That year Oscar Whitbread, veteran producer with the public-service television broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), decided that the novel should be brought to the television screen. After all, despite the timidity of ABC management, the court case had happened more than 20 years earlier and had, in any event, been lost by Wren. Moreover, under a federal Labour Party government, the ABC was expected to be progressive and innovative in its productions; its revenue, coming directly from the government, was, in real terms, at an all-time high. Whitbread judged that the time was right for such a massive undertaking, and he and script editor Howard Griffiths set to work on adapting the novel. The book was split into 26 hour-long episodes, and a series of ABC and former Crawford Production writers, including Tony Morphett, Sonia Borg, and Phil Freedman, were set to work to develop scripts. Writing and filming took place over the next 18 months, and the series began on-air nationally on the ABC in June 1976. Power without Glory starred Martin Vaughan as West and Rosalind Spiers as his wife. Other well-known Australian actors in the series included Terence Donovan, George Mallaby, and Michael Pate. Like many television miniseries, especially those with such a long screen-time, Power went well beyond the domestic drama of the couple and included the developing lives and careers of their children and acquaintances. These mostly private dramas were stitched onto a larger historical canvas that included political and national events such as the formation of the Australian Labour Party, the conscription debates of World War I, and the impact of the Great Depression and World War II.

The quality and integrity of the production—most especially its writing and the performance of the large cast—effectively sustained audience interest over the serial’s 26 hours. Power proved enormously popular and prestigious for the ABC. In 1977 it won a host of industry awards, including nine Sammys and four Penguins. The series was repeated in 1978, and in 1981 it was sold to Network Ten, where it was to receive two further screenings. Power without Glory was arguably the finest drama series ever made at the ABC. Its production and screening were watershed events, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the first ABC television transmission, and also highlighting the fact that, with a change in federal government and a downturn in the Australian economy, the circumstances that had made such a production possible were now a thing of the past.