines two days in the writers' room of A Country Practice, dreaming up what they went through to kill off Molly Jones, arguably the show's most beloved character – played with charm, wit and truth by actor Anne Tenney. Tenney had become Australia's sweetheart and one of its biggest TV stars. It was a big deal to off her. It's a television death that really meant something to the viewers at the time, and in the four decades since it broadcast in June 1985. When I asked people about their memories of the episode, two responses stood out. The theatre director Lee Lewis, a teenager in rural Goulburn at the time, wore funeral blacks to watch the episode: 'I lived my life through the television – it was an important window into other lives, growing up in the country. Molly was dying, and I was dressing in black for her funeral.' Kate Mulvany, who's gone on to be an actor and television writer herself, remembers the night of Molly's death profoundly. Eight years old when it aired, 'I was so grief-stricken afterwards that I asked to sleep in my parents' bed. I wet the pillowcase with inconsolable tears, then changed the pillowcases before my parents came to bed so that they didn't think I'd had some kind of 'accident'. That's how much I cried.' Why is it consistently on lists of the best episodes of Australian television? Why is it such a formative memory for so many? After watching it at least 30 times, I think it's because the episode, written by the screenwriter Judith Colquhoun (who wrote more than 100 episodes of A Country Practice and pretty much every other great show of the 80s, 90s and noughties), provides a blueprint for the perfect death. Of course, there's nothing perfect about a young mother dying of acute lymphoblastic leukemia in her late 20s but the way Molly dies is how most of us would wish to go: at home surrounded by people we love. Molly died over a 14-episode arc, for a couple of reasons: the late James Davern, the creator of A Country Practice, hoped his star might change her mind and stay on the show. If she was determined to leave, he wanted his team of writers to remember that children loved Molly, and he didn't want to traumatise them. The audience lived through the progression of her illness. They were there for the first rumblings of ill health, the diagnosis, the treatment – just as they'd been there in the years before as Molly had a baby, lost a baby, ran for council and tied herself to trees. Her death ultimately became about the importance of love and community, and believing in a future of beauty even though you're not going to be there. Molly is brought home from the hospital to die on her beloved farm, which has been painted lovingly by her community while she was in hospital. In the days leading up to her death, as an audience, we're offered a glimpse into her world. There's the barbecue with her friends, each of them having time to say goodbye and letting her know how much she means to them. The uneasy discussion with her best friend, Vicky (played with an exquisite vulnerability by the late Penny Cook), about the mothering Molly's daughter might need when Molly is gone. A heartbreaking and practical conversation with her husband, Brendan (a beautifully underrated performance from Shane Withington), about the importance of him allowing himself to move on: 'We've had a perfect marriage … well, nearly. And you can't live with just a memory.' These are the conversations we dream of having with those we love, and often circumstances or a lack of emotional courage prevent us from having them. These hard conversations never become saccharine. You can feel the love these actors all have for each other and their sadness at losing their colleague but there also is humour. Somehow, while our beloved friend Molly is being taken away from us before the final ad break, we're laughing at one character marinating a steak with garlic (these are tomato sauce people!), and Molly is joking about who Brendan needs to stay away from after she's dead. Nothing is left unsaid. Even though she is so young, Molly has had a full life, she's accepted her fate and she's loved to her final moment. Maybe that's why we still love this incredible episode of television 40 years later – because who among us wouldn't want the same when our screen fades to black? Melanie Tait is a playwright and journalist living in Sydney
The Independent
12-05-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Zonal electricity pricing may not be possible until mid-2030s, says research
Zonal electricity pricing would be unlikely to happen until after 2030, according to research, even if the Government decided to adopt the policy in the coming weeks. Energy consultancy Cornwall Insight said the measure, which would divide Great Britain into different energy price zones, could even take until the mid-2030s to be implemented. Ministers are expected to make a decision on zonal pricing this summer after lobbying efforts for and against it have ramped up since Labour entered Government. The new research said zonal pricing would take at least five or six years to bring into effect. That includes the time it would take for consultations, legislating the policy in Parliament and transitional arrangements to avoid disruption for existing energy producers. Legislating the policy into law may not even happen before the next general election, the report said. Kate Mulvany, principal consultant at Cornwall Insight, said: 'Zonal pricing would represent the most fundamental redesign of the GB electricity market in decades. 'It is an incredibly divisive topic in the industry, and regardless of the purported benefits, its implementation is going to take significant time and resource. 'Political backing and industry support may help, but a go-live before 2030 remains incredibly unlikely. 'The Government's commitment to a decision by mid-2025 is welcome. But we must be realistic: this is the start of a long road, not the finish line. 'Zonal pricing may still form part of the long-term vision for electricity market reform. But for now, its delivery sits firmly in the next decade.' Zonal pricing would replace the current single price for electricity with different prices for each region, excluding Northern Ireland. The prices would be based on how much electricity is available, meaning areas like Scotland, which generate large amounts of power, would have lower market prices. But it also means market prices in other parts of the country, such as the South East, would be higher. Proponents of zonal pricing say it would save billions of pounds each year by making the electricity grid more efficient. Critics say it would create a postcode lottery where people would face an unfair disparity in bills. It comes at a time when the Labour Government is pushing to decarbonise the grid by 2030, in a policy which will require tens of billions of pounds of private sector investment. Cornwall Insight's report also said the policy could create uncertainty for companies looking to invest in the UK power sector, potentially threatening the 2030 clean power target.
