The Fellas Send Their Regards | AustLit: Discover Australian Stories

Script cover page (Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection)

form y The Fellas Send Their Regards single work film/TV crime

Author:agent Roger Simpson

Issue Details: First known date: 1973... 1973 The Fellas Send Their Regards

The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Latest Issues

VIEW ALL ISSUES (C847299)

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'This episode involves the departure of Sergeant Pat Kelly from the police force.

'It is Sergeant White's birthday, and Kelly and the younger Detective Redford are woking [sic] out in a gymnasium prior to having lunch with the other members of the squad. Kelly, however, excuses himself on the grounds that he has another appointment.

'The pleasantries of White's birthday are contrasted with the tension and finally tragedy as Kelly first waits for the woman he had arranged to meet and then sees her shot outside the coffee shop where he has been waiting.

'Inspector Lawson can get little from Kelly about his relationship with the woman. She was a Czech, and Kelly met her in the course of his duties. Subsequent investigations, however, reveal that she was an illegal immigrant forced into helping a ring of drug pushers under threat of exposure.

'The police follow the trail of the drug ring to an airfield near Melbourne, and the gunman who shot Kelly's girlfriend appears, apparently expecting the arrival of some drugs. In a subsequent chase, Kelly is badly injured.

'The end of the episode is in strong contrast to the opening: Kelly is again in a gymnasium, this time not as the vigorous athlete we have already seen, but as a crippled man in a hospital welfare centre, determined to regain the use of his legs.'

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):

'IEVA ZERVOS: 25. A Czech immigrant. Attractive. (Note "Ieva" is pronounced Yevva)
'FRANKOVIC: (Uncle) Late sixties. Also of eastern European extraction. Wealthy. Probably been in Australia since the War.
'GALACHI: (Tony) Late 30's. Italian immigrant. A criminal on the run.
'GUNMAN: 30ish. European. A professional.
'BOB SUTHERLAND: Drug Squad Detective Sergeant. A bit scruffy. Probably about the pinacle of his Police career.
'WAITRESS: 30ish. Frumpy.
'1st CONSTABLE: Fairly young. Has a few lines.
'2nd CONSTABLE: Younger. Non-speaking.
'JENNY: Early 20's. A junkie - Probably a Uni drop-out.
'SURGEON: Middle aged. Has a few lines.
'OPERATING TEAM: (3) Extras.
'UNIFORMED CONSTABLE: 30ish. Sutherland's offsider. Non speaking. Drives Police car.
'TWO CONSTABLES: Non speaking.
'DRIVER: European crim. Middle aged. Stuntman driver.'

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.

Affiliation Notes

Writing Disability in Australia

Type of disability Paralysis (traumatic).

Type of character Primary.

Point of view Third person.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

1973 .

Script cover page (Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection)

HomEp432CoverScan_FX1A.jpg

Extent: 55p.
(Manuscript) assertion

Note/s:

The script is labelled with the episode code 'HDM' on the cover page. '432' has been added in blue ink. A notation in the top right-hand corner of the cover page indicates that this is director Paul Eddey's copy of the script. A second cover page has been included with the script to allow the full list of scenes/timing.

The script is annotated in red ink. Annotations include the deletion of some sections of dialogue, but are primarily directorial notes (written on the blank reverse of the previous pages) indicating the framing of scenes. The annotation is extensive at the end of the script, but non-existent at the beginning. In some rare instances, the red ink annotations have been crossed out in blue ink, but the only other annotation in blue ink is the marginalia '431 432' on page 32.

The file includes a one-page episode synopsis (reproduced above).

Holdings

Held at: AFI Research Collection

Local Id: SC HOM : 432

Note:
AFI Research Collection record

Director: Paul Eddey

VIEW FILM DETAILS

work

Publisher: Crawford Productions ; Seven Network

Melbourne, Victoria,: Crawford Productions ; Seven Network , 1974 .

Screen cap from opening credits

HomEp432ScreenCap_FX1@.JPG

Extent: 42 min. 47 secs (according to the script)p.

Series: form y Homicide Sonia Borg , Vince Moran , Phil Freedman , Luis Bayonas , Everett de Roche , Peter A. Kinloch , Ted Roberts , Roger Simpson , Charles E. Stamp , Margaret Kelly , Colin Eggleston , James Wulf Simmonds , Keith Hetherington , Michael Harvey , Cliff Green , Patrick Edgeworth , James East , John Drew , John Dingwall , Alan Cram , Ian Cameron , John Bragg , David William Boutland , Jock Blair , Don Battye , Fred Parsons , David Minter , Monte Miller , Ron McLean , George Mallaby , Ian Jones , Maurice Hurst , Barry Hill , Max Sims , Keith Thompson , David Stevens , Amanda Spry , Peter Schreck , Martin Robbins , Della Foss Pascoe , Bruce Wishart , Melbourne : Crawford Productions , 1964-1975 Z1813076 1964 series - publisher film/TV crime detective Abstract
Running for twelve years and a total of 510 episodes, Homicide was a seminal Australian police-procedural program, set in the homicide squad of the Victoria Police. According to Don Storey in his Classic Australian Television, it represented a turning point for Australian television, prompting the development of local productions over the purchase of relatively inexpensive American dramas. Indeed, Storey quotes Hector Crawford as saying that his production company intended three outcomes from Homicide: demonstrating that it was possible to make a high-quality local drama series, counteracting criticism of local performers, and showing that Australian audiences would watch Australian-made dramas.
As Moran notes in his Guide to Australian TV Series, the program adopted a narrative structure focusing on crime, detection, and capture, rather than on character studies of the lead detectives. The early episodes were produced by a small crew (Storey notes that the crew was frequently limited to four people: cameraman, grip, director, and assistant director), requiring some degree of ingenuity to achieve a polished result (including, in some cases, the actors performing their own stunts). However, the program received extensive support from the Victoria Police (who recognised, in its positive portrayal of police officers, a valuable public-relations exercise) and, as its popularity grew, from the public.
The program's cast changed extensively over its twelve years on the air, though it remained focused on a small group of male detectives, with the inclusion of irregular characters such as Policewoman Helen Hopgood (played by Derani Scarr), written on an as-required basis to reflect the involvement of women in the police force. In Moran's words, 'The other star of Homicide was the location film work. These ordinary, everyday familiar urban locations were what gave the series a gritty realism and familiarised audiences with the shock of recognition at seeing themselves and their milieus on air'.
Number in series: 432