Travelling North Film Festival awarded the Best Actor award to Leo McKern. "Travelling North" grossed $1,464,000 at the box office in Australia, which is equivalent to $2,942,640 in 2009 dollars. Travelling North Travelling North is a 1987 film directed by Carl Schultz and starring Leo McKern, Julia Blake, and Graham Kennedy. Based on an original 1979 play of the same name by David Williamson, it is one of Williamson's favourite movies based on his works. An aged couple decide to move from Melbourne to north Queensland. The David Williamson play "Travelling North" premiered in 1979, the year that Williamson moved from Melbourne
Irene Shubik plays Shubik had produced for "Play for Today" was John Mortimer’s “Rumpole of the Bailey” (broadcast 17 December 1975), starring Leo McKern as the eponymous barrister. McKern had greatly enjoyed playing the role and had indicated it was a part he would be interested in returning to. Shubik commissioned six new "Rumpole" scripts from John Mortimer with a view to making a series but a change of senior personnel in the BBC led to the project being put on hold. In late 1976, Shubik departed the BBC for Thames Television and brought the "Rumpole" scripts with her. Shubik produced the