AustLit

'Inspired by true events, Stingers reveals the shadowy and ambiguous world of undercover cops — people with covert lives and constantly changing identities. They are police who defeat crime from within the criminal world — always without a badge and frequently without protection. The series follows the lives of the operatives as they befriend and betray those on the other side of the law. For these select few, it is a deadly way of life.The undercover cops of Stingers are a unique breed. They must juggle their own lives — love, laughter, family and humanity — with the tension of the criminal personas they adopt in their passion for justice.'

Source: Australian Television Information Archive. (Sighted: 7/6/2013)

A character-based television drama series about the lives of police officers in the fictitious Australian country town of Mt Thomas, this series began with the arrival of Constable Maggie Doyle (Lisa McCune) to the Mt Thomas station in the episode 'A Woman's Place'. Doyle and avuncular station boss Senior Sergeant Tom Croydon (John Wood) were the core characters of the series until the departure of Lisa McCune.

Immensely popular for a decade, Blue Heelers was cancelled in 2006 after thirteen seasons. The announcement was front-page news in Australia's major newspapers including The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney's Daily Telegraph, The Herald Sun and The Age in Melbourne, and Brisbane's Courier Mail.

On June 8, 2006 Ross Warneke wrote in The Age:

'It's over and, to be perfectly blunt, there's no use lamenting the demise of Blue Heelers any more. When the final movie-length episode aired on Channel Seven on Sunday night, 1.5 million Australians tuned in, a figure that was big enough to give the show a win in its timeslot but nowhere near big enough to pay the sort of tribute that this writer believes Heelers deserved after more than 500 episodes.It is unlikely there will be anything like it again. At almost $500,000 an hour, shows such as Blue Heelers are quickly becoming the dinosaurs of Australian TV.'

A one-hour soap opera focusing on life in a gritty inner-city suburb.

The first of two 1980s' mini-series on Australian involvement in the Vietnam War, both of which, as Moran notes in his Guide to Australian TV Series, follow very similar plotlines, in terms of tracing the tension between the war and the peace movement. Whereas Vietnam explored this tension through sibiling relationships, the ideologically opposed protagonists in Sword of Honour are lovers.

Though Sword of Honour aired the year before Vietnam, Moran considers it inferior to its (independently developed) successor:

Andrew Clarke is particularly wooden in the central role, a mixture of poor casting, writing and acting, and although Tracy Mann is rather better, characters seem stiff compared with the characters in Vietnam. However, in justification of this series, it is worth noting that it is eight not ten hours in length, and therefore there is less narrative space available here to develop the dense historical and referential textures of the other series.

The series cost $5 million to produce over twenty weeks, and received good ratings when it aired on Australian television.

Frequently described as an 'Australian western', Five Mile Creek was based on Louis L'Amour's 1982 novel The Cherokee Trail, with the action moved wholesale to Australia.

A co-production between the Seven Network and the Disney Channel, the program, according to Moran in his Guide to Australian TV Series, 'revolved around two women, Kate Wallace and the American Maggie Scott, who ran a stage way station at Five Mile Creek in New South Wales.' Moran also notes that it 'was the most expensive series ever filmed in Australia up to that time, costing Disney $12 million for the first two series, although this was still thought to be about half of what it would have cost in Hollywood.'

The series did poorly on Australian television but extremely well on the Disney Channel in the United States. According to Moran,

Five Mile Creek was a kind of stunning confirmation that Lew Grade was right all those years earlier in thinking that the Australian outback could be adapted to the genre demands of the western. Indeed in Five Mile Creek the reciprocal parallels and symmetries between America and Australia are pushed in a deliberate and warmly calculating way. The Australian bush is, as it were, transfigured so that it seems intrisically like part of the Old West.

In contrast to this Australian/American fusion that Moran notes in the program's sensibility, he also notes that it had the Disney Channel's 'cultural/commercial values written all over it.'

Based on the uprising of gold miners at Ballarat, Victoria, in 1854.

The first major film treatment of the Eureka Rebellion since the 1949 film version, this mini-series drew some of the same criticism as its predecessor. For example, Albert Moran, in his Guide to Australian TV Series, notes that 'Bryan Brown in the central role of Lalor was no more comfortable with his life and appearance than Chips Rafferty had been in the original. Bill Hunter, on the other hand, was much more comfortable in his role as Hayes'.

Employing the same producer, writer, director, and star as the highly successful mini-series A Town Like Alice, Eureka Stockade cost $2.5 million to produce, but managed to secure only reasonable ratings in Sydney and Melbourne, especially compared to the success of A Town Like Alice. It did sell well overseas, including in the United States: Moran notes that the series 'aimed to tap residual memories [including of the 1949 film] in older segments of its audience both in Australia and in Britain where the series was shown on BBC television. For North American audiences, there were Canadian and American characters as well as hints of the connections between Californian and Victorian goldfields'.

Set during and immediately after World War II, A Town Like Alice is both a love story and a war story. It spans two decades and three continents. The story begins with the capture of a group of civilian women by the Japanese and follows the nightmare of their captivity in the jungles of Malaya. It is during this time that one of the women, Englishwoman Jean Paget, meets a cheerful and laconic Australian prisoner of war, Joe Harman, who hails from Alice Springs. When he is tortured for a simple act of kindness, she believes that he has died. Later, after the war has ended, she discovers that he didn't die, and sets out to find him in Australia. Meanwhile, he travels to England to find her. The two are eventually reunited in the rugged outback of Australia.

Source: Moran's Guide to Australian TV Series

In 1798, young Irish girl Mary Mulvane is convicted of stealing by the British court and sentenced to transportation to Australia. During the journey, she falls for fellow convict Jonathan Garrett, and the pair attempt to start a new life in the brutal penal colony.

An extremely short-lived soap opera, Hotel Story was set in a luxury hotel, and was filmed (in addition to Crawford Productions' studios) at the Melbourne Hotel. According to Moran, in his Guide to Australian Television Series, 'The serial, which was intended as a replacement for The Box, was rumoured to have cost $200,000 for the seven episodes that had been produced, but not put to air, when the network decided to cancel the serial'. When the first four episodes were later aired as two two-hour specials, viewer reaction was positive, but could not affect the cancellation decision.

Young Ramsay follows the adventures of a Sydney-based vet who becomes disillusioned with his work on the racecourse circuit, and moves to the small, fictional town of Jindarra, where he starts work with the veterinary practice of Jack Lambert (who is semi-retired on the grounds of ill health). It was conceived as family entertainment: neither violent nor explicit, but sufficiently exciting to keep the attention of both children and adults. Ramsay is supported by Julie Lambert (Jack's daughter, nurse, and receptionist) and Ray Turner (local park ranger).

The program begins in media res, with Ramsay already established in Jindarra, and unfolds his background and past experiences slowly, over a number of episodes. According to Don Storey, in Classic Australian Television, Ramsay is 'Not a super-cool type who never puts a foot wrong, but rather a well-rounded personality with successes and failings. He is a very competent vet; sometimes he makes a fool of himself or confuses names but he always makes good under pressure or in an emergency'.

Series one was followed by a two-year hiatus, and significant changes were made to the program for series two, including the re-casting of Ramsay's receptionist (Julie Lambert having been said to have left Jindarra after her father's death) and a stronger focus on happy endings.

According to Moran, in his Guide to Australian Television Series, 'Young Ramsay had a heavy stress on good ecological practices and was actively supported by the Victorian Ministry for Wildlife and Conservation'.

'Bluey gets wind of an attempted gaol break. After weighing the pros and cons, and sleeping on it, he decides to let it go ahead.

'His decision could spell the beginning of the end for Department B. According to Bluey, this is probably their one and only chance to recover the $200,000 stashed away by Eric Frances Yates before he went into Pentridge. Gary disagrees. It's all too risky. He argues that they should inform the Assistant Commissioner. And is tempted to, whether Bluey likes it or not. But he knows if he goes over Bluey's head, it will spell finis to their relationship.

'The Assistant Commissioner finds out anyway and gives Bluey one option: get Yates and the $200,000 back. Or else.

'For once, it looks as if Bluey's bitten off more than he can chew.'

Source: Synopsis held in the Crawford Collection in the AFI Research Collection (RMIT).

The script for this episode held in the Crawford Collection in the AFI Research Collection contains the following character notes:

'YATES: About 30. A recognised tactician in the well-planned, well-executed robbery. Never makes a move until he's examined all the angles. Serving a 15 year sentence for a robbery that netted $200,000. Although by a freak accident the police caught up with Yates, he still has the loot stashed away somewhere.

'LAUREL YATES: 25 - 30. Yates' wife. Ostracised by his middle-class family -- they believe she led him into crime -- she has taken up with a heavy called Drummond. Unnerved, it seems, about what Yates will do to her when he finds out about Drummond.

'DRUMMOND: Early thirties. Standard heavy with an eye to the main chance. Not all that bright. Appears more interested in Yates' $200,000 than Yates' wife.

'DOYLE: Thirtyish. A heavy who aspires to be like Drummond -- which'll give you some idea.

'MOODY: Twenties. A skilled high-speed driver. (NO LINES. MUST BE ABLE TO DRIVE WELL.)

'MATHESON: A specialist in his trade -- thieving cars -- who operates with style and panache.

'ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER: As previously cast.

'PLAINCLOTHES MAN #3: Keeps surveillance on Yates' house.

'EXTRAS: Drinkers (4). Mourners (4).

'WORKMEN: (2)

'PLAINCLOTHES MEN #1, #2: At funeral.

'V.K.C.:

'CAB DRIVER #1:

'CAB DRIVERS #2, #3: Actuals.'

A crossover episode between Bluey and Homicide: in the wake of Bluey's (ultimately non-fatal) shooting, the Russell Street homicide department get involved, in the form of Don Barker (Det. Sgt. Harry White).

'Tip-offs are usually welcomed by police, but Bluey is far from happy when an anonymous note tells the authorities who killed Noel Allan Cornish. However, even Bluey couldn't possibly foresee the disaster that would follow in the wake of such information. Department B is rocked to its very foundation.

'Much against his better judgement, Bluey becomes involved in checking out the tip .. and he pays the absolute penalty.

'With Bluey out of the way, Monica finds running the Department, keeping Gary in check and handling the Assistant Commissioner is more than she can cope with. Not even Truscott's help is assistance enough to forestall the day of reckoning looming for Department B.

'Gary, with no restraining hand over him, all but runs amok. In the best Bluey traditions, he tosses away the book and goes in boots and all. His rough, tough approach to the investigation stamps him a worthy "Son of Bluey".'

Source: Synopsis held in the Crawford Collection in the AFI Research Collection (RMIT).

The script held in the Crawford Collection in the AFI Research Collection contains the following character notes (excluding regular characters):

'JENNY: IN HER EARLY TWENTIES, JENNY LIVES UP TO TRUSCOTT'S ASSESSMENT OF HER - "A SEXY YOUNG BIT". BUT IN REGARDS SEX, SHE'S MORE LANDROVER THAN ROLLS ROYCE - HANDLES THE GOING BEST WHEN THINGS ARE A BIT ROUGH. MORE YOUR R THAN RR. SHE'S A FUN KID WHEN SHE'S IN THE MOOD FOR FUN. SHE'S A WILDCAT WHEN IT COMES TO A FIGHT.

'JOEY RAVEN: ABOUT THE SAME AGE AS JENNY, JOEY HAS LIVED ON THE FRINGE OF THE CRIMINAL ELEMENT MOST OF HIS LIFE. BUT THAT'S THE STORY OF HIS LIFE ... ALWAYS ON THE FRINGE. HE'S NEVER COME TO TERMS WITH WOMEN - PARTICULARLY JENNY. HE'S USUALLY AS EMBARRASSED AS HELL IN HER PRESENCE BUT HE ENJOYS BEING THERE. HE HAS A SOFT SPOT FOR DOUG, TOO - A SILENT "FRINGE" MATESHIP OF A KIND BUILT UP OVER THE YEARS WITH JOEY VERY MUCH THE SECOND STRING.

CAR DRIVING REQUIRED.

'DOUG STEWART DOUG, IN HIS THIRTIES, IS A BIT OF A MYSTERY MAN. IT IS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO TELL WHETHER HIS RETICENCE IS THE RESULT OF CAUTION (PERHAPS HE HAS SOMETHING TO HIDE) OR WHETHER IT IS SIMPLY PART OF HIS MAKE-UP. HE HAS A LONG CRIMINAL RECORD DUE MAINLY TO A LACK OF SELF-CONTROL IN A CRISIS. WHEN HE DOES HIS BLOCK HIS FISTS FLY BLINDLY - NO DIFFERENCE WHETHER IT'S A MAN OR A WOMAN ON THE RECEIVING END. BUT WHEN HE'S DOWN EMOTIONALLY, HE'S RIGHT DOWN. HE'S A VICTIM OF DEEP-SEATED INSECURITY AND DOUBTS.

'RHODA LEWIS: ABOUT THE SAME AGE AS DOUG, RHODA WAS HIS DE FACTO FOR MANY YEARS .. AND SHE'S MUCH MORE DOUG'S STYLE AND SPEED THAN JENNY IS. SHE WANTS TO RE-ESTABLISH THEIR EARLIER RELATIONSHIP AT ALL COSTS. WHETHER IT'S DOUG SHE WANTS OR WHETHER IT'S THE KEY DOUG MIGHT HOLD, WE DON'T KNOW.

'MATRON: A LITTLE YOUNGER THAN BLUEY ... BUT SHE'S A MATCH FOR HIM. WHAT SHE MAY LOSE TO HIM IN YEARS OF EXPERIENCE SHE MORE THAN COMPENSATES FOR THROUGH HER POSITION OF AUTHORITY AND THE SECURITY OF HER RELIGIOUS HABIT.

'SERGEANT TAYLOR: A SERGEANT IN THE HOMICIDE SQUAD - A SUBORDINATE IN ALL WAYS TO INSPECTOR FERRIS.

'NURSE: YOUNG AND PRETTY, WITH A BOTTOM JUST THE RIGHT SIZE FOR BLUEY TO GET HIS HANDS AROUND.

'SISTER: EFFICIENT, WITH THE AUTHORITY YOU WOULD EXPECT TO FIND IN ONE HOLDING SUCH A POSITION. SHE READILY CO-OPERATES WITH ALL HIGHER AUTHORITY - PARTICULARLY THE POLICE.

'DOCTOR: A YOUNG RESIDENT MEDICAL OFFICER OF SOME THREE OR FOUR YEARS STANDING.

'ORDERLY: A HOSPITAL ORDERLY.

'POLICE PHOTOGRAPHER.'

'Fear! Terror, stark and real - and it's always there! There when you lie sleepless at two in the morning. There when day finally breaks. There when you try to force down lunch. There when you are alone at sunset, waiting. Fear! The legitimate fear that the man you love could die - ripped apart by a felon's bullet. And he could die today!

'Jo, Detective Gary Dawson's girlfriend, lives with such a horror. She loves Gary. She wants him. To be a complete person, she needs him. But Bluey wants him as a cop ... and cops die - ripped apart by felons' bullets. Bluey and Jo are on a collision course - and something's got to give.

'If Jo could only find some reason to hate him! Anything! Something she could use to break the bond ... any excuse to get out from under this fear ...

'And then Gary arrives home late ... he's been drinking ... there's lipstick. Is this the chance she has been waiting for? Is this what she really wants?

'Bluey is the only one she can turn to for help. But what help will he be? He wants Gary to remain a cop. And if Bluey wants something he does not fight fair.

'Maybe if she gave Gary just one more chance ... if she overlooked this one lapse ... perhaps Gary's explanation was true - maybe there was nothing in it ...

'And as she worries, Gary cannot help her. He is being held by criminals. He is facing that felon's bullet.'

Source: Synopsis held in the Crawford Collection in the AFI Research Collection (RMIT).

The script held in the Crawford Collection in the AFI Research Collection contains the following character notes (excluding regular characters):

'GREG HOLT: 18-19 Apprentice mechanic for an interstate trucking company. Working class background with a giant sized chip on his shoulder -- though he probably couldn't say why.

'SHARON HOLT: Late teens, early twenties. Greg's older sister. Works as a radio operator with the trucking company.

'GEORGIE DANIELS: Early twenties. The only law worth worrying about as far as Georgie's concerned is the law of the jungle.

'JACK MACMILLAN: Fifties. Owner/Manager of Ajax Hauliers. Good boss and a nice bloke into the bargain.

'ARTHUR FERRIS: Fifties. Homicide Inspector. Old acquaintance of Bluey's and Monica's.

'LENNIE: Late teens. Member of the gang. Completely dominated by Georgie.

'SEMI DRIVER (JIMMY): Killed in teaser. (SHOULD BE ABLE TO DRIVE ARTICULATED VEHICLE.)

'EXTRAS: Bar 3

'CAB DRIVER: (Actual)

'POLICE CAR DRIVER:

'V.O. # 1 - BERNIE: V.O. Only

'V.O. # 2 - HARRY: V.O. Only.'

According to Moran, in his Guide to Australian Television Series, Bluey (and its Sydney-based rival, King's Men) 'constituted an attempt to revive the police genre after the cancellations of Homicide, Division 4 and Matlock Police'.

Don Storey, in his Classic Australian Television, summarises the program as follows:

Bluey is a maverick cop who breaks every stereotype image. He drinks, smokes and eats to excess, and therefore is rather large, but it is his unusual investigative methods that set him apart. He has bent or broken every rule in the book at some stage, to the point where no-one else wants to work with him. But he gets results, and is therefore too valuable to lose, so the powers-that-be banish him to the basement of Russell Street Police Headquarters where he is set up in his own department, a strategem that keeps him out of the way of other cops.

Moran adds that 'Grills, Diedrich and Nicholson turned in solid performances in the series and the different episodes were generally well paced, providing engaging and satisfying entertainment.'

The program sold well overseas, especially in the United Kingdom. But though it rated well domestically, it was not the success that the Seven Network had hoped for, and was cancelled after 39 episodes.

Bluey had an unexpected revival in the early 1990s when selections from the video footage (over-dubbed with a new vocal track) were presented during the second series of the ABC comedy The Late Show as the fictional police procedural Bargearse. (The Late Show had given ABC gold-rush drama Rush the same treatment in series one.)

A spin-off from Crawford Productions' Matlock Police, Solo One transferred motorcycle officer Gary Hogan from the fictional town of Matlock to the real town of Emerald in the Dandenong Ranges, where the program was filmed on location.

The program, an attempt to capitalise on Gary Hogan's popularity with child viewers of Matlock Police and less adult in focus than its predecessor, wasn't renewed for a second season, after Cronin moved on to Crawford's war-time drama, The Sullivans. Don Storey, in his Classic Australian Television, notes that the program 'was very successful and received much critical acclaim', but Moran, in his Guide to Australian TV Series, counters that 'Cronin, though lovable both to Crawford's and the Victorian Police, who were advisors on the series, was far too long in the tooth to be playing this kind of role'.

Spanning the 1890s to the 1950s, Power Without Glory is the story of a man determined to make something of his life. Raised in a Melbourne slum area, John West later gains wealth and power, his influence extending into his business, his political ambitions, and his family life. The events of his life unfold against a backdrop of major historical events, including World War One and the beginnings of the Australian Labour Party.

The script held in the Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection contains neither character notes nor synopsis.

The script held in the Crawford Collection in the AFI Research Collection includes the following character notes:

'TRUDY: 18. Eight months pregnant when we meet. Has been through a fairly daunting, traumatic phase but has emerged determined to do things her own way. She has no time for the police, or the Social Welfare Department, or any other do-gooder. She is convinced, aggressively so, that the only person she can rely on is herself. A bright, abrasive personality -- with only a few areas of uncertainty. And a few of -outright [sic] panic.

'CLIFF: Early twenties. Serving five years for his part in an armed hold-up. A crim by default. Lacks education and drive. Low resistance. Easily conned into taking the easy way out. But never ends up on the winning side. Despite this, he still allows himself to hope ... though of late discouragement seems to intrude quicker and linger longer.

'MRS SHARP: Mid-forties. Trudy's nosy neighbour. A seeker of secondhand thrills.

'DELL: An average sort of bloke trying to earn a few quid out of the property he owns. Slightly effeminate.

'BILL McLEAN: 30 - 40. He works for the Prisoner's Aid Society. Doing his best to help Cliff locate his wife.

'TAXI DRIVER:

'STATION-MASTER:

'BUS DRIVER:

'TRUCKIE:

'FARMER:

'FENCING CONTRACTOR:

'WOMAN'.

Another Crawford Productions soap opera, The Box was set in a Melbourne television-production studio. According to Moran, in his Guide to Australian Television Series:

The setting for the continuous drama was a television station populated by a series of familiar types. These included Sir Henry Usher, chairman of the company; Max Knight, the harrassed station manager; Tony Wild, the egotistical star of the station's on-air detective series; the inevitable tea lady; Paul Donovan, a harrassed station executive, and many others. Most memorable of all was a wonderful bitch-figure in the person of reporter Vicki Stafford.

Like Number 96, The Box was designed for a late-night timeslot, and so focused on 'adult themes', including adultery and bisexuality.

Moran also suggests that The Box was 'very important to Crawford's in generating a cash flow at a time when they were losing the contracts on their police dramas' and that writers used the character of television police officer Tony Wild as 'an opportunity to settle the books against the egotism of some of the actors in Crawford's police series'.

The script held in the Crawford Collection in the AFI Research Collection includes the following character notes:

'DES MUNRO Early thirties. Small time crim, moderately successful. Trying to enlarge his field by using gelignite to blow safes. Specialises in jobs on churches - which is linked beneath the surface to a deep religious upheaval somewhere in his past. Disparage, scoff, protest as he may, there is still some belief lingering there.

'FRAN CARMODY Early-mid twenties. Catholic. Very strong on religion. Believes everybody should have some sort of faith. Doubtful about Munro at first, but decides that he is in need of spiritual help and that perhaps she can supply it, or part of it. Possibly attracted to him as well, but too self-possessed and single minded to let it show.

'DOREEN LANE 35-40. Has been getting around with Munro for some time. Returns with him to Matlock to see her father - and also to pick up some easy money. (She helps in a minor way with his jobs). Conscious of the age difference between herself and Munro, suspicious of any younger woman in whom he takes an interest. Has been kissed-off so many times before, she is determined not to let it happen again.

'TED LANE Around 60. Possibly older. Doreen's father. A farmer who has tried to discipline his daughter from an early age. Now reconciled to her loose behaviour, no longer voices his disapproval - but still retaining some hopes for her.

'FATHER RYAN 50-60. Priest of Matlock's largest Roman Catholic church.

'OXLEY 30-40. Though age not important. Explosives expert called in to defuse the sacristy safe.

'SIMPSON 40-50. Runs a small farm on the outskirts of Matlock. Well known for his anti-religious, particularly Anti-Catholic [sic] views.

'WHITEHEAD Late teens, early twenties. Boozy young lout who gets a kick out of playing around with explosives.

'SYKES Whitehead's mate, same age, attitudes - but subservient to Whitehead.

'HUTCHINSON Licensee of the Railway Hotel, about the lowest grade hotel in Matlock.

'EXTRAS For church scenes, also for montage.'