The Battlers

The "Battlers" was essentially a prime time soapie. The show was hastily put together to cash in on Australia's sudden love affair with boxing. A sport that Australians had not done really all that well in internationally, suddenly found it had a popular aboriginal world champion, Lionel Rose. Briefly, the show was about an ex world champion, "Tolly McCall " who was training a young aboriginal fighter and grooming him for fame. It concentrated heavily on his marital problems, his wife being played by Carmen Duncan , Australia's first television sex symbol. The fight scenes were lousy and the sets cheap, but the acting was good. When the real world champ Lionel Rose lost his world title, interest in boxing declined and so did interest in this show. It disappeared quickly from the screen with little fanfare.