AustLit

Final episode of Division 4.

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

'LLOYD HUGHES: 45. A quiet and respectable clerk who confesses he killed a newspaper delivery boy. Medium height. Balding slightly. Able to drive. Married to ...

'ANNIE HUGHES: 35. Not a strong woman. Her face has some of the qualities of a waif-like little girl. Small fine bone structure ... large eyes ... curly hair style. Lightly built.

'COLIN STAFFORD (COWBOY): 11 ... but undersized. He has an appealing and bright boyish face. Newspaper boy. The poor son of a widow. No dialogue.

'MRS. COLLIER: 35. Smart. Attractive. Warm. The personnel officer of a large engineering company. An able woman who knows her job thoroughly.

'JOHN WALMSLEY: 48/50. A heavily built lathe or drilling machine operator. Cheerful type. Shop steward. Outspoken. Able to drive.

'BOB DEAN: 25-ish. Machine operator. A tearaway with a bad driving record. Worried. Rough speech. Untidy. Loutish.

'MR. SADLER: 45/50. Owner of the newsagency. Plump ... active type. Standard speech.

'MRS. STAFFORD: 40-ish. Working class ... thin ... hard yakka type who looks as though she has been through the mill. The widowed mother of the dead boy.

'MAN: Middle 40's. One scene.

'THE CAR DRIVER: 40/50. He sees Mrs. Hughes in Docker Road. No dialogue. Able to drive.

'NEWSPAPER BOY #2: Young. Normal.'

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

'RICKY: A 31 year old rocker. Tall, good-looking in a lean sparse way. A dreamer, reluctant to face reality until the very last. The driver.

'CHAS: Also a 31 year old rocker. Shorter, heavier, not so good looking. Like Ricky, missed the bus in '64 when rock collapsed, but unlike Ricky, a pragmatist. The mechanic.

'CASSIE STEVENS: About 17. Pretty, little make-up. Dresses casually. Carefree, impulsive, with no past, no future, just the present. A realist in her own reality.

'HELEN: About 21. Second-year law student. Into Womens' and any other minority Rights [sic]. Confident, at times aggressive. An idealist.

'CROFT: About 28. Well groomed, fashionably dressed. Confident, easy, yet plausible. A competent salesman.

'EMPLOYER/MANAGER:/ MR. GOODISON: About 55. Soberly dressed. No nonsense type. Knows his job, probably worked his way up from the Print Shop floor. A conservative.

'SERVICE STATION PROPRIETOR: Mid 40's. Slow, easy going type, who proves too trusting.

'SKINHEAD #1 #2. Young, weazle [sic] faced, looking for action and finding it. Drives.'

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

'TERRI STANDISH: A policewoman for over ten years. She is well known to Yarra Central. Respected with an excellent police record. She has a mild and gentle nature.

'HELGA STEINER: About fifty years of age. A prisoner in a German prison camp for Jews. Although herself not being Jewish she refused to give up her husband who was, and was therefore detained with him. The experience brought her close to insanity by the end of the war when she was released by the allies [sic]. She recovered with the help of her husband and migrated to Australia, to lead a fairly good life. Her husband's death triggers her unstable mind and the sight of uniforms, especially police, unlocks the horrors of the war.

'Terri Standish out of uniform is a friend but once in uniform she sees only the Gestapo whom she must destroy.

'SUE EDWARDS: Young policewoman. Fairly new to the game but she's known by all at Yarra Central.

'HILDA SCHMIDT: Large German woman. Also has a fear of the police syndrome.

'STEPHEN PECK: Hungarian Jewish estate agent. A greasy little man who worries only about his business.

'VICKY NOLAN: A spoilt seventeen year old. Her father dotes on her and she thinks she can get away with anything.

'MRS NOLAN: Her mother. Well spoken. Has all but ignored her daughter in the last seventeen years. Must drive.

'NORMA BARRET: Seventeen. Hates police after her boyfriend was gaoled.

'CAROL WRIGHT: Considers Barret as her protege. A tough crim who has seen the inside of Fairlea many times.

'DRUNK: Some slurred dialogue.

'CONSTABLE A: Young. No lines.'

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

'CHRIS RAPP: 19-21. Male model looks with aspirations, mainly in the direction of money. He uses both Jill and Pru. Cold-blooded and amoral. Must drive.

'JILL FERRIS: 30-32. Extremely attractive divorcee who runs a small talent agency. Has fallen in love with Chris and is totally blind to his true character.

'RON BRYANT: 18-20. A rough young man with no brains and no finesse.

'PRU TURNER: 17-18. A gum chewing bopper. Sexy and unintelligent.

'DIXIE PALMER: 30-50. A professional fence. He doesn't like fizzing, but feels that Chris, etc., are doing the profession irreputable [sic] damage.

'CARLA: Jill's Girl Friday. Attractive and competent looking.

'OLD LADY: 60-70. A few lines. The victim of a brutal assault.

'BOUTIQUE OWNER: Female. 30. Snooty.'

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

'JENNY FRANKLIN: Late 20's. Attractive, intelligent, forthright. A widely travelled, unpretencious [sic] girl (Established in "Voice of the Gun")

'TIM FREER: An English businessman about the same age as Banner and a rather impressive rival. Exudes confidence, breeding, and good taste. Romantically involved with Jenny when she was in England.

'CHARLIE GIBSON: Late 40's. A crack safe-blower until an accident partially disabled his right arm. But he carries his injury well, and until specifically referred to, it's not noticeable. A possessive, humourless man who married late in life a woman he doesn't really understand.

'STELLA GIBSON: His wife of three years. Mid 30's. Ex-showgirl and prostitute. Warm, ample and accomodating [sic]. Married to have kids and is probably neurotic that she hasn't been able to.

'RICKY BURNS: Early 20's. Stella's nephew. A stock hand at the City sale yards. A general layabout who takes life casually. A juvenile record of minor offences - but this is his first attempt at the "big time". Drives.

'EDWARD PALMER: Late 30's to early 40's. A crim with a substantial record and a man capable of almost anything. A rather remote character whose introversion is easily misinterepreted by Gibson as mistrust.

'PAY CLERK: Middle-aged unimpressive and conservative. It's a real surprise when he stands up to the crims.

'SECRETARY: 18. Mod and trendy with a tendency to overdress. Probably her first job since leaving school.

'MOTORIST:

'UNIFORMED CONSTABLE (STUNTMAN): Requires some acting ability.

'YOUNG BOY: As young as possible, preferably about six.

'UNIFORMED POLICE CONSTABLE: Few lines.'

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

'BEVERLY JONES. Late forties. An ex-nurse. Hard, disillusioned. Drives.

'SID WALKER. A few years younger. Her de facto husband. Unscrupulous. He is afraid of physical violence, but brave as long as he is faced with someone weaker than himself. Drives.

'KIRSTY ANDERSON. 16 years old. Still goes to school: the Convent. She has fallen for Cliff because he in handsome, and because she is old enough now to be in love. The events of the story make her grow up.

'CLIFF WELLS. Mid-twenties. Good looking. Thought Kirsty a sweet kid, nice to have a good time with. He sees abortion as the obvious answer to an unwanted pregnancy. Drives.

'AILEEN MILLER. Late twenties or early thirties. Unhappily married. Did not want another child because her husband drinks heavily and then becomes violent towards her and her son. Drives a car.

'DOUG MILLER. Mid-thirties. Filled with resentment towards his wife and child because he thinks they have forced him to abandon a colourful career. He drinks.

'TOMMY MILLER: Seven year old boy. Should be small for his age. He has the air of a grown-up like many children who live in constant fear.

'DR. KAREN BROWN A doctor at the Matlock hospital. She believes in abortion-law reform; she is slightly defiant towards Maddern, though she considers him to be more human than most police.

'NATALIE. Hairdresser who arranges abortions.

'MRS. CARTINI. A middle-aged migrant woman. Completely out of her depth: she does not speak English well, knows only one thing: it is a sin to have an abortion. Yet she is willing to commit it because she can't face having another child.

'O'NEIL. A log-contractor. Likeable, helpful. (Strong build, outdoor type essential).'

The Matlock Police series (originally simply titled Matlock) was commissioned from Crawford Productions by ATV-0, in response to the popularity of rival-network police dramas such as Homicide and Division 4. Crawford's was initially reluctant to create another police series, but ATV-0 pressured the company for some time. Eventually, Ian Jones and Terry Stapleton devised the concept of a regional (Victorian) police series to provide viewers with something different. The more relaxed atmosphere of the country-town setting also allowed the writers to delve into the private lives of the main characters, rather than focusing heavily on big-city organised crime. In this respect, the series was situated somewhere between Homicide/Division 4 and Bellbird. The series did, however, cover typical rural policing, including such issues as break and enters, domestic issues, itinerant workers, brawls, petty crime and robberies, road accidents, the occasional homicide, and cattle rustling. On other occasions, the Matlock police also assisted Melbourne police in locating criminals on the run (among other problems). The idea behind the show was to reflect the causes of crime in a small community and show the effects on both the community and the officers themselves.

The fictional town of Matlock (loosely based on Shepparton in Victoria) is situated inland on the Central Highway, approximately 160 kilometres north of Melbourne. Although the town's population is only seventeen thousand, this increases to around seventy-five thousand when the district is included. The Matlock Police Station is typical of a Victorian country town, with a Uniform Branch and a Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB). The CIB is headed by Detective Sergeant Vic Maddern, who grew up in the Matlock district and is an accomplished bushman. Second in command is Detective Allan Curtis, aged in his mid-twenties. Previously from Melbourne, Curtis has just been sent to his first country posting (against his will) when the series begins. Head of the Uniform Branch is Sergeant Bert Kennedy, an Englishman who migrated to Australia in 1950. A thorough but also easy-going man with a good sense of humour, Kennedy is married to Nell and enjoys the country life in Matlock, so much so that he has knocked back promotion to avoid moving to Melbourne. Several constables are attached to the Uniform Branch, but the most prominent is a motorcycle cop, Constable Gary Hogan, who performs a wide variety of duties. Hogan is about thirty, a friendly, easy-going person who grew up in the country and is always willing to help in whatever work is going.