The script held in the Crawford Collection in the AFI Research Collection contains the following character notes (excluding regular characters):
'ERNIE PICKETT: 30's, 40's. You can usually find Ernie around five, five-thirty on Friday evenings in the bar of the local, raffling ducks and drakes for charity, like his father before him. (Only in those days the proceeds went to a private charity...The Pickett family). Ern has taken over where his father left off except that now the raffles are just a front for a flourishing black-market in stolden [sic] goods. In fact Ernie is a successful, small-time travelling fence, and has even been known to set up the actual heist himself when supplies are running short. Despite these questionable elements in his character he's a likeable sort of bloke, a bantam battler in fact with a good spiel and a healthy outlook on life as long as a man's free to make a quid for himself in his own time and in his own way. Able to drive.
'MAX PICKETT: 30's, 40's. Physically unprepossessing. Max is Ernie's overbearing elder brother. Not nearly as sharp and self-sufficient as Ernie, Max is married with a family, (we never see them) and drives an all-purpose furniture removal van. (Part of the Pickett family enterprises). There's a hard edge to Max and more than an underlying hint of jealousy in his zealous regard for his younger brother's welfare. Able to drive.
'MA PICKETT: Fifties, sixties. (Ernie still live [sic] with his widowed mother). Ma gives the impression of being a rather vague old soul, but she doesn't miss all that much. She knows for instance the Ernie's [sic] commission from the raffles and the little fiddle he works on the purchase of the poultry isn't enough to cover the electric fruit juicer, her own personal portable telly, and the bone china flying ducks that Ern has lavished upon her. Deep down she also knows that when Ernie disappeared for a period of six months about two years ago, he wasn't really vacationing in Cowes like he told her. But then she's rather proud of her boy, and if Ernie wants to spare his mother the heartbreak of knowing that he's done a stint in Pentridge then that's alright with her. After all, she's been through it all with Ernie's father, God rest his soul, and a finer man never pulled on a pair of ripple soles.
'BUBBLES AND LENNIE: Late forties. Max's off-siders on the furniture van. Heavyweight ex-ruckman from the fifties in faded dungarees and sweating, bulging football jumpers. Big bruisers.
'RUDI FISCHER: Twenties. German immigrant. Masseur at the South Pacific Health Studios. Murdered in the teaser.
'TRINA FISCHER: Thirties. Rudi's elder sister. Murdered in teaser.
'WALLY CARSON: Sixties. Proprietor and manager of South Pacific Health Studios.
'GEORGE McKENNA: Late thirties. Professional crim. Baggy overcoat, hat, and usually wears horn-rimmed glasses for the fine print.
'ERIC HOBBS: Thirties. McKenna's off-sider. Stylishly dressed, ladies man. Able to drive.
'JOHNNO: Barman. About Ernie's age.
'IRIS: The Fischers' next-door neighbour. A lady of tarnished former glories.
'SLATER: Thirties. Lounge-bar drinker.
'EXTRAS: For bar scenes.
'MASSEUR: Actual.
'WATKINS: Established.'
