form y separately published work icon Run, Truscott, Run single work   film/TV   crime  
Issue Details: First known date: 1976... 1976 Run, Truscott, Run
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Truscott is Bluey's undercover man. The spectre that haunts every moment of an undercover agent's life is the dread that one day his cover will be blown. Once that nightmare becomes reality there is no alternative but to run ... to run in terror.

'In the apprehension of criminals, overkill - being too successful - can be fraught with as many dangers as being unsuccessful and the Bluey/Truscott team has been too successful. Some of those incarcerated as a result of Bluey's efforts are beginning to wonder why. Why are they here? Where did they go wrong?

'With time to think, one felon, Evan Dillon, has found a common denominator. He allocates the thorough investigation of his theory to "The Professor", probing, meticulous, with the tenacity of a terrier.

'On the very day of Dillon's release, both Bluey and Monica sense trouble. Monica fears for the well-being of Dillon's one-time girlfriend, Alice, who has found an alternate romantic interest during the latter part of Dillon's prison term.

'Bluey learns Dillon and friends are conducting an inquisition of some kind. He realises success in their endeavours would lead them unerringly to Truscott.

'In spite of Bluey's frantic efforts to forestall them, Dillon's investigations are fruitful to a degree far beyond the wildest dreams of the instigators.

'For Truscott, disaster is heaped upon disaster ... but Truscott has found a cause he considers worthy of the terrible risk to his own life. He has to make the decision when Bluey, realising the game is up, begs him - "Run, Truscott, Run!".'

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):

'ALICE: Close to 30, Alice looks older. A difficult life with Dillon before he went inside two and a half years ago has aged her prematurely. Alice's personality took a beating from which it never recovered. As therapy she chose solitude and A.P.C. powders - with little success. Then, six months ago she met Truscott and, ever so slowly, recovery commenced. Strip Alice of her worry-lines and the tension and you uncover beauty.

'EVAN DILLON: About the same age as Alice, he was genuinely attracted to her even though the attachment all but destroyed her. He has reached that stage where he is striving to achieve by brain power what he once sought by muscle. He realises it's a whole new ball game for him which is why he searched for a new mentor. This he found in -

'THE PROFESSOR: An aging crim in his 50's. His prison steel-rimmed glasses give him something of the appearance of an ancient scholar approaching dotage - but there are still many crooked schemes lurking in his brain. His attention to details is something of a fetish. He writes everything down and throws nothing away.

'Car driving required.

'CLARENCE RONALD BENNETT: About 40, Bennett's a crim who just cannot win. He worries a lot about his work - with just cause - suffers first night nerves on every job, but it all does him no good. He always ends up getting pinched.

'BILL OWENS: A cell mate of Dillon's. A ready follower.

'A DRUNK:

'PARTY-GOER: (STUNT DRIVER)

'A DRINKER: Extra.'

Notes

  • This entry has been compiled from archival research in the Crawford Collection (AFI Research Collection), undertaken by Dr Catriona Mills under the auspices of the 2012 AFI Research Collection (AFIRC) Research Fellowship.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Crawford Productions , 1976 .
      Extent: 46 min. 34 secs (according to the script)p.
      Series: form y separately published work icon Bluey Robert Caswell , Vince Moran , Everett de Roche , James Wulf Simmonds , Tom Hegarty , Gwenda Marsh , Colin Eggleston , David Stevens , Peter A. Kinloch , Keith Thompson , Gregory Scott , Peter Schreck , Denise Morgan , Monte Miller , Ian Jones , John Drew , David William Boutland , Jock Blair , Melbourne : Crawford Productions Seven Network , 1976 Z1815063 1976 series - publisher film/TV crime detective

      According to Moran, in his Guide to Australian Television Series, Bluey (and its Sydney-based rival, King's Men) 'constituted an attempt to revive the police genre after the cancellations of Homicide, Division 4 and Matlock Police'.

      Don Storey, in his Classic Australian Television, summarises the program as follows:

      Bluey is a maverick cop who breaks every stereotype image. He drinks, smokes and eats to excess, and therefore is rather large, but it is his unusual investigative methods that set him apart. He has bent or broken every rule in the book at some stage, to the point where no-one else wants to work with him. But he gets results, and is therefore too valuable to lose, so the powers-that-be banish him to the basement of Russell Street Police Headquarters where he is set up in his own department, a strategem that keeps him out of the way of other cops.

      Moran adds that 'Grills, Diedrich and Nicholson turned in solid performances in the series and the different episodes were generally well paced, providing engaging and satisfying entertainment.'

      The program sold well overseas, especially in the United Kingdom. But though it rated well domestically, it was not the success that the Seven Network had hoped for, and was cancelled after 39 episodes.

      Bluey had an unexpected revival in the early 1990s when selections from the video footage (over-dubbed with a new vocal track) were presented during the second series of the ABC comedy The Late Show as the fictional police procedural Bargearse. (The Late Show had given ABC gold-rush drama Rush the same treatment in series one.)

      Number in series: 14
      1976 .
      person or book cover
      Script cover page (Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection)
      Extent: 58p.
      (Manuscript) assertion
      Note/s:
      • The script is typed on thin white paper, and labelled 'Code 11516' and 'Episode No. Fourteen' on the cover page. Unlike most Bluey scripts in the Crawford Collection, this episode number matches the episode's final position in the production schedule: it's possible that the original labelling of the scripts has caught up to the production schedule, that this wasn't typed until after the schedule had been adjusted, or that this episode has retained the same position throughout the adjustments to the production schedule.
      • There is no indication of to whom this copy of the script was designated.
      • The script has been typed on at least three different machines, and is amended throughout with liquid paper, which has then been typed over. The amendments are minor and relatively infrequent: at the level of copy editing rather than serious changes to the script or stage directions.
      • The archive also contains information on the breakdown of costs for this episode, access to which is highly restricted.

      Holdings

      Held at: AFI Research Collection
      Local Id: SC BLU : 14
Last amended 4 Apr 2013 15:48:24
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