The Gadfly

Starring John Derum, this is a dramatised documentary about Francis James, one of Australia’s most intriguing post WWII figures. He was imprisoned in China for three years in 1969 as a spy. His release was eventually secured with the help of his old school friend, Gough Whitlam. There is still some doubt as to why he was incarcerated in China. It may be he was a spy. Or perhaps he was merely trying to ressurect a shattered journalistic reputation after published photographs he claimed were Chinese misssile sites proved to be fake. This is the story of a journalist, theologina, prankster and Walter Mitty character, a man who dressed in a cape, wore a black broad brimmed hat, wrote copy for a newspaper out of the back of an old Rolls Royce, a man who told wild exaggerated stories and quoted Keats and Plato, a man from another age.