person or book cover
Script cover page (Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection)
form y separately published work icon A Touch of Stardust single work   film/TV   crime  
Issue Details: First known date: 1976... 1976 A Touch of Stardust
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'It seems that Department B is to be closed down and Bluey forced into retirement. Their last case is to investigate and close the operations of a faith healer and in doing so, Bluey ends up with a touch of stardust settling on him.

'Bluey's will to survive is taken from him when there seems little he can do to stop the closing of the department and his enforced retirement. But Monica, Gary and Truscott have other plans and do not intend to see Bluey give up without a fight.

'Everyone needs faith in someone or something and this is what Bluey learns when he comes face to face with a man whose purpose in life is to give faith to others.'

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):

'RONALD BENFIELD HAMLIN 33 years old. An extremely handsome man with eyes that seem to bore right through you, exposing your inner most [sic] thoughts. His hands are quite beautiful and since a child has had a certain talent for easing pain and mental anguish with them. Over the years, Ronald's belief in himself as a healer has grown, but to many, he's nothing but a Con-Man. To his followers he's a "Prince", "Mr. Stardust", because he seems to sprinkle a little here, a little there. At heart, Ronald's a simple man who's [sic] ego, matured by others, blinds him to his own limitations.

'LILLY MORRIS 26 years old. Pretty as a picture on the surface, but underneath? Well that's another story. She knows how limited Ronald's powers are, but she also sees the money they can make from it. Deep inside she loves Ronald, but money has a stronger hold. When things go wrong, Lilly decides it's time to quit, leave, taking what she can with her, but then you can never tell what a woman will do when faced with a crisis, or the law.

'JAKE HOBBS 68 years old. A retired copper. One of the old school of policemen who saw good in even the hardest crim. And old friend of Bluey's. In the last six months, Jake's become desperately ill, against the wishes of his doctors and his daughter he turns to Ronald for help and receives it. When the power fails, Jake sticks by Ronald.

'JANEY HOBBS 38 years old. Jake's daughter. A pleasantly plump, motherly type. She doesn't agree with Jake about Ronald, but is powerless to stop her father going to him and giving him all his money. The one thing she has to agree with her father on, Ronald does seem to stop a lot of her father's pain. In the beginning that is.

'PEGGY MOSS 25 years old. Peggy is pregnant and has been warned by the doctors that she could lose her baby if she doesn't have special care. Peggy ignores them and goes to see Ronald. Ronald gives her great comfort and belief in herself. Like Jake, she's warned and ignores it.

'TED MOSS 25 years old. He loves his wife and like her, wants his baby. He distrusts Ronald and calls him a Con-Man. When Peggy won't listen to him, Ted calls the police, complaining about Ronald. When he thinks the police aren't doing their job well enough, he takes the law into his own hands. Not a bad man, just an emotionally upset one.

'BETTE TAYLOR 46 years old. Still a very attractive woman. Widowed and rich. She gos to Ronald for one reason only. He gives her belief in herself. If she is attracted to his looks, you'd never get her to admit it. She's not a silly woman, just lonely. (BETTE IS PRONOUNCED BET)

'MOU MOIR 47 years old. A happy face, but underneath needing the help that Ronald can give her far more than Bette Taylor. She's married and doesn't mind admitting to a sort of sexual attraction to Ronald. Like Bette Taylor, she's not a silly woman.

'DOCTOR (HOSPITAL) 35 years old. Compassionate. Efficient.

'POLICE DOCTOR 34 years old. Nobody's fool. Dislikes people like Hamlin.

'MARY FELLOWS 18 years old. A deaf mute.'

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: 75p.
      (Manuscript) assertion
      Note/s:
      • The script is an original script, typed on thin white paper, and labelled 'Code 11542' and 'Episode Forty' on the cover page, although it was produced as episode 38.
      • There is no indication on the cover page of to whom this copy of the script is designated.
      • The script is amended throughout with liquid paper that has then been typed over. Amendments are relatively infrequent and at a copy-editing level (correcting typing mistakes, for example), rather than alterations to dialogue and stage directions.
      • The file includes a cast list for this episode, access to which is restricted.
      • The Crawford Collection contains two copies of this script, one held in this file, and the other filed separately.

      Holdings

      Held at: AFI Research Collection
      Local Id: SC BLU : 38
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Crawford Productions , 1977 .
      Extent: 47 min. 56 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: 38
Last amended 4 Apr 2013 15:40:30
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