AustLit

'Bluey faces one of the most difficult decisions in his life on the force when a close friend and colleague is kidnapped and held hostage in exchange for a crim in Bluey's custody.

'The Assistant Commissioner will not yield to these terrorist actions and Bluey has to come up with a darn good plan in order to get his friend back - alive.

'Bluey tries to buy time in order to find the kidnappers, little realizing that he is on the wrong track. By the time he realizes the error it looks as if Bluey will lose, not only the crim in his custody, but also his friend.

'It is then that Bluey plays his hand just as dirtily and nastily as the people he has to deal with.'

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):

'JOE FULCHER Late forties. A rugged, hard bitten violent man with a working class background. Reared in atmosphere of violence and acceptance of law breaking, the oldest off-spring of the Fulcher family. A hostile anti-social group who drew strength from their collective stand against an establishment they were convinced thought itself better than they. An engrained belief that the establishment deserved an insult or loss by their hand. And success against the establishment was a family celebration. Congratulations. A family sense of pride. A strengthening of family loyalty. A concentration of their collective hatred against society and especially the symbol of the society and its repressions directed against them .... the police force. JOE carries this family heritage as a series of automatic emotional responses that will at time [sic] of stress and insecurity, over-ride his common sense and self control. He's an ambitious man. Has taken responsibility of his two younger brothers to widen their prospects .... to move from the small-time mentality of the family, to ambitious works and in this regard he has shown a considerable skill. And success. Feels an over-powering need to protect his young sister. This is motivated two-fold. By his concept of the family versus establishment's hostility. And by his continuing guilt over the oldest sister's suicide.

'PAUL HENDY Mid-thirties. Educated but draws little comfort or reassurance from it. Sensitive and ashamed of it. An upward achiever who finds himself introverted ...... and suffers an edge of tension because of it. Insecure and a seeker of approval from others. Something of a physical coward ... but intelligent. Coldly calculating. Ruthless with deep feelin [sic] of others, and perceptive enough to see some of his own shortcomings, and be both vaguely amused and frustrated with them.

'SWANSON Early thirties. Tall. Thick set. A straight forward aggressive approach to life. Doesn't let anything complicate his life for too long. He shapes people to fit his needs and if that fails or frustrates him his solution is aggressively simple .... thump or kill. He likes to eat. Likes to be physical in the way he moves. His bulk, his fitness, reassures him. He moves on a person with his physical presence. Domineering them physically. And he likes to dominate.

'ESMA FULCHER: Late twenties. Quiet. Sweet natured. Intelligent and ashamed of her family. But retaining at the same time a sense of family loyalty. An unhappy person.

'AL FULCHER: Late thirties. Cocky but easily thrown. He draws support from herd conformity and hints at anything less than total family support fill him with an uneasiness that projects itself .... together with all other emotions .... straight onto his face. Violent.

'PETE FULCHER Late twenties. Good looking in a working class, slightly overweight, obvious manner. He thinks himself more cunning and clever than is the reality. Tends to look to Joe ... or Al for his lead. Untrustworthy. Unreliable. Violent.

'STRIPPER: Late twenties. A stripper.'