Released & Regained: The Jayden Harnett Story

By Jeff Hopkins

Jayden Harnett returns in this sequel to 'Directed by McCardle O’Hanlon'. The young star, and emerging ballet dancer, who turned his back on a movie making career to study for a teaching degree, is lured back into the theatrical world. His story is a sprawling saga that covers four continents, two new films, and the revival of a classic play. For more than a year Jayden shoots films on location in Tasmania, and Norfolk Island in Australia, and Kankara Town and Katsina State in Nigeria. He returns to the stage in a revival of a challenging play that opens in London and has seasons in New York and Los Angeles.

Jayden is involved in events that are heroic, harrowing, and heartbreaking. All is revealed in Jayden Harnett’s story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tellwell Talent
• Release date: Feb 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9781922912473

Jeff Hopkins

Jeff Hopkins (1950) is a retired schoolteacher. He lives in Walyalup, Western Australia. Walyalup which means 'lungs' is the Whadjuk name for Fremantle, and is part of the Noongar Nation. As the drama master at Hale School in Perth, he wrote ten original musical plays and produced and directed them at the school.In 1992, he researched and wrote a family history, 'Life's Race Well Run', and after retiring in 2006 he has written twenty novels, a memoir, and three 'faction' biographies.

Book preview

Part One

In London and Exeter, England,

Doha, Qatar, and

Perth, Western Australia

Chapter 1: Norman Dawn

Ever since Honeysuckle Day had resigned as his Personal Assistant, Mac O’Hanlon’s office desk had oscillated between decidedly disorganised to completely chaotic. Now with his future secure in the knowledge he had a two-picture deal with Oysterwood Studios, he was trying to find the vehicle for the first of those two projects. Mac had become completely fascinated with the sprawling 19th century novel, ‘For the Term of His Natural Life’ by Marcus Clarke. Part of the fascination for a film aficionado like McCardle O’Hanlon was the various attempts at a film adaptation of the book in the past. The novel had been serialised between 1872 and 1873 and was finally published as a book in 1874 and the last iteration of the story was as an Australian miniseries made in 1983. If he was going to attempt his own version, forty years on from the last one, then it was going to have to be different, and dynamic. Mac was researching all the previous forms in which the story was told. He was hoping to learn from them and not make the same mistakes that some of the producers and directors had in the past.

Mac’s first task was to read the novel. As he did, his director’s mind started to race as he imagined some of the magnificent scenes he would be able to create in England, on the waters of several oceans of the world, and in Tasmania and Norfolk Island in Australia. He had never been to Australia before and that was another incentive to undertake this production. The first problem that arose was how could he possibly squeeze all this narrative action into one hundred and fifty minutes of finished feature film?

Mac ascertained that structurally, ‘For the Term of His Natural Life’ was made up of a series of semi-fictionalised accounts of actual events during the convict era, loosely bound together with the tragic story of its hero, Richard Devine also known as Rufus Dawes. Most of the incidents and many of the individual characters were easily identifiable from historical sources including Marcus Clarke’s own non-fiction work ‘Old Tales of a Young Country’. Typical of Victorian-era convict novels, Rufus Dawes is a wrongfully convicted gentleman. Under the prevailing morality of the time, Mac realised that a murderer would not have been an appropriate hero in popular fiction.

As he pieced together all the elements of the story, Mac concluded he was going to have to produce a narrative that spanned almost twenty years from 1827 to 1846. This focussed his mind on casting. For most of the novel Rufus Dawes was a young man so he needed to cast someone who could play the youthful role for most of the film and then age appropriately towards the end of the story. Immediately he thought of Jayden Harnett who would now be twenty-one years of age, the perfect profile for the young Richard Devine. However, Jayden had turned his back on a theatrical career and was studying to be a teacher at Exeter University. Could he lure him back to star in this proposed movie? Mac phoned casting director, Susie Posey, to ask her to find out.

‘Hello Susie, it’s Mac here.’

‘I know Mac. Your call was identified on my screen. What can I do for you?’

‘As you know I have a two-picture deal with Oysterwood, and I want to tackle a version of ‘For the Term of His Natural Life’. The film would be based on Marcus Clarke’s 19th century novel.’

‘I am with you so far, Mac.’

‘Having read the novel, I think Jayden Harnett would be the ideal young fella to play the lead. He has the perfect age profile.’

‘That might be difficult, Mac. He is at Exeter University and very committed to his studies for his teaching degree.’

‘That is your challenge, Susie. Try to lure him back into the theatrical fold.’

‘What can I offer him?’

‘A big budget production with a substantial increase in his fee. A six-month on location shoot in Australia, specifically Tasmania and a chance to work with me again!’

‘Three good reasons. When would you need him?’

‘The spring and summer of next year, and by the way, a pre-production team is going to Australia for three weeks to scout all the locations and soak up the ambience. Jayden could come with us. That would be an all-expenses paid holiday for the young fella even if he didn’t ultimately commit to the production. That is a fourth compelling argument you can use.’

‘Look, I am going to Devon later this week on another matter. I could swing by Exeter University and put the proposition to Jayden.’

‘Would you, Susie? I would appreciate it. I think he would be wonderful in this and now ‘The Prince’ has been re-released he will have a much greater profile.’

‘I’ll give it my best shot, Mac.’

‘Thanks, Susie.’

The call ended abruptly as all Mac O’Hanlon’s telephone conver­sations did. Susie Posey was aware of it and took no offence. She started to think of ways she could approach Jayden Harnett and perhaps convince him to give film making another go.

Mac O’Hanlon’s next task was to research how other people in the past had attempted to tell this story. He downloaded and printed out many articles and sources, and they were progressively added to the piles of paper that now covered every inch of the surface of his desk. Mac got frustrated when he tried to cross reference things he had discovered and couldn’t find the original piece of information on his cluttered workspace.

By 1877 the book had been translated into German. ‘For the Term of His Natural Life’ had also been published in other languages like Dutch, Russian, Swedish, and Chinese. There were numerous editions in English in Britain and the United States. From this Mac realised that the film would have international appeal and he was encouraged.

A stage adaptation, ‘His Natural Life’ was written by George Leitch in 1886 and opened on the 26th of April at the Theatre Royal, Brisbane in Australia. The producers were the MacMahon and Leitch dramatic company. The MacMahon brothers were entrepreneurs in Australian show business. Chief among them were James MacMahon (1858-1915) and Charles MacMahon (1861-1917). George Leitch sought permission from Marcus Clarke’s widow and was the only one to enter into a royalty agreement with her. Dramatic companies toured New Zealand and some states of Australia with the production in 1903 and 1904 and subsequently played at the Adelphi Theatre, London, and the Alcazar Theatre, San Francisco. Mac concluded this was a story that had wide exposure in the past even if it was over a century ago.

Then Mac stumbled across information that made him even more excited as a man who was interested in the history of cinema. James MacMahon also used the novel as the basis for one of Australia’s first full-length motion pictures, produced in1908. It was black and white, silent, and ran for only twenty-one minutes. There was another version in 1911 entitled, ‘The Life of Rufus Dawes’ based on the stage adaptation of the novel. To Mac’s great regret none of these early films had survived.

The best-known film version came out in 1927. Mac smiled when he read that Marcus Clarke’s daughter, actress Marion Marcus Clarke (1876-1958), had a part in the movie. This film version had survived. The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia had restored ‘For the Term of His Natural Life’ in 1981, using two different versions of the film: an incomplete Australian print, and a shortened United States’ released version, consisting of takes not used by the Australian film and preserved by the American Film Institute. The restored 1981 version used still photographs and footage from other sources to fill in gaps where the original footage was lost. The tinting approximated the way the original film would have looked, based on the Australian release print. A new score was recorded, using the original accompaniment as detailed on a surviving music cue sheet for the film. Mac was able to watch it on YouTube. There was also a radio play of ‘For the Term of His Natural Life’ broadcast on radio station 3AW in Victoria in the 1940s which was also preserved in the sound archives.

However, the 1927 film was the one Mac O’Hanlon was concen­trating on for now. This black and white silent film was directed by an American, Norman Dawn. It illustrated this film maker’s strengths and weaknesses as a creative artist. Dawn had a great eye for a striking location, a fluid approach to economic storytelling, a good sense of the power of a strong image, but only rudimentary skills in directing actors. By 1926, the histrionic style of silent film acting had progressed well beyond Norman Dawn’s directional approach. Even in Australia, Raymond Longford’s ‘The Sentimental Bloke’, from 1919, shows how naturalistic silent film performances could be, but Longford was asked to step aside from directing ‘For the Term of His Natural Life’, a project he had suggested. Mac could only speculate how Raymond Longford, one of the great directors in early Australian cinema, would have made the film. It is unlikely it would have been as visually spectacular because the producers, ‘Australasian Films’ would not have given Longford the same budget they were prepared to lavish on an American film director, like Norman Dawn. On the other hand, the performances might have been more subtle, and the storytelling more nuanced, given Longford’s skills.

The 1927 version of ‘For the Term of His Natural Life’ was an epic production, more expensive and ambitious than anything made in the silent era in Australia. It was a considerable success with Australian audiences. The problem was that it was always intended to be more than that. Norman Dawn, a Hollywood director, had come to Australia to make scenic travelogues. Dawn was an expert in special effects, action, and working in difficult locations, such as Alaska, but he was no match for Raymond Longford in the direction of actors or the subtle mechanics of storytelling. The fact that Australasian Films, gave Dawn the reins on this high-profile film of an Australian classic shows that subtlety was not what they were after. They wanted a picture that American distributors would buy, because it had an American director, albeit one who was certainly not regarded in the top echelon. In the end, it did not matter who directed it, the film’s United States’ prospects were destroyed by the arrival of a reliable means of delivering sound on film. Australasian Films spent £70,000 making ‘For the Term of His Natural Life’ in 1927, an unheard-of sum for the times, but they took a severe loss on the film because no-one foresaw that the introduction of sound was about to change everything.

Again Mac was left to wonder whether the film would have succeeded in the United States without the introduction of sound on film, but he concluded it was impossible to assess. It was old-fashioned even for 1927, in terms of story and acting style. The best directors in Hollywood were producing infinitely more subtle work, which may have been why Norman Dawn was making polar adventures in Alaska and travelogues in Australia in the first place. To be fair to him, the task of adapting Marcus Clarke’s book was a difficult one, and Dawn made a reasonable fist of it. He is said to have dumped Longford’s script and worked directly from the book. Mac made a note of this piece of information. He was already considering David Andrews to write the screenplay. Andrews had a fine reputation of adapting 19th century novels for the screen. The plot is a mid-Victorian jumble of coincidences, aliases, and hidden revelations of inheritance, enlivened by Marcus Clarke’s much more serious purpose, the documenting in fiction of the realities of convict life in the Australian colonies. Mac knew it would be a challenge for any screenwriter and he intended to engage the best.

Mac O’Hanlon became even more interested in the 1927 production when he read about the politics that had unfolded in relation to the film. Mac knew all about being replaced as director on several projects and the disappointment and hurt it could cause, not to mention the damage to one’s own reputation and future career prospects. Raymond Longford proposed the remake of ‘For the Term of His Natural Life’ as a modestly budgeted production that would have sales appeal in the United Kingdom. Australasian Films’ ambitions for the film appear to have grown once they saw Longford’s script and with the knowledge that a Hollywood director was available. The budget was increased to £40,000 once Longford stepped aside. Mac thought this must have been galling for Longford, since he had continually pleaded for more money on earlier productions. McCardle O’Hanlon knew this scenario well from his own experience. The budget kept growing during production, as Norman Dawn took a filming crew to Port Arthur and Macquarie Harbour in Tasmania, and various locations along the New South Wales’ coast.

Having watched the 1927 film on YouTube Mac realised the use of these locations is probably the film’s strongest asset, lending both veracity and visual impact. The other real strength of the film is its confident use of special effects. Norman Dawn invented some of these during his long apprenticeship in Hollywood, notably the use of glass shots, in which a painted glass is suspended between the lens and action to add scenic detail to the settings. Dawn used a glass shot to put a roof on the roofless buildings of Port Arthur. Mac knew that in the present day he would be able to use Computer Generated Imagery to do this at a superior standard. Norman Dawn also imported American actors for the main roles, adding to the controversy in Australia that surrounded the film.

On yet another piece of unfiled paper, Mac noted the list of locations described in the novel: Macquarie Harbour Penal Station on Sarah Island, Hell’s Gates, Frenchman’s Cap, Hobart, Port Arthur, Point Puer, the Isle of the Dead, Eaglehawk Neck, all in Tasmania, Australia, and Norfolk Island, an Australian territory off the coast of New South Wales in the Pacific Ocean. He had already decided to visit all these natural settings during a pre-production scouting operation. Mac determined that he would emulate Norman Dawn and film on location in all these places. It would be expensive, but if he achieved the same result as Norman Dawn did ninety-five years ago, he would be well pleased.

Of even more interest for McCardle O’Hanlon was that an Australian miniseries ‘For the Term of His Natural Life’ was written and produced in 1983 starring Colin Friels as Rufus Dawes and featuring international stars Anthony Perkins and Patrick MacNee. The twenty-one-year-old composer Simon Walker was chosen to produce a lavish orchestral score. Mac tracked down the DVD which was on two discs containing three episodes of approximately an hour and a half each. It had a running time of two hundred and eighty-three minutes in this miniseries version. He watched it carefully. For the first time the vague possibility of creating the story as a miniseries of his own entered his thinking. Before this, Mac O’Hanlon had only directed feature films; making a miniseries would be a new challenge. He parked the idea for the moment. The 1983 version was almost forty years ago so it was time for a new iteration of the story, and he immediately thought of Stewart Billings as someone who could match and probably outdo Simon Walker’s lavish orchestral score based on the work Billings had done on ‘The Prince’.

Now all he had to do was collate the details from all these piles of paper on his disorganised desk and then he could pitch the idea to ‘Teddy’ Wayne the CEO at Oysterwood Studios.

‘Íosa, Muire agus Iósaef!’ exclaimed Mac O’Hanlon in sheer frustration. ‘Will no one get me a new Personal Assistant?’

Chapter 2: Susie Posey

In 2019, after the injunction gained by British and General Insurance caused the cancellation of any further screenings of McCardle O’Hanlon’s film ‘The Prince’, Jayden Harnett accepted the offer of a place at Exeter University. As he began after the first term of a new academic year had commenced, he was unable to secure a place in one of the residential colleges. This was not really a disappointment because his six years as a boarder at Harington College had left him with a desire for greater independence. With the financial support of his father, Liam, Jayden secured a lease on a one-bedroom ground floor flat in Bystock Terrace, Exeter which was walking distance from the university campus.

The flat featured an entrance with individual intercom buzzers, and a communal hallway with a private front door. It had an open plan style living room and kitchen. The kitchen area having fitted units with cupboards and worktops with tiled splashbacks over a stainless-steel sink unit, a built-in ceramic flat top cooker, and a stainless-steel oven and washing machine were all supplied. The living room area had matching built in cupboards with a breakfast bar and fridge-freezer supplied. There were full-length feature windows. The bedroom had space for a queen-sized bed and included a large-fitted wardrobe. The bathroom had a walk-in shower unit with glazed screen, a wash basin, and toilet.

As the apartment was unfurnished, Jayden’s mother Amelia, a highly respected interior designer, took it upon herself to fit out and decorate the flat. Jayden was encouraged to write the brief for his mother who delighted in undertaking the work. When it was completed the apartment was more like a stylish ‘bachelor pad’ than a first-year university student’s ‘digs’.

Jayden’s first year course in Drama and English Literature was set for him and all his classes in drama were located on the Streatham campus of the university. He was attracted to one of the optional courses that he had not expected to be available. It was an introductory ballet course. He thought it might be fun to capitalise on the work he had done with choreographer, Lydia Barry, during the preparation for, and filming of, ‘The Prince’. The lecturer conducting the introductory course took only a few sessions to realise that Jayden was a serious talent and potentially an outstanding dancer and he recommended Jayden move to the advanced class, which would have the added advantage of gaining him extra credits towards his degree. Jayden followed the advice and loved the classes under the ballet master, Graeme Greenslade, who was demanding but very fair in the approach to his mixed gender group in the advanced option.

The only drawback to Graeme Greenslade’s ballet classes, if there was one, was that the sessions were held in the early morning before formal classes at the university began. It was on just such an early Tuesday morning that Jayden was making haste to the TS1 rehearsal studio having had a rushed breakfast of coffee and toast. He was carrying his ballet shoes, half leotard, towel, and toiletries in a small duffle bag which he had slung casually over his shoulder. He was on his way to Thornlea in the Alexander Building which was the hub for the drama department. The TS1 rehearsal studio was on one of the upper floors and had the usual mirrored walls but also included one wall of full-length windows that looked out over the greenery and grounds of the university. It was a beautiful space and inspired Jayden whenever he worked there. Next to TS1 was a well-appointed changerooms and ablution block area where showers were available for students to freshen up after a strenuous session before moving on to more formal lectures and tutorials.

Ballet Master, Graeme Greenslade, conducted the advanced ballet classes. He was born in Exeter in 1981 and grew up in Devon where he took his first dance classes at a local ballet school. He began his career as a student at the Royal Ballet School at the age of fourteen. Later, Greenslade danced with the Birmingham Royal Ballet. In 2005 he worked as a freelance choreographer. He re-joined the Birmingham Royal Ballet in the early months of 2006 as both a dancer and as a resident choreographer. He was appointed as artistic director of the London Innovative Dance Company in November 2006. It was later renamed the Avant-Garde Dance Company.

Greenslade and his company marketed ballet to a wider audience, bringing contemporary dance into a more commercial arena. After ten years with the Avant-Garde Dance Company, Greenslade was offered the Artistic Directorship of the newly created ballet school at Exeter University, where he developed the curriculum and expanded the various courses. His innovative choreography with the students at the university was much admired and critically acclaimed. In 2018 he married his long-time partner, Jayne, and they lived in the developing new town of Cranbrook just outside Exeter.

Each year at Exeter University, Greenslade choreographed an original ballet with his various classes. In 2021 the nine students in Jayden’s second year advanced class performed an original work set to the music of Ennio Morricone. It was entitled ‘Triangles’ and dealt with the spiritual and sexual awakenings of three groups of three. Each group incorporated two female and one male dancer.

As Jayden entered the foyer of Thornlea and was about to head up the stairs a mature age woman stepped into his path. He recognised her immediately, stopped in his tracks and was left wondering.

‘Mrs. Posey! What are you doing here?’

‘Waiting to see you, Jayden. Administration told me you had an early morning ballet class, and I was hoping to catch you before you began your dancing session.’

‘I am running late, Mrs. Posey, so I can’t stop and chat. Our ballet master, Mr. Greenslade, is a stickler for punctuality.’

‘Mr. Greenslade? Not Graeme Greenslade?’

‘That’s the one.’

‘I know Graeme well. Perhaps I could come along with you and watch the session?’

‘I don’t know whether Mr. Greenslade would allow that.’

Susie Posey evinced a laugh.

‘I don’t think it will prove a problem, Jayden. Graeme Greenslade and I go back a long way.’

Jayden thought to himself that he should have known. There weren’t too many people in the artistic world in the United Kingdom that Susie Posey didn’t know. He acknowledged the intelligence a little reluctantly.

‘Oh, I see.’

‘Look, let’s go up and I’ll have a word with Graeme and get his permission to stay and watch. I can’t foresee any problems. Besides I would love to see you dance again after your initial ballet stint with Lydia Barry in preparation for ‘The Prince’. It would be interesting to see how far you have progressed.’

There was no more to be said. Jayden and Susie Posey climbed the stairs together and Jayden took his leave to enter the changerooms and get into his ballet gear. Susie Posey found Graeme Greenslade in TS1 and was greeted warmly. She explained her presence and Graeme said she would be very welcome to view the session. The casting director and theatrical agent sat unobtrusively in a corner of the studio and watched the six young women and the three young men, of roughly the same age, be put through their paces. Her eyes rarely strayed from Jayden Harnett in his half leotard, and ballet shoes. If anything he was even more physically striking than she remembered from the shooting of ‘The Prince’. His ballet technique had certainly been refined and developed since she last saw him. At the end of the session Graeme Greenslade called Jayden across and invited Susie Posey to form a troika.

‘Lovely session, Jayden,’ said Greenslade.

‘You have certainly come on as a ballet dancer, Jayden. I was impressed,’ added Susie Posey.

‘Not too much effusive praise, Mrs. Posey. This young man still has a developmental journey ahead of him.’

Jayden reacted slightly embarrassed by Susie Posey’s praise and his ballet master’s qualification. Then Mrs. Posey got straight down to business.

‘I wonder could we talk privately, Jayden. I have several things I want to run by you. Do you have time this morning?’

‘Well, I need to shower and freshen up and then I have an hour or so before my first formal class today.’

‘Great. Is there somewhere we can go to have a chat?’

‘Why not meet at Devonshire House,’ suggested Graeme. ‘The coffee is good and the ambience convivial. In fact I will escort Susie over there while you shower and change. How does that sound?’

‘Fine by me,’ agreed Susie.

‘It’s a good suggestion, Mr. Greenslade,’ added Jayden.

‘He is so formal with me, Susie. It is all that boarding school brain­washing. Off you go Jayden. We will see you at Devonshire House.’

Jayden walked thoughtfully away to the changerooms and out of his hearing Graeme Greenslade added.

‘Where did you find him, Susie?’

‘Mac O’Hanlon saw him playing Richard II at Harington College in Hampshire. Have you seen his performance in ‘The Prince’.

‘I have quite recently. He is a remarkable talent and if he wanted to do it he could dance professionally.’

‘I think he could do just about anything, Graeme. I am going to try and entice him back into films.’

‘Good luck with that. He seems determined to complete his degree and become a teacher.’

‘Yes, that is my challenge.’

Graeme Greenslade escorted Susie Posey across to Devonshire House and sat with her chatting about shared things in the past. Jayden eventually arrived freshly showered with his wet hair neatly combed out. Graeme Greenslade took his leave to fulfil another university commitment and Jayden and Susie ordered coffees and sat in comfortable chairs on opposite sides of a low table. Jayden seemed more relaxed than when Mrs. Posey had shocked him in the foyer of Thornlea. Susie began.

‘I am here for two reasons and really wearing two hats.’

‘Intriguing. Go on.’

‘As you may or may not know I am not just a casting director, but I also act as a theatrical agent for a small number of select clients.’

‘Wouldn’t that present a conflict of interest doing both roles?’

‘Not if you act with high levels of integrity and I believe I do. I would like to be your theatrical agent and foster your career.’

Jayden was dismissive.

‘What career?’

‘Have you not followed the progress of ‘The Prince’ since it was re-released?’

‘No. I haven’t seen the film since the premiere in 2019.’

‘Let me bring you up to speed. It did good box office here in the United Kingdom and was released initially on the ‘Art House’ or Independent film circuit in the United States. It didn’t remain there for long. It was quickly picked up by the commercial cinema chains and in its first two weeks on one hundred and forty-two screens across the United States it grossed twice its production cost.’

‘Really? I had no idea.’

‘It is also doing good box office in Canada and Australia and Netplan will soon release it on its on-demand service for purchase or rent. They have set the initial streaming price quite high.’

‘So the film is a commercial success?’

‘And then some. Not to put too finer point on it, Jayden, you have become a star and are much in demand.’

‘I didn’t know about any of this.’

‘I have fielded a host of inquiries from various production companies asking about your availability for future film and television projects. That is why I am keen to manage your career. I want to choose vehicles for you that will advance your future work in film, television, and possibly on the stage.’

‘What about my studies here and my future teaching career?’

‘Properly managed, Jayden, you could probably do both.’

‘How?’

‘If the pandemic has taught us anything it has shown how online learning and off campus external studies can work. You could complete your degree and have a teaching qualification to fall back on if you ever needed to.’

‘And in the meantime?’

‘I think you have a ten-year window to establish a wonderful theatrical career. Probably with your talent even longer than that.’

‘There is a lot to think about there, Mrs. Posey. You said you were here wearing two hats. What was the second one?’

‘I am here as a casting director for Mac O’Hanlon’s new film.’

‘Which is?’

‘It is another big