James Davern James Davern i(A129588 works by) (a.k.a. Jennifer Cooley)
Born: Established: 1933 ;
Gender: Male
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.

BiographyHistory

Television director, writer, script editor and producer.

James Davern's television career began in the early to mid-1960s as a writer and script editor with ABC Television. He was later employed in the areas of drama and music programmes as both producer and director, and helped establishing a script production line. Among his early career highlights with the ABC was as the director and producer of the very first Bellbird (q.v.) episode. He continued to be associated with the series in a number of positions for seven years and later became the creator and driving force behind the Seven Network's highly popular series A Country Practice (q.v.).

Among Davern's career credits as a writer are episodes for Homicide (1970, 1972, 1974), Alpha Scorpio (1974), Rush (1974, 1976 - as Jennifer Cooley), Patrol Boat (1979), A Country Practice (1981-93) and Warming Up (1985). His credits as a producer and/or executive producer include: Rush (1974), Alpha Scorpio (1974), Barnaby and Me (1977), No Room to Run (1978), Patrol Boat (1979), A Country Practice (1981), Queen of the Road (1984), Warming Up (1985), Hector's Bunyip (1986), Land of Hope (1986), Whipping Boy (1996), The Hostages (1997), Reprisal (1997), Without Warning (1999).

In 1990 Davern and his wife Philippa bought a vineyard in the Lovedale area of the lower Hunter Valley (NSW). Originally called the Millstone Vineyard, they renamed it Wandin Valley in tribute to the fictional town from A Country Practice. They eventually sold the business in the early 2002.

James Davern's influence on Australian television was recognised in 1991 when he was inducted into the Logies Hall of Fame.

Most Referenced Works

Notes

  • Further Reference:

    • Moran, Albert (interviewer). "James Davern: Interviewed by Albert Moran." ScreenSound Australia: National Film and Sound Archive Oral History - Television collection. Record No: 273689 [Davern discusses his career from the start with the ABC, his works as a script editor, director, producer, the establishing of a script production line and his involvement in the Rush series.]

Personal Awards

2014 Order of Australia Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) For service to television as a writer, director and producer.
1991 inductee Logie Awards Hall of Fame

Awards for Works

form y separately published work icon A Country Practice ( dir. Igor Auzins et. al. )agent Sydney Australia : JNP Films Seven Network , 1981-1993 Z1699739 1981-1994 series - publisher film/TV

Set in a small, fictional, New South Wales country town called Wandin Valley, A Country Practice focused on the staffs of the town's medical practice and local hospital and on the families of the doctors, nurses, and patients. Many of the episodes also featured guest characters (frequently patients served by the practice) through whom various social and medical problems were explored. Although often considered a soap opera, the series was not built around an open-ended narrative; instead, the two one-hour episodes screened per week formed a self-contained narrative block, though many of the storylines were developed as sub-plots for several episodes before becoming the focus of a particular week's storyline. While the focus was on topical issues such as youth unemployment, suicide, drug addiction, HIV/AIDS, and terminal illness, the program did sometimes explore culturally sensitive issues, including, for example, the Aboriginal community and their place in modern Australian society.

Among the show's principal characters were Dr Terence Elliott, local policeman Sergeant Frank Gilroy, Esme Watson, Shirley Dean Gilroy, Bob Hatfield, Vernon 'Cookie' Locke, and Matron Margaret 'Maggie' Sloan. In addition to its regularly rotating cast of characters, A Country Practice also had a cast of semi-regulars who would make appearances as the storylines permitted. Interestingly, while the series initially targeted the adult and older youth demographic, it became increasingly popular with children over the years.

1984 winner Logie Awards Most Popular Drama Program
1985 winner Logie Awards Most Popular Drama Program
1986 winner Logie Awards Most Popular Drama Program
1992 nominated Logie Awards Most Popular Drama Program
form y separately published work icon A Country Practice ( dir. Igor Auzins et. al. )agent Sydney Australia : JNP Films Seven Network , 1981-1993 Z1699739 1981-1994 series - publisher film/TV

Set in a small, fictional, New South Wales country town called Wandin Valley, A Country Practice focused on the staffs of the town's medical practice and local hospital and on the families of the doctors, nurses, and patients. Many of the episodes also featured guest characters (frequently patients served by the practice) through whom various social and medical problems were explored. Although often considered a soap opera, the series was not built around an open-ended narrative; instead, the two one-hour episodes screened per week formed a self-contained narrative block, though many of the storylines were developed as sub-plots for several episodes before becoming the focus of a particular week's storyline. While the focus was on topical issues such as youth unemployment, suicide, drug addiction, HIV/AIDS, and terminal illness, the program did sometimes explore culturally sensitive issues, including, for example, the Aboriginal community and their place in modern Australian society.

Among the show's principal characters were Dr Terence Elliott, local policeman Sergeant Frank Gilroy, Esme Watson, Shirley Dean Gilroy, Bob Hatfield, Vernon 'Cookie' Locke, and Matron Margaret 'Maggie' Sloan. In addition to its regularly rotating cast of characters, A Country Practice also had a cast of semi-regulars who would make appearances as the storylines permitted. Interestingly, while the series initially targeted the adult and older youth demographic, it became increasingly popular with children over the years.

1984 winner Logie Awards Most Popular Drama Program
1985 winner Logie Awards Most Popular Drama Program
1986 winner Logie Awards Most Popular Drama Program
1992 nominated Logie Awards Most Popular Drama Program
form y separately published work icon Rush ( dir. David Zweck et. al. )agent Melbourne : Australian Broadcasting Commission , 1974 Z1833016 1974 series - publisher film/TV historical fiction crime

One of Australia's earliest television dramatisations of its gold-rush era, Rush is, as Don Storey points out in his Classic Australian Television, in many ways two entirely separate programs: between series one and series two, the setting shifts from the Victorian goldfields to a New South Wales mining town, and jumps forward from the 1850s to the early 1860s. However, both series take place in the same universe, use the same chronology, and have a clear internal coherence, centred on the continuing character of Sergeant Robert McKellar. Therefore, they are generally treated as two separate series of a single program.

(The differences in cast, crew, writers, and directors between the two series are given in detail in the film details section below.)

With its enormous, intricate, expensive, and accurate sets, costumes, and props, Rush proved extremely popular with viewers, despite series one airing in an awkward weeknight 8pm slot (which, as Storey notes, put it against the second half of the highly successful Homicide in Melbourne). Series one did, however, attract some criticism for being filmed in black-and-white when colour programming was only a matter of months away in Australia.

Series two (which drew on foreign financing to cover its cost, an extremely high--for a domestically produced program--$24,000 an episode) was made in colour. Following Sergeant McKellar (the only character to carry over from series one), series two pushed the character forward through two disillusioning events (the Eureka Stockade, which prompted McKellar's resignation from the Victoria Police, and the death of his wife Sarah) and dropped him into the conflicts of a small New South Wales mining town.

Series two was also extremely popular but, according to Storey, plans for series three were shelved when the new Fraser government instituted (among other things) a hefty budget cut to the ABC.

Series one gained renewed prominence in the 1990s when, like police procedural Bluey, it was re-dubbed and sent up on The Late Show (as The Olden Days).

1975 winner Logie Awards Best New Drama

Known archival holdings

University of Queensland (Qld)
Last amended 4 Apr 2014 10:38:58
See Also
Other mentions of "" in AustLit:
    X