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person or book cover
Script cover page (Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection)
form y separately published work icon Whole of Life single work   film/TV   crime  
Issue Details: First known date: 1976... 1976 Whole of Life
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'At first there is nothing untoward about a hit-run but Gary, feeling pangs of guilt in letting the driver of the vehicle slip through his fingers, starts to probe and comes up with much more than he bargained for.

'There is one puzzling feature to this case. Why would the victim, of such relatively poor means, take out such a large insurance policy on his life? It would seem that the beneficiary is equally bemused.

'Gary digs into the world of insurance and finds that there is no such thing as a perfect system and, in turn, has to try and prove there is no such thing as a perfect crime.

'A closely guarded secret comes to the fore and in solving one death, Bluey and Gary uncover a story of two other "accidental" deaths.'

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):

'JUDY BROWNING: She's in her late twenties and is showing slight signs of wear from the professional life she has led. She's quite attractive without being stunning and has a good figure.

'DAVID COLSON: Late thirties and a mousy little man. Short sighted, short hair, insignificant. His clothes still belong to ten years ago when his mother still bought them for him. (SIMILAR BUILD AND COLOURING TO JOE PATTERSON)

'MRS MOLLY BARBOUR: She runs a comfortable South Melbourne boarding house where the guests are members of the family as Truscott soon finds out. Her husband vanished years ago much to her relief. She's about forty five and has a sort of matronly sensuality.

'HOWARD CORCORAN: An insurance investigator of about fifty who must have been in the army. His clothes and his moustache reek of the old left right, left right.

'CHARLEY WATSON: 60+ and a longstanding border [sic] at the Barbour establishment. He's on the pension which keeps him from sleeping under bridges.

'JOE PATTERSON: Same age and size as Colson. If he lived a bit longer the alcohol would have killed him anyway.

'OLD MAN AND WOMAN: Aged and infirm arguing couple.

'UNIFORMED POLICEMAN: A week ago he was a cadet.

'STUNT DRIVER.'


Note: A character whose note simply reads 'Waitress' has been crossed off the character list in black ink. The character's name has been crossed out so thoroughly that it is indistinguishable.

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

      1976 .
      person or book cover
      Script cover page (Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection)
      Extent: 56p.
      (Manuscript) assertion
      Note/s:
      • The script is labelled 'Code 11539' and 'Episode No. 36' on the cover page, although it was produced as episode 35. There is no indication on the cover page of to whom this copy of the script was designated.
      • The script is partly typed on thin white paper (typical of the original scripts) and partly on thick white paper. The script is amended throughout with liquid paper, which has then been typed over. The annotations are minor: at a copy-editing level, no significant changes to dialogue or stage directions.
      • The script is also amended in black ink on the character notes, where the character of the waitress has been crossed out. This amendment likely took place after the 21st December 1976, since it seems to have been made in response to Denise Morgan’s memo (see ancillary material below), or Morgan made the alteration herself. There are no other indication of annotations in ink.
      • The file contains ancillary material, access to some of which is restricted, including:
        1. Six envelopes of scheduling notes, labelled 'Day 4 / Int. Colson's / Ext. Town Hall', 'Day 5. Int. & Ext. Judy's Flat', 'Day 1 Ext. & Int. Boarding House' [crossed out in lead pencil], 'Day 6 B.O.', 'Day 7. B.O. & B.I.', and 'Day 3. Ext. & Int. Colson's / Ext. Insurance Officer'. The scheduling notes themselves are small squares of thick yellow paper with handwritten notes.
        2. Two copies of a memo dated 15th February 1977 and signed 'Stottie', noting a change in the filming schedule.
        3. A one-page script register, filled out in blue ink.
        4. Cast list .
        5. A one-page memo from Denise Morgan, dated 21st December 1976, to Casting, Co-ordination, Continuity, and Graeme Arthur, noting that a character who appears on the character list doesn't appear in the episode and correcting the timing of one of the scenes.
        6. A one-page document noting the re-scripting of two scenes, sent from the sound department to the co-ordination department.
        7. A one-page copy of a handwritten document noting flight changes for some cast members.
        8. Two copies of a one-page document noting taxi times (for picking up cast members).
        9. An eleven-page list of location times and schedules.
        10. Two copies of a twelve-page one liner.
        11. Four loose pages of the one liner, annotated in red ink and blue ink.
        12. Copies of the location times and schedules, the one liner, and an amended one liner, all labelled 'Denise Morgan' in blue ink in the top right-hand corner of the cover page (but in two different handwritings).

      Holdings

      Held at: AFI Research Collection
      Local Id: SC BLU : 35
      Note:
      AFI Research Collection record
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Crawford Productions , 1977 .
      Extent: 46 min. 54 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: 35
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Last amended 4 Apr 2013 15:55:08
Graeme Arthur
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