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.

Works By

Preview all
1 Creative Energy Drove Television Drama James Davern , 2010 2010 single work obituary (for Lynn Bayonas )
— Appears in: Screen Hub
James Davern's obituary is preceded by an extract from a letter by Lyn Bayonas' sister Susan (this is titled 'Lynn Bayonas: Raising a Glass to Help Her Travel Easily...')
2 6 form y separately published work icon A Country Practice Graeme Ellis , Anne Brooksbank , Hugh Stuckey , David William Boutland , Moya Wood , Leon Saunders , Luis Bayonas , James Davern , Roger Dunn , David Sale , Peter A. Kinloch , Keith Thompson , Chris Thomson , Tony Morphett , Denise Morgan , Christine McCourt , Gwenda Marsh , David Allen , Christine Schofield , Ro Hume , Galia Hardy , Marcus Cooney , Beverley Phillips , Don J. Townshend , Margaret Mitchell , Michael Aitkens , Patricia Johnson , Sheila Sibley , Margaret Kelly , Judith Colquhoun , Agi Schreck , Mary Wright , John Graham , Ted Roberts , Michael Brindley , Forrest Redlich , Anthony Wheeler , Michael Freundt , Russell E. Webb , Bill Searle , Cliff Green , Foveaux Kirby , Helen Steel , Howard Griffiths , Suzanne Hawley , Terry Larsen , Serge Lazareff , Helen Boyd , Carol Williams , David Worthington , Ray Harding , Bevan Lee , Stephen Measday , Patrea Smallacombe , Shane Brennan , Betty Quin , Graeme Koetsveld , Tim Pye , Jenny Sharp , Bob Herbert , Tom Galbraith , Alister Webb , David Phillips , Andrew Kennedy , Craig Wilkins , Grant Fraser , Sally Webb , Caroline Stanton , Chris Roache , Geoff Newton , David Marsh , Colin Free , Thomas Mitchell , Brett Mitchell , Steve J. Spears , Louise Crane , Ian David , Robyn Sinclair , Micky Bennett , Linden Wilkinson , Terry Fogarty , Michael Cove , Patrick Flanagan , Peter Neale , Peter Lavelle , Julieanne Stewart , Sally Irwin , John Hanlon , David Henry , Jenni Kubler , Jo Barcelon , John Misto , Katherine Thomson , Neville Brown , Margaret Morgan , Susan Bower , Sean Nash , John Lonie , Paul Spinks , Christifor McTrustry , Andrew Kelly , Charlie Strachan , Susan Bower , James Balian , Peter Dann , Michael Harvey , Jerome Ehlers , Jo Horsburgh , Jeff Truman , Rod Rees , Peter Gawler , Linda Aronson , Catherine Millar , Lynn Bayonas , James Davern , ( 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.

1 y separately published work icon Patrol Boat : Joker in the Pack James Davern , Sydney : Australian Broadcasting Commission , 1979 Z1863519 1979 single work novel adventure
1 form y separately published work icon Patrol Boat James Davern , Tony Morphett , Peter Schreck , Ted Roberts , Robert Caswell , Laura Jones , ( dir. Frank Arnold et. al. )agent Sydney : Australian Broadcasting Commission JNP Films , 1979 Z1820818 1979 series - publisher film/TV adventure crime

An adventure series following the experiences of a naval patrol boat, Patrol Boat rated reasonably well on Australian television and sold well overseas. Made in co-operation with the Royal Australian Navy (which, Moran points out in his Guide to Australian TV Series, 'had been trying to get something similar onto the screen for almost eight years'), the series made use of two naval patrol boats for open-sea shooting, including (for the second series) the Fremantle class patrol boat HMAS Defiance.

Moran notes that 'Guest stories included pursuing drug runners, helping a stranded refugee boat and destroying an old mine that had become dangerous to shipping. Each self-contained episode was constructed around two stories, one usually working around an individual sailor while the other concerned a larger group'.

Patrol Boat was the first program in which series creator James Davern's production company, JNP Film, had an active involvement, but Moran notes that JNP Film 'simply packaged scripts for the first series'. Their involvement was greater in the second series, which was made much later.

1 form y separately published work icon Alpha Scorpio James Davern , ( dir. Keith Wilkes et. al. )agent Melbourne : Australian Broadcasting Commission , 1974 Z1842600 1974 series - publisher film/TV science fiction

Aimed largely at young (specifically male) viewers, Alpha Scorpio followed the sudden realisation of two university students, enjoying a quiet coastal holiday, that their friend Mirny is one of a group of aliens from the fifth planet of Antares who have recently landed on Earth.

Alpha Scorpio has never been released on either video or DVD, and it is possible that nothing but the first episode remains in the ABC archives. However, the first episode is available to view on YouTube, beginning with part one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq7QOln0fro (Sighted 16/2/2011)

The program is a sole-author work: James Davern scripted all six episodes.

Further Reference

'"Alpha Scorpio": Based on Fact', Australian Women's Weekly, Wed.. 17 Oct. 1973, p.27.

1 form y separately published work icon Rush James Davern , David William Boutland , James Davern , Ted Roberts , Victor Sankey , Colin Free , Sonia Borg , Oriel Gray , Colin Eggleston , Cliff Green , Howard Griffiths , John Martin , ( 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).

1 2 form y separately published work icon Bellbird Barbara Vernon , Beverley Phillips , Peter Hepworth , Michael Jenkins , Ray Kolle , Alan Hopgood , Oriel Gray , Barbara Vernon , ( dir. Michael Jenkins et. al. )agent 1967 Australia : ABC Television , 1967-1977 Z1362910 1967 series - publisher film/TV

Australia's first successful television soap opera, Bellbird was devised by writer Barbara Vernon and telecast by ABC Television between 1967 and 1977. The serial is set in a rural farming community, with the storylines examining the lives of various people from in and around the fictional township of Bellbird. Among the long list of characters introduced during the course of the series were the crusty farmer Jim 'The Colonel' Emerson and his glamorous wife Maggie, the local mechanic Joe Turner and his wife Olive, local policeman Constable Des Davies and his wife Fiona, the unpleasant stock and station agent John Quinney, and Jim and Marge Bacom, proprietors of the local pub that served as a central meeting place.

2 form y separately published work icon Bellbird [Episode 1] Barbara Vernon , ( dir. James Davern ) Australia : Australian Broadcasting Commission , 1967 Z1362907 1967 single work film/TV
— Appears in: Close-Up : Scripts from Australian Television's Second Decade 1971; (p. 177-209)

Episodes one and four from the first season of Bellbird are published in Close Up: Scripts from Australian Television's Second Decade. Editors Don Reid and Frank Bladwell provide a summary of the episodes:

Episode 1: Melbourne teacher Michael Foley sells his house and leaves the city in his Rolls Royce to live in the country township of Bellbird. Lori Chandler, a librarian, has agreed to take him in as a boarder at her property, Bellbird Station. The local P and C committee members find this immoral, however, and demand she renege on her decision. Meanwhile, Glenda Chan, a young Chinese woman, is being pressured to sell her house by local real-estate agent Charles Kozane, who uses Jack Baker, an old friend of the Chans', as his cover. Baker currently tends the garden for Glenda. She is informed that not only is the garden on council land but her family has also been squatting on land originally bought by Lori Chandler's grandfather. Kozane knows that Lori won't sell the land while Glenda still lives in the house, and is attempting to convince her to take Jack's 'generous' offer.

2 form y separately published work icon Bellbird [Episode 4] Barbara Vernon , ( dir. James Davern ) Australia : Australian Broadcasting Commission , 1967 7112626 1967 single work film/TV
— Appears in: Close-Up : Scripts from Australian Television's Second Decade 1971; (p. 177-209)

Episodes one and four from the first season of Bellbird are published in Close Up: Scripts from Australian Television's Second Decade. Editors Don Reid and Frank Bladwell provide a summary of the episodes:

Episode 4: Michael Foley's presence as the new teacher, his living arrangements, and his car become topics of interest within the town. While Mrs Lang finds the whole situation a lot of fuss about nothing, she is nevertheless determined that her daughter will have nothing further to do with Tony Buckland. Charles Kozane invites Foley to his office to apologise for his behaviour, but then asks him to help convince Lori that she shouldn't get involved with the 'Chinese' problem. Kozane is disappointed when Foley not only insists he has no plans to get involved in anything or with anybody in this 'god-forsaken burg,' but also openly criticises his 1920s' Chicago-style methods. The episode ends with Glenda informing Lori about Kozane's attempts to get her out of the house. Lori exclaims with savage bitterness, 'Charlie Kozane! Of all the Grade A stinkers! Charlie Kozane!'

1 form y separately published work icon Bellbird [Episode 2] Barbara Vernon , ( dir. James Davern ) Australia : ABC Television , 1967 19048317 1967 single work film/TV
X