Ballad for One Gun

Ballad for One Gun is a 1963 Australian television film about Ned Kelly broadcast on ABC.

It was originally aired 17 July 1963 in Sydney and shown at later dates in other parts of Australia. It was written by Phillip Grenville Mann. The director Ray Menmuir called it "“definitely a new approach and a new treatment of the whole Ned Kelly legend."

Australian drama was relatively rare on television at the time, although there had been a TV play called Ned Kelly (1959) produced.

The story of Ned Kelly which made him out to be "a dangerous embryo dictator, murderously vindictive and swaggeringly brutal in his hour of power." John Bell played Kelly but his face was never shown, he was only heard behind a mask.

The play was by Phillip Grenville Mann, who had taken over from Rex Rienits as drama editor at the ABC. Mann was an Australian who had worked in the London for six years. He sold the play to the ABC and BBC, as well as to German television. Mann said "the play is not, and does not seek to be, an exact historical record."

Raymond Menmuir made it after having been in Britain for two years. Menmuir said "It's certainly not a factual historical record. And Ned Kelly doesn't emerge as an old style hero. The play doesn't attempt to sit in judgement on the Kellys either. I suppose the basic thing is we look into Ned's motives and how he gets further into his career he loses sight of the original reasons for his grudge against the police. "

It starred John Bell who called the play "definitely a new approach and a new treatment of the whole Ned Kelly legend... We play the Kelly gang rather like a band of young hoods but the crux of the play is in the change of motivations and attitudes".

Bell said when he heard the script was by Mann, the actor thought it would be like The Patriots, and was surprised when he read the script. "It's really way out," said Bell.