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person or book cover
Script cover page (Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection)
form y separately published work icon Scout's Honour single work   film/TV   crime  
Issue Details: First known date: 1975... 1975 Scout's Honour
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'No-one pulls rank and rides rough-shod over Bluey! But when a Commonwealth narcotics agent who has expended nine months of blood, sweat and tears on the trail of "Mr. Big", [sic] finally gets his sights set on 400 lbs. of dope about to be delivered to its purchaser, Bluey finds such a man takes a lot of handling.

'Because of pressure from "upstairs" and much against his better judgement, Bluey throws the resources of Department B into the investigation. He quickly finds he and the narcotics agent have very different ideas about how the inquiry should be approached and very differing senses of priorities.

'Bluey's ideas on the drug scene are brought into further question by the clash of his moral assessment of dope with the more liberal evaluation of the problem by his young assistant, Gary. In fact, it is through the efforts of the young - Gary and his girlfriend, Jo - that the police get some kind of a lead on the real identity of the agent's "Mr. Big".

'When the final destination of the dope is uncovered, the police realise the drugs are going to a very big organization indeed ... but the hope of "an early arrest" is somewhat forestalled by problems associated with apprehending the wrong-doers.'

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):

'DET. LEE HACKER (25) Serpico-type undercover agent for Commonwealth Narcotic Bureau.

'"THE GO-BETWEEN"' (45) respected member of uni. faculty.

'WILSON (20) leader of uni. drug co-op.

'TRAVIS (25) freak-type.

'PAGE (20) freak-type. Little dialogue.

'POLICE CAR DRIVER No dialogue

'UNIFORMED COP No dialogue

'BIKE COP No dialogue

'CO-ED No dialogue

'STUDENT EXTRAS'.

Notes

  • This entry has been compiled from archival research in the Crawford Collection (AFI Research Collection), undertaken by Dr Catriona Mills under the auspices of the 2012 AFI Research Collection (AFIRC) Research Fellowship.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

      1975 .
      person or book cover
      Script cover page (Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection)
      Extent: 57p.
      (Manuscript) assertion
      Note/s:
      • The script is labelled 'Code 11507' and 'Episode No. Four' on the cover page, though it aired as episode eight. The script has been typed on two distinctly different machines and types of paper. Up to and including page 36 (including the character notes), the script is on thicker, wider paper, with a distinct serif font (which has been evident in other Crawfords scripts, though usually only for a few pages at a time). From page 37 to the end of the script, the script reverts to the thin, white foolscap paper and distinct typewriter font that is the usual default for these original scripts.
      • This is the original script, at least in part (see note above). The script has been amended in liquid paper: as with other scripts for this program, the amendments appear to be at the level of copy editing. Some new dialogue has been added in rare cases: see, for example, page 18. In some instances (see, for example, page 36), the script sections on thicker white paper have been amended on the same type of typewriter used for the last twenty pages of the script.
      • The script has been annotated in blue felt pen on pages 4 and 5: the annotations are alpha-numeric. There are no other signs of annotations on this copy of the script.
      • The Crawford Collection contains two copies of this script, both identical and filed separately.
      • The archive also contains information on the breakdown of costs for this episode, access to which is highly restricted.
      • The file contains the following ancillary material, access to some of which is restricted:
        1. Cast list
        2. Casting call sheets

      Holdings

      Held at: AFI Research Collection
      Local Id: SC BLU : 8
      Note:
      AFI Research Collection record
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Crawford Productions , 1976 .
      Extent: 46 min. 8 secs (according to the script)p.
      Series: form y separately published work icon Bluey Robert Caswell , Vince Moran , Everett de Roche , James Wulf Simmonds , Tom Hegarty , Gwenda Marsh , Colin Eggleston , David Stevens , Peter A. Kinloch , Keith Thompson , Gregory Scott , Peter Schreck , Denise Morgan , Monte Miller , Ian Jones , John Drew , David William Boutland , Jock Blair , Melbourne : Crawford Productions Seven Network , 1976 Z1815063 1976 series - publisher film/TV crime detective

      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.)

             Number in series: 8
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Last amended 4 Apr 2013 15:37:35
Kevin James Dobson
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