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

'Wally Curran, a crim struggling to reform under Bluey's tutorship, stumbles into more trouble - only this time he drags his wife, May, and eldest son, Kevin, down with him.

'To Bluey, Wally has become a challenge in which he hopes to prove his philosophy - a well placed boot applied at the appropriate moment to the seat of the pants of a miscreant gets far better results than the airy-fairy ideas and theories of all the sociologists and psychiatrists.

'There are some who do not agree. Monica, for one, sees Wally as nothing but a no-hoper. She considers May as the battler, the one worthy of understanding, encouragement and help. The difference of opinion sets sparks flying between her and Bluey.

'To his son, Kevin, Wally is everything. He'd follow Dad through hell. Indeed, that's just where Wally leads him - only to abandon him there. But Kevin has inherited all his father's guile and quickly extricates himself from his dilemma.

'The problem is all far too academic for May. A simple soul, she sees Wally only as her husband, the man she promised to love, honour and obey. She applies herself totally to that task and the upbringing of their kids ... until it all becomes impossible.'

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):

'WALLY CURRAN: About 45, a born loser. He's spent most of his life in and out of prisons in six months or year stretches. There is absolutely no violence in Wally. There doesn't have to be. He manages to get by without it because deep down Wally is a cheap little con man. His wheeling-dealing has made life difficult for ...

(Truck Driving Required)

'MAY CURRAN: His wife. May is almost 40. She struggles to be independent and her aim in life is to keep her five kids together and give them a bit of a chance ... something she never had. Her herculean effort looks as though it might be beginning to bear fruit in their eldest ...

'KEVIN CURRAN: A big boy, 19 or 20. He's apprenticed to an engineering company and, although it's heavy going, there's a chance he might make it. On the top there seems to be a lot of May in Kevin, but deep down lurk some of those genes that made Wally the sly con man that he is.

(Motorbike Riding Required)

'IDA STACEY: A prostitute friend of May. She is a little older than May but a pretty tough existence and too much alcohol make her look old for her years.

'TERRY LOWE: A crim who has moved into the prostitution racket. Probably about 30.

'ROY JACKSON: A crim mate of Lowes'. A thump man.

[Note: The apostrophe has been added in black ink.]

'PIGGOT & BAKER: Two break and enter types. The parts call for stuntment [sic] and are non-speaking.

'MAN: A witness to a drunk being rolled. One word of dialogue.

'SERVICE STATION ATTENDANT: Young. Two lines of dialogue.

'NON-SPEAKING:-

'DRUNK: Old.

'BARMAN:

'WARDER:

'EXTRA: A drinker.'

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: 47 min. 45 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: 4
      1976 .
      person or book cover
      Script cover page (Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection)
      Extent: 54p.
      (Manuscript) assertion
      Note/s:
      • The script is labelled on the cover page 'Code 11505' and 'Episode Six', although it was produced as episode four. There is no indication on the cover page of to whom this copy of the script was designated.
      • The script is an original script, typed on thin white paper, annotated throughout with liquid paper. The annotations are at the level of copy-editing: change to typos and minor adjustments to dialogue and stage directions. In some instances, as on page 12, annotations in ink are visible under the liquid paper. Pages 26 and 28 have been typed on a different machine, based on the alteration in both paper and font.
      • The Crawford Collection holds three copies of this script, but only one is held in this file: the other two are filed separately.
      • The archive also contains information on the breakdown of costs for this episode, access to which is highly restricted.
      • The file contains the following ancillary material, access to which is restricted:
        1. Cast list.
        2. Casting call sheets.

      Holdings

      Held at: AFI Research Collection
      Local Id: SC BLU : 4
Last amended 4 Apr 2013 15:46:16
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