Marcus Cooney Marcus Cooney i(A531 works by)
Born: Established: 1937 Burnie, Burnie area, Northwest Tasmania, Tasmania, ; Died: Ceased: 1987 Binalong, Yass area, Canberra region (NSW), Southeastern NSW, New South Wales,
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

Actor, theatre producer and television scriptwriter, Marcus Cooney was educated at St Virgil's College, Hobart, and at the University of Tasmania. His first career was in teaching and he spent some time employed by the Education Department on King Island. Cooney's theatrical career began in the late 1950s when he made his acting debut in the revue 'Fowl Play' (1959), produced by the University of Tasmania's Old Nick Company. The University newspaper Togatus commented on his performance as Eliza Doolittle which was 'one of the highlights'. Cooney maintained a long association with the Old Nick Company, of which he was a life member, both as an actor and producer, producing the 1963 revue 'Sin-til-Eight'.

In 1970 Cooney collaborated with Michael Boddy (q.v.), a friend from Old Nick Company days, and Ron Blair (q.v.) to write the knockabout socio-political satire, Biggles (q.v.) the first production staged by the Nimrod Theatre Company (Sydney). All three were involved the following year with another Nimrod success, Hamlet on Ice (q.v.). A satiric pantomime-style music theatre production, it also included contributions from Arne Neeme and songwriters Grahame Bond and Rory O'Donoghue (qq.v.). Among Cooney's other theatre works are Cash (q.v.), 1972), co-written with Michael Boddy and Between the Lines (q.v., 1978). In addition to his stage writing Cooney also wrote episodes for numerous television series. These have included Jackanory (1970), The Group (1971), Nice Day at the Office (1972), Prisoner (q.v., 1980) and A Country Practice (q.v., 1982-1983).

Most Referenced Works

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 The Group ( dir. Hugh Taylor ) Sydney : Cash Harmon Television , 1971 Z1812804 1971 series - publisher film/TV humour

A thirteen-episode sit-com from the production company that was shortly to launch soap-opera Number 96.

The premise involves three men and two women who, for purely economic reasons, share a basement flat: Jeremy (who works in television), Mark (a medical student), Bob (an accountant), Jennifer (a university student), and Laura (a model and receptionist).

The program's tension comes from their landlord Tinto, whose prurient distress at the mixed-gender tenancy leads him to attempt various methods of evicting them.

According to Don Storey, on his website Classic Australian Television:

'The Group relies, in classic sit-com tradition, on misunderstandings and misinterpretations of events to generate comedy, which are usually the result of the scatter-brained antics of Laura. There is no underlying social comment, other than the overall theme of not judging by appearances as Tinto does. The sole purpose of The Group is to entertain, and this it does.'

Though The Group was popular with audiences, it was not picked up for a second season for various reasons, including (according to Don Storey) the lack of overseas sales, Bruce Gyngell's departure from the Seven Network, and Cash Harmon Television's planned production of Number 96 for the Ten Network.

1971 winner Logie Awards Best Australian Comedy
Last amended 7 Jul 2010 14:19:48
Other mentions of "" in AustLit:
    X