person or book cover
Script cover page (Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection)
form y separately published work icon Mirror Image single work   film/TV   crime  
Alternative title: Through a Looking Glass
Issue Details: First known date: 1976... 1976 Mirror Image
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Department B is to work closely with Detective Sergeant Stoner on a difficult case of child abduction. This would appear to be difficult enough, but there is also another problem.

'Stoner is suspected of fixing convictions, shopping innocent people, etc., and it is Bluey's job to not only keep an eye on the case in hand, but to also keep an eye on Stoner.

'This is no mean feat as for once Bluey has met his match. Here is a man who is not only a solo operator like Bluey, but is also a darn good cop. Being such men of strength, Bluey and Stoner build up a close relationship making Bluey's job more difficult and placing doubts in Bluey's mind as to Stoner's guilt. However, bending the rules a little to capture a guilty party is one thing, breaking the rules and coming up with the wrong bloke, is another.

'Bluey's quick thinking saves Stoner from making a mistake in charging the wrong man for the crimes, but when Stoner seems so intent on capturing the animal responsible for the disappearances of the young girls, it looks as though he is about to make a similar mistake.'

 

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):

'NICK STONER: MID FORTIES. BLUEY'S AGE. A SHREWD FACE. HARD TO PICK WHAT HE MIGHT BE THINKING. AN AGGRESSION THAT FINDS ITS MOTIVATION IN HIS FIERCE PRIDE FOR HIS POLICE ACHIEVEMENTS AND THE ONE VULNERABLE SPOT - THE LOSS OF HIS WIFE - A SUPPORT THAT IS GONE FOREVER - A TENDER SPOT THAT WON'T HEAL - A NEED THAT FOCUSES MORE OF HIS ATTENTION ON HIS JOB AS A POLICEMAN THAN A MEANS OF INCOME. HE FORCES A POSITIVE ATTITUDE ON HIMSELF. WELL GROOMED. WEARS WELL CUT CLOTHES. AN EXPENSIVE WATCH. THICK WEDDING BAND THAT HE WILL TOY WITH WHEN UPSET OR EXCITED. HE KEEPS PEOPLE AT ARMS LENGTH. GIVES THE IMPRESSION THAT HE COPES VERY WELL. WHEN HE COPES. AND AS A POLICEMAN, HE CARES. HE IS INVOLVED WITH THE PEOPLE WHO ARE HURT AND HE WANTS TO FELON BADLY. [sic]

'MACKAY: LATE TWENTIES. LEAN FACE. LONG GINGERISH HAIR (ADJUST - DISTINGUISHABLE HAIR) INNATE MEANESS. [sic] LIMITED INTELLIGENCE. DEFIANT.

'DAVIDSON: LATE TWENTIES. LEAN FACE. LONG GINGERISH HAIR. (ADJUST TO SUIT MACKAY) VERY SIMILAR TO MACKAY. BUT SENSITIVE. NERVOUS. LOW SELF-PROFILE. NEGATIVE.

'BRADLEY: EARLY FIFTIES. CORNER SHOP KEEPER. FERRET FACED AND A BUSY-BODY. LIKES TO DRAW ATTENTION TO HIMSELF.

'MRS. GILLIS: HOUSEWIFE. LATE THIRTIES. HARASSED. DOING HER BEST BUT LIMITED.

'MRS. NEILSEN: SIXTY FIVE. BLUE RINSE. SELF OPINIONATED. HAS A PET PRIZE CORGI. NOT IMPRESSED WITH THE 1970'S.

'MRS. OWEN: EARLY THIRTIES. BIRD LIKE. STRONG IN NATURE. QUIET BUT SELF CONTROLLED.

'ALLSOP: FORTY. SHORT. BUS DRIVER. BORN LOSER WHO IS FRIGHTENED OF LOSING EVEN MORE.

'KATE GILLIS: TEN YEAR OLD GIRL.

'RAYLENE OWENS: EIGHT YEAR OLD GIRL.

'GIRLS ONE AND TWO: EIGHT OR NINE YEARS OLD.

'MRS. GREEN: MIDDLE AGED WORKING WIFE. NON SPEAKING.

'MRS. ROSE: WOMAN OF 50

'PRIZE CORGI'.

 

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

      1976 .
      person or book cover
      Script cover page (Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection)
      Extent: 65p.
      (Manuscript) assertion
      Note/s:
      • The script is labelled on the front cover 'Code 11533' and 'Episode No. 29'. This is not an original script, but a copy printed on yellow paper (which may explain why its episode number matches its place in the production schedule, unlike most Bluey scripts in the collection).
      • There are no signs of annoations on this copy of the script.
      • The file also contains a one-page, hand-written script register.

      Holdings

      Held at: AFI Research Collection
      Local Id: SC BLU : 29
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Crawford Productions , 1977 .
      Extent: 47 min. 50 secs (according to the script)p.
      Note/s:
      • The script register lists Stewart Wright as 1st assistant director.
      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: 29
Last amended 6 Sep 2019 14:39:20
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