ABC Television Movie
The 1976 television adaptation of The Sentimental Bloke was produced by the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) and presented as a musical television film. Unlike earlier screen versions, this production was based on the 1961 stage musical Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, with music by Albert Arlen and lyrics by Nancy Brown, developed in collaboration with Lloyd Thomson.
Directed by Alan Bourke the film starred Graeme Blundell as The Bloke and Geraldine Turner as Doreen. Jimmy Hannan played Ginger Mick.
A scene from the movie is available here:
Geraldine Turner - "Bill" from THE SENTIMENTAL BLOKE 1975
A review in the Woman's Weekly on 19 May 1976 said
" Such a romantic, lyrical lament could only come from one particular fellow - and shame on your Aussie soul if you don't recognize him right off. It's that most
sentimental of lovers, the Bloke. Sixty years after Australia's laureate of the larrikin, C. J. Dennis, first breathed life into the figure with his 1915 collection
"Songs of the Sentimental Bloke," he has taken flesh again. The occasion is the lavish ABC adaptation of the musical version of 'The Sentimental Bloke," timed to honour the
centenary of the birth of the well-loved and fondly remembered poet whose warm and funny "Aussie as she is spoke" saga is a classic of Australian literature."