A Place to Call Home: Your mother is progressive

Elizabeth Bligh, played by Noni Hazlehurst, is the formidable matriarch of A Place to Call Home, an upmarket soap opera with luscious production values that aired on Channel 7 from 2013 to 2018. Elizabeth, hellbent on keeping up appearances, ruthlessly suppresses her grandson’s homosexuality, rejects her free-spirited daughter, and meddles in the relationship between her son and a Jewish woman. Over the arc of the series, Elizabeth’s conventional values are challenged, and she becomes a gentler, more open person. But she can still get back on her high horse when she sniffs a challenge to her family.  

In this scene, from the fourth series of A Place to Call Home, Elizabeth goes head-to-scheming-head with Regina (Jenni Baird), a psychopath who’s made a marriage of convenience with her son George, an aspiring politician. Regina has arranged a dinner with the prime minister, but her moment of triumph is ruined by Elizabeth’s unexpected arrival. In a cross between musical chairs and a chess match, she deftly takes control of the room, replacing Regina at the head of the table, depriving her of a seat next to the prime minister, and thoroughly check-mating her.  

The conventions of soap opera – the villainess in the scarlet dress, the mother-in-law establishing her power, a dinner party with undercurrents – are given a sophisticated treatment, and an extra charge from Hazlehurst’s queenly performance.  

Notes by Rose Mulready