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

form y Today Ends at Dawn single work film/TV crime

Author:agent Charles E. Stamp

Issue Details: First known date: 1974... 1974 Today Ends at Dawn

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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

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.'

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

1974 .

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

Div4Ep300CoverScan_FXhX.jpg

Extent: 60p.
(Manuscript) assertion

Note/s:

The script is copied on a combination of blue and white paper, and labelled 'Episode 03460' on the cover page. The cover page gives no indication of to whom this copy of the script is designated.

The script shows no signs of annotation.

The Crawford Collection includes two copies of this script, one held in this file and one filed separately.

The file also contains ancillary materials, access to some of which is restricted. These materials include:
1. Casting call sheets.

Holdings

Held at: AFI Research Collection

Local Id: SC DIV : 300

Note:
AFI Research Collection record

Director: David Charles

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work

Publisher: Crawford Productions ; Nine Network

Melbourne, Victoria,: Crawford Productions ; Nine Network , 1976 .

Extent: 46 min., 49 secs (according to the script)p.

Series: form y Division 4 Howard Griffiths , Charles E. Stamp , Douglas Tainsh , Luis Bayonas , Everett de Roche , Gwenda Marsh , Ted Roberts , Roger Simpson , Sonia Borg , Colin Eggleston , Michael Harvey , Phil Freedman , John Dingwall , Jonathan Dawson , Ray Chamula , David William Boutland , Tom Mclennan , Ian Jones , Keith Hetherington , Tom Hegarty , David Stevens , Terry Stapleton , Mark Randall , John Orcsik , Don Battye , Melbourne : Crawford Productions , 1969 Z1814717 1969 series - publisher film/TV detective crime Abstract
Division 4, which Don Storey notes in Classic Australian Television was 'the only drama series on Australian television to rival the popularity of Homicide', was created as a vehicle for Gerard Kennedy, who had risen to popularity playing the complicated enemy agent Kragg in spy-show Hunter, after Tony Ward's departure left Hunter's future in doubt.
According to Moran, in his Guide to Australian Television Series:
The series differed from Homicide in being more oriented to the situation and milieu of a suburban police station staffed by a mixture of plainclothes detectives and uniformed policemen. This kind of situation allowed Division 4 to concentrate on a range of crimes, from major ones such as murder to minor ones such as larceny.
Though set in the fictional Melbourne suburb of Yarra Central, 'Sets were constructed that were replicas of the actual St Kilda police station charge counter and CIB room, with an attention to detail that extended to having the same picture hanging on the wall', according to Storey.
Division 4 ended in 1976. Storey adds:
Division 4's axing was a dark day for Australian television, as within months the other two Crawford cop shows on rival networks, Matlock Police and Homicide, were also axed. It was widely believed, and still is, that the cancellation of the three programs was an attempt by the three commercial networks--acting in collusion--to wipe out Crawford Productions, and consequently cripple the local production industry.
Number in series: 300

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Last amended 26 Jun 2014 15:50:47

David Charles

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