Cirrus@Austlit

'In April 1987, two North Americans disappeared in the West Australian desert on a 4WD holiday. They were never seen alive again. Their abandoned vehicles and unused supplies were found in sand dunes near an Aboriginal sacred site less than an hour away from the closest town. Two years later, in May 1989, the two men were both found dead of natural causes, on the same day, 1,000 miles apart back in North America.

'Twenty years after the original incident, 3 couples who set out on a surfing trip are lured into the same desert area, by a strange local whose master needs fresh victims to consume. Preconceived assumptions about friendship, undiscovered sexual liaisons, and false leadership come apart as the three couples realize that the vacation is over.'

Source: Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prey_%282009_film%29). (Sighted: 22/6/2012)

'A small group of tourists board an old sailing boat, The Sea Tramp, for a tropical island-hopping cruise through a largely overlooked corner of Micronesia. It should have been the holiday of a lifetime but five days from port they rescue Minh-Tam, a young Vietnamese woman from her sinking fishing trawler. As they attempt to outrun Minh-Tam's attackers, a fire breaks out and the boat sinks. Only a handful of the crew and passengers survive the twin perils of pirates and a fire to reach an uninhabited island that is too dangerous to live on and too dangerous to leave.'

Source: Screen Australia. (Sighted: 25/2/2014)

A tale of love, lust, and betrayal, Gross Misconduct is loosely based on the real-life events surrounding an American college professor who was wrongly accused of raping one of his female students in the 1950s. The professor, Justin Thorne, is well liked by his students and is also the envy of his peers. When a young girl's fantasy turns to obsession, however, it threatens to destroy everything he holds dear: his freedom, his family, and his career. Fearing to expose the real rapist because of the shame it will cause her, the student wrestles with her conscience, the only thing standing between the professor and long-term incarceration.

In the aftermath of World War II, Czech doctor Carl Zlinter emigrates to Australia's Victorian high country, where he meets and falls in love with Jennifer Morton. The narrative also explores the difficulties faced by 'New Australians' at this time, who were dealing with the war's effects on their lives and families, with leaving their homeland, and with prejudice in their new country. As refugees or displaced persons, many were resettled in Australia according to the needs of the government, and thus had little or no control over where they went. It was extremely difficult for many to work in their chosen professions and to have their qualifications recognised, especially if they had graduated either from universities in countries behind the Iron Curtain or from institutions whose records had been destroyed in bombing raids. As a consequence, many university-educated people had to start their education over again. The series ultimately attempts to celebrate the perseverance of these immigrants in making new, often successful, careers and lives for themselves.

In the Australian outback, a young boy becomes determines to help an old miser develop a proper sense of the Christmas spirit.

'Set in the highlands of Victoria, a story about the bitter struggle between environmental activists and the cattlemen.'

Source: Screen Australia. (Sighted: 23/1/2014)

Frequently described as an 'Australian western', Five Mile Creek was based on Louis L'Amour's 1982 novel The Cherokee Trail, with the action moved wholesale to Australia.

A co-production between the Seven Network and the Disney Channel, the program, according to Moran in his Guide to Australian TV Series, 'revolved around two women, Kate Wallace and the American Maggie Scott, who ran a stage way station at Five Mile Creek in New South Wales.' Moran also notes that it 'was the most expensive series ever filmed in Australia up to that time, costing Disney $12 million for the first two series, although this was still thought to be about half of what it would have cost in Hollywood.'

The series did poorly on Australian television but extremely well on the Disney Channel in the United States. According to Moran,

Five Mile Creek was a kind of stunning confirmation that Lew Grade was right all those years earlier in thinking that the Australian outback could be adapted to the genre demands of the western. Indeed in Five Mile Creek the reciprocal parallels and symmetries between America and Australia are pushed in a deliberate and warmly calculating way. The Australian bush is, as it were, transfigured so that it seems intrisically like part of the Old West.

In contrast to this Australian/American fusion that Moran notes in the program's sensibility, he also notes that it had the Disney Channel's 'cultural/commercial values written all over it.'

Based on the novel by Nancy Cato, All the Rivers Run begins in 1892 with young Englishwoman Philadelphia 'Delie' Gordon struggling to the Australian shore after being shipwrecked. Except for crusty old sailor Tom Critchley, the shipwreck kills all the other people on the ship, including Delie's family. Delie is subsequently taken in by her kindly Uncle Charles and termagant Aunt Hester, whose small farm is situated beside the Murray River, near the inland port of Echuca. The narrative follows Delie for the next decade or so of her life. She suffers through the difficulties of adolescent love and rebels against conformity, and eventually marries, has children, and pursues a career on the river. Delie later attains commercial and critical success as a painter and earns her Master's Certificate, becoming the first female riverboat captain on the Murray River.

A crime drama devised for Grundy's by Ron McLean (Don Storey suggests, on Classic Australian Television, that it evolved from an earlier concept called The Killer Stalks), Bellamy was not successful when it aired on Australian television.

According to Albert Moran in his Guide to Australian TV Series, the problem was that Bellamy was, by the time it aired, an archaic concept:

Police series production had effectively come to an end in 1975 and women had become a more important part of Australian television, both on screen and in the audience. Yet the Network went against the tide by commissioning this police series starring ex-Homicide star John Stanton in the title role. As conceived and executed by Grundy's, Bellamy and underling Mitch had little or nothing in the way of a personal life and were pitted against monstrous villains, almost invariably murderers who lacked social backgrounds and psychological complexity. As a result many of the episodes had strong similarities, with a two-dimensional Batman and Robin duo pursuing such villains in the threadbare chase narratives.

The program was cancelled even before the first set of episodes had been completed.

Mini-series tracing the history of the Kelly Gang, timed to coincide with the centenary of Ned Kelly's execution.

Moran, in his Guide to Australian TV Series, paraphrases co-author Ian Jones's opinion that 'the mini-series was a perfect narrative vehicle for the Kelly story because it allowed sufficient screen time for the full detail and the general impact of the outbreak to be portrayed. The result on air was an absorbing saga that slowly built in intensity until only Ned Kelly was left to face the hangman'.

Moran also notes that screening the last episode on the exact anniversary of Kelly's hanging one hundred years earlier might have been disadvantageous, since this meant the program ran very late in the ratings season. For whatever reason, the program was not as commercial or critical a success as Pegasus Productions' earlier series, Against the Wind.

In 1798, young Irish girl Mary Mulvane is convicted of stealing by the British court and sentenced to transportation to Australia. During the journey, she falls for fellow convict Jonathan Garrett, and the pair attempt to start a new life in the brutal penal colony.

'Monica inadvertently becomes witness to a homicide and sees the face of one of the killers. He also sees Monica.

'There seems no way the killers can be tracked down and they closer they get to tracing Monica's identity and whereabouts, the more people are hurt, and the more Bluey becomes concerned for her safety.

'Debbie, Gary's reporter girlfriend, makes an error in judgement which places her life in danger and leaves Bluey with a feeling of guilt.

'Monica and Bluey's great respect and affection for each other comes to the fore when Bluey tries everything to protect Monica and Monica insists that there is only one thing to be done - to use herself as bait.'

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):

'GEOFF EASTMAN: About 27, tall, good looking and a killer. He doesn't care that he gets other people in trouble as long as he gets what he wants.

'FRED RANDALL: Around the same age as Eastman. He's weak, and goes along with the one who's holding the upper hand.

'TRACY CARTER: Late 20's. Attractive Street Girl. Heart of gold.

'INSPECTOR ARTHUR FERRIS: Established.

'SERGEANT WILLIAMS: Homicide cop. Like any other.

'EDITOR: In his late 40's. Knows his job.

'FORENSIC: Happy in his work.

'COP *2: (DRIVES. NO LINES) Seen once.

'COP *1: Seen once.

'POLICE ARTIST: Good with a pencil.

'EXTRA: Body in Supermarket.'

'In Bluey's book, Wally Avery is not a bird of prey. Bluey has known him for years and it just doesn't add up when "Birds" becomes the prime suspect in a murder case. Not only suspected. There are witnesses who swear "Birds" is as guilty as hell.

'Bluey's first job is to get to "Birds" before the Homicide squad and find out what really happened. But "Birds" does nothing to help himself. He's scared and takes flight.

'And when he finally comes home to roost, there is more trouble awaiting him.'

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):

'BRENDAN CUSACK: Detective Sergeant in the Homicide Squad. The antithesis of Bluey. Playing it straight up and down the line he has little time for Bluey's style. He and Bluey actively dislike one another. Humourless and faintly pompous he is the epitome of honesty and a good police officer.

'WALLY AVERY ("BIRDS"): Known as "Birds". He is a weedy, scrawny sparrow - a description which has no relation to his physical size - very much out of his element in the big world of the birds of prey. His career in crime has been spectacularly unsuccessful and he goes to gaol quite happily when caught, which is often. He keeps body and soul together working as a gardener, lawn mower driver, occasional squizzing, a bit of stealing; but only from the rich; he does have his principles. Neither brave nor brainy he's one of life's losers.

'SUE REEVES (NEE AVERY): Bird's younger sister and only relative. She's the one member of the aviary with all the pretty feathers and brains. She's one of Bluey's many one, two or three nightstands, and would be quite happy to join the queue again were it not for her husband, whom we never see.

'KEVIN READ & ALAN PALMER: Two heavies, who don't look like heavies but like senior junior executives. Their menace is in the coldly efficient way they attempt to carry out their orders. They have criminal records and are two of Sir Moray's charges who are beyond redemption, as he wishes them to be.

'SIR MORAY RUISLIP: Late 40's. Industrialist. Philanthropist which brought him his knighthood. He offers employment in his many industrial complexes to ex-criminals and he's had a great deal of success rehabilitating many. But Sir Moray, ex-fighter pilot and subdued robber baron, has his black side which goes well with the dark side of capitalism.

'DETECTIVE JACK FROST: A contemporary of Gary's working on the Homicide Squad with Cusack. Frost is frankly pompous. A straight up and down detective.

'ARTHUR FERRIS: An Inspector.

'GAIL: Private secretary to Sir Moray.

'JOURNALIST:

'POLICEWOMAN JACKSON:

'DETECTIVE #1 & UNIFORM POLICE: At murder scene.

'EXTRAS IN BAR (3):

'DETECTIVE #2: With A.C. in scene 52.

'DESMOND TAYLOR: Body.

'DRIVER FOR A.C.'S CAR'.

'Monica tangles with an eleven-year-old shoplifter called Cricket, and in so doing ends up as a witness to a car theft. Bluey warns Monica to stay away from the girl as it may hamper his investigations into a car stealing racket. It's Monica's turn to do a "Bluey" by going off on her own as, to her, the girl's future is just as important as stolen cars.

'Monica seeks Gary's aid in finding out Cricket's whereabouts through her father's record, which Bluey has secreted out of Monica's reach. They both visit Cricket's parents, much to the anger of Bluey, who is afraid the father will go into hiding at the sight of police on his doorstep.

'Bluey's fears are well founded as the father intends to do one more job before taking his daughter away from trouble and an uncaring mother.

'Truscott is furious when Bluey and Gary let the father slip through their fingers on his last job and is equally angry for Monica turning up on the suspect's doorstep.

'Cricket's home life erupts around her when Monica's threats to her parents of her being put in a home reach her eyes by way of an argument between her mother and father. She disappears and the father accuses Monica of causing her to run away. Monica sets about tracing the girl. But, by then, Cricket's own life is in danger and it is a question of whether Monica can find the girl in time.'

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):

'CRICKET: An 11 year old girl. She's the product of a rough environment and has learned to fend for herself to a large degree. Through practice she's learned to stifle her emotions and is pretty tough. The fact remains that she's vulnerable due to her tender years. The one person she really loves and who loves her is her father, Fred. She clings to him and can't take it when she mistakenly thinks he, too, has rejected her. Despite her toughness, she has a likeable personality.

'FRED BARNETT: Cricket's father, about 35. Fred is a born loser. He's a car thief by trade and plays the game the way it is. He wins some and when he loses he cops it sweet and does a stretch. He's totally devoted to Cricket and immune to the ways of his prostitute wife. He's a likeable rogue who decides to put Cricket above all else but not until it's nearly too late.

'PEARL BARNETT: Around 35, once good-looking, now worn and seedy. She's lazy and completely selfish. She plies her trade of prostitution because she can't break the habit and the money's good. She must've had feelings for Fred and Cricket once but now she finds all the love she needs at the bottom of a wine flagon.

'KANGA: 40-ish. Tall and tough-looking. He runs the dirty end of the business for his employers. He's capable and has an air of authority.

'SKINNY: Quite the opposite to his name, he's short and fat. He's paid to work for Kanga and that's all he wants to know.

'BARMAN: Typical type. One scene.

'BUSINESSMAN: Average type. Middle-aged. One scene.

'CLIENT: An off-duty ocker seen with Pearl in one scene.

'UNIFORMED POLICEMEN A & B: Typical types. 'A' should be younger.

'DERELICTS #1 & #2: Again - typical of the breed, plenty of chin stubble, hand-out clothes, bloodshot eyes and shaking hands.

'CAB DRIVERS #1 & #2: Actuals.'

'64-year-old Emma Evans claims her son is innocent of murder. Nobody, including Bluey, believes her - until Emma becomes the victim of a hit and run.

'After seeing and talking to Emma in the hospital, Bluey promises that he will at least review the evidence.

'Against the advice of everyone around him, including the Assistant Commissioner, Bluey starts to dig, coming up with some very interesting new facts, that involve the arresting officer and the chief witness for the prosecution.

'The more digging Bluey does, the more twists he finds, causing upheavals at Russell Street - to the point where Bluey is threatened with suspension by the Assistant Commissioner.

'Bluey won't give in, firmly believing there's a case to answer, but even Bluey finds that things are not always what they seem.'

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):

'EMMA EVANS: 64 years old. Homely, hardworking, old before her time, brought on by the lone fight to prove her son Tom innocent of murder. Emma has a helping hand for everyone, young or old. With Emma it's all or nothing, very rarely is it nothing.

'LESLIE STEVENS: 35 years old. Emma's married daughter. Leslie's a lot like her mother, except Leslie's a lot harder and unlike her mother she believes her brother Tom to be guilty. She has no illusions about him.

'TOM EVANS: 30 years old. Emma's son. Tom's been in trouble all his life. No reason for it, he could just never keep his hands off other people's property. He has two faces - one for his mother and the other for the rest of the world.

'SENIOR DETECTIVE BILL HOLDEN: 34 years old. A handsome well-built man. Good at his job, but he has a tendency to lose his cool if crossed. Like all of us, he's human and makes a mistake.

'HELEN TRENT: 30 years old, married to a dull business man. Helen was the witness who saw Tom Evans running out of the garage after the murder. Intelligent, pretty, but emotionally incapable of being able to cope with the simultaneous break-up of a love affair and the threat of blackmail.

'MOGGY MOON: 29 years old. A creep in every sense. Has an ocker accent with a peculiar whine brought on by nerves.

'TERRY BAXTER: 34 year's old. Terry's a house-breaker. No real harm in him. He's just a loser.

'JENNY DAVIS: 28 years old. Hard and brittle. She blames Tom Evans for being the reason that she's turned to stripping for a living.

'SNOOP BENSON: 40 years old. Ferret-like. A petty crim.

'DOCTOR WICKS: 30 years old. Very efficient.

'CUSTOMER (A): Old age pensioner. A real granny type.

'CUSTOMER (B): A father type.

'POLICEMAN: 20's.'

'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.'

'Department B is to work closely with Detective Sergeant Stoner on a difficult case of child abduction. This would appear to be difficult enough, but there is also another problem.

'Stoner is suspected of fixing convictions, shopping innocent people, etc., and it is Bluey's job to not only keep an eye on the case in hand, but to also keep an eye on Stoner.

'This is no mean feat as for once Bluey has met his match. Here is a man who is not only a solo operator like Bluey, but is also a darn good cop. Being such men of strength, Bluey and Stoner build up a close relationship making Bluey's job more difficult and placing doubts in Bluey's mind as to Stoner's guilt. However, bending the rules a little to capture a guilty party is one thing, breaking the rules and coming up with the wrong bloke, is another.

'Bluey's quick thinking saves Stoner from making a mistake in charging the wrong man for the crimes, but when Stoner seems so intent on capturing the animal responsible for the disappearances of the young girls, it looks as though he is about to make a similar mistake.'

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):

'NICK STONER: MID FORTIES. BLUEY'S AGE. A SHREWD FACE. HARD TO PICK WHAT HE MIGHT BE THINKING. AN AGGRESSION THAT FINDS ITS MOTIVATION IN HIS FIERCE PRIDE FOR HIS POLICE ACHIEVEMENTS AND THE ONE VULNERABLE SPOT - THE LOSS OF HIS WIFE - A SUPPORT THAT IS GONE FOREVER - A TENDER SPOT THAT WON'T HEAL - A NEED THAT FOCUSES MORE OF HIS ATTENTION ON HIS JOB AS A POLICEMAN THAN A MEANS OF INCOME. HE FORCES A POSITIVE ATTITUDE ON HIMSELF. WELL GROOMED. WEARS WELL CUT CLOTHES. AN EXPENSIVE WATCH. THICK WEDDING BAND THAT HE WILL TOY WITH WHEN UPSET OR EXCITED. HE KEEPS PEOPLE AT ARMS LENGTH. GIVES THE IMPRESSION THAT HE COPES VERY WELL. WHEN HE COPES. AND AS A POLICEMAN, HE CARES. HE IS INVOLVED WITH THE PEOPLE WHO ARE HURT AND HE WANTS TO FELON BADLY. [sic]

'MACKAY: LATE TWENTIES. LEAN FACE. LONG GINGERISH HAIR (ADJUST - DISTINGUISHABLE HAIR) INNATE MEANESS. [sic] LIMITED INTELLIGENCE. DEFIANT.

'DAVIDSON: LATE TWENTIES. LEAN FACE. LONG GINGERISH HAIR. (ADJUST TO SUIT MACKAY) VERY SIMILAR TO MACKAY. BUT SENSITIVE. NERVOUS. LOW SELF-PROFILE. NEGATIVE.

'BRADLEY: EARLY FIFTIES. CORNER SHOP KEEPER. FERRET FACED AND A BUSY-BODY. LIKES TO DRAW ATTENTION TO HIMSELF.

'MRS. GILLIS: HOUSEWIFE. LATE THIRTIES. HARASSED. DOING HER BEST BUT LIMITED.

'MRS. NEILSEN: SIXTY FIVE. BLUE RINSE. SELF OPINIONATED. HAS A PET PRIZE CORGI. NOT IMPRESSED WITH THE 1970'S.

'MRS. OWEN: EARLY THIRTIES. BIRD LIKE. STRONG IN NATURE. QUIET BUT SELF CONTROLLED.

'ALLSOP: FORTY. SHORT. BUS DRIVER. BORN LOSER WHO IS FRIGHTENED OF LOSING EVEN MORE.

'KATE GILLIS: TEN YEAR OLD GIRL.

'RAYLENE OWENS: EIGHT YEAR OLD GIRL.

'GIRLS ONE AND TWO: EIGHT OR NINE YEARS OLD.

'MRS. GREEN: MIDDLE AGED WORKING WIFE. NON SPEAKING.

'MRS. ROSE: WOMAN OF 50

'PRIZE CORGI'.

'The Assistant Commissioner assigns Bluey to investigate a possible homicide. Bluey is used to being landed with old cases - but this is ridiculous. The victim seems to have been dead for at least 500,000 years.

'Bluey is deeply suspicious of the A.C.'s motives in sending him to a remote town in the north-west of Victoria. His first problem is getting there. His second is getting there in one piece. His third is the expenses he keeps running up - but that really is the A.C.'s problem. He brought it on himself.

'The small town of Mooball is kept alive and therefore dominated by the Atlas Mining Company - which has tended to become a law unto itself. The lone police constable doesn't stand much of a chance of maintaining law and order by himself. Hence a cry for help. And the eventual arrival of a dusty, tired, thirsty Bluey - which changes everything.'

Source: Synopsis held in the Crawford Collection in the AFI Research Collection (RMIT).

The script for this episode held in the Crawford Collection in the AFI Research Collection contains the following character notes (excluding regular characters):

'DOC HASLER: (50'S) RETIRED GEOLOGIST, GENERALLY REGARDED AROUND MOOBALL AS A BIT OF AN ECCENTRIC.

'MIKE (MICHELLE): REAL NAME MICHELLE. RUNS THE MOOBALL HOTEL, AND TAKES A SPECIAL INTEREST IN BLUEY. LIKEABLE ATTRACTIVE, DOWN TO EARTH. (VICKI HAMMOND TYPE)

'KNUCKLES MCBRIDE: THE AC'S SYDNEY COUNTERPART, VISITING RUSSELL STREET ON SOME EXCHANGE PROGRAMME. LOOKS MORE LIKE A WRESTLER THAN A COP.

'DELLIT: MANAGER OF AMC. BIG, TOUGH, IMPOSING.

'REEGAN: MOOBALL'S GREENHORN COP. BIT OF A BARNEY FIFE CHARACTER.

'PALIARTI: ITALIAN LABOUER [sic] AT MINE.

'JANITOR (BEN): WORKS FOR MINE.

'LOCKWOOD: WORKS FOR MINE.

'BARMAN: AT MOOBALL HOTEL.

'POSTIE: MOOBALL POSTMAN. (ONE SCENE - NO DIALOGUE)

'HSV7 FILM CREW: 2 ACTORS.

'INTERVIEWER: FOR TV NEWS CREW.

'UNIDENTIFED DRIVER: STUNT.

'KID: RIDES SKATEBOARD. ONE SCENE.

'UNIFORMED COP: FEW LINES.

'WORKERS: A TOTAL OF 6 EXTRAS. BUT GENERALLY ONLY 4 USED.

'WORKER #1:

'CAR DRIVER #1:

'CAR DRIVER #2:

'TRACTOR DRIVER'.

Young Ramsay follows the adventures of a Sydney-based vet who becomes disillusioned with his work on the racecourse circuit, and moves to the small, fictional town of Jindarra, where he starts work with the veterinary practice of Jack Lambert (who is semi-retired on the grounds of ill health). It was conceived as family entertainment: neither violent nor explicit, but sufficiently exciting to keep the attention of both children and adults. Ramsay is supported by Julie Lambert (Jack's daughter, nurse, and receptionist) and Ray Turner (local park ranger).

The program begins in media res, with Ramsay already established in Jindarra, and unfolds his background and past experiences slowly, over a number of episodes. According to Don Storey, in Classic Australian Television, Ramsay is 'Not a super-cool type who never puts a foot wrong, but rather a well-rounded personality with successes and failings. He is a very competent vet; sometimes he makes a fool of himself or confuses names but he always makes good under pressure or in an emergency'.

Series one was followed by a two-year hiatus, and significant changes were made to the program for series two, including the re-casting of Ramsay's receptionist (Julie Lambert having been said to have left Jindarra after her father's death) and a stronger focus on happy endings.

According to Moran, in his Guide to Australian Television Series, 'Young Ramsay had a heavy stress on good ecological practices and was actively supported by the Victorian Ministry for Wildlife and Conservation'.

'Bluey recognises a sweet set-up when he sees one. Bust into a man's home, hold his family under threat of death while the victim is forced to open and empty his safe at the office, promise death to the family if the victim gives any descriptions or assistance to the police. That is a sweet set-up!

'There is one thing that even threats of violence cannot conceal or disguise. All the hold-ups have been from branches of the one organization - Federal Housing Services.

'If victims will not give information, there has to be some other way and in every game Bluey always has one ace up his sleeve - Truscott!

'But the search for the felons takes the men of Department B far from suburbia and the quiet, carpeted office of the world of commerce, through the raw, real, bustling life of the markets, through sleazy nightclubs, through areas only really safe for criminals - and Bluey.'

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):

'JANOS (PRONOUNCED YANOS): A likeable Yugoslav in his late 20's - early 30's. He craves acceptance and friendship. His English is not brilliant and was mostly learned in the markets and sleazy night clubs. In spite of his criminal activities, it's hard not to feel sorry for Janos. He's the original loser. Drives a motorbike.

'GINGER MORGAN: Early 30's. A tough hard case. He'd rather fight than make love and he'd rather make love than work. Basically he's a heavy and that's the way he likes it. Australian. Drives.

'BERT TOMKINS: He'd be a good used car salesman if he wasn't a crim. In his early 40's, Bert Tomkins can look back on a career of violence and mayhem. He's smarter than most of his type, but only just. Australian. Drives.

'JENKINS: Early 50's. A humourless business man - and a white-collar crim who treats people like animals. He is confident and has a superior manner towards the less fortunate. He is the Branch Manager of a Housing Society, thus giving him access to a small fortune.

'JANEY (Judy McBurney): Already established ("The First Bloody Day"). She's a lithesome young call girl who fancies Bluey.

'DAVIES: About 40. A working class battler who's come up the hard way only to find the trip wasn't worth it. He is one of those poor unfortunate victims of the inflationary trend and the capitalistic class system.

'JOHN GRANGER: Late 40's. A respectable business man with little backbone. Drives.

'MRS. GRANGER: Mid-40's. An average housewife who prefers not to get involved and can't handle it when she is.

'SALLY GRANGER: About 17. Very pretty - has a good figure. She could almost be sexy, but Sally has the same dull mind as her mother has.

'MRS. JENKINS: Mid-40's and doing nothing to hide it. Very respectable and not aware of her husband's criminal activities.

'UNIFORMED CONSTABLE: No lines.

'DETECTIVE: Few lines.

'TRUCK DRIVER: Aggressive type - few lines. Drives.'