form y separately published work icon End of the Road single work   film/TV   crime  
Issue Details: First known date: 1971... 1971 End of the Road
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The initial police enquiry in this episode is into a series of wool thefts from properties near Matlock. The men involved are two bush workers with strong arms and weak heads. Travelling with them is an older man, Jim Atkins, who appears to have nothing to do with the robberies, but whose personal life is a mystery.

'The source of this mystery is revealed in a story running parallel to that of the wool stealing activities. Atkins is an alias, and the man's real name is Peter Gould. Twenty years before, he was a farmer in the Matlock district, and one night accidentally killed an intruder on his property. Fearing that it would look like murder, he fled, leaving his pregnant wife behind. His wife and daughter still run the farm between them. Gradually Gould drifted into an itinerant life, sending money home from time to time. Now he has discovered that he has an incurable disease, and has come back to see his family before he dies.

'Constable Hogan is personally involved in this episode. He has been taking out Gould's daughter Marion, and it is through his knowledge of the family that the mystery of Gould's life is unravelled.'

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 includes the following character notes:

'JIM ATKINS 45-50. Real name Peter Gould. Itinerant shearer and bush worker. Nora's husband. Marion's father. Cleared out from Nora following the death of an intruder on their farm 20 years before. Now suffering from an incurable disease. During these years away, Jim has lived a sort of half life. He now returns in the company of Bob and Lennie, intending to tidy up his life before it is too late.

'BOB JONES 25-30. Itinerant bush worker and thief with a tendency to violence. Has a certain grudging respect for Jim which doesn't run too deep.

'LENNIE DALEY 25-30. Bob's side-kick. Strong in the arm, weak in the head. Has affection for Jim, is rather more genuine.

'MARION GOULD 20. Jim and Nora's daughter. An attractive, intelligent girl who has been her mother's backstop for a long time now.

'NORA GOULD 40-45. Jim's wife, Marion's mother. She has coped, somehow, with rearing Marion and running the farm in Jim's absence. She has never grown bitter with Jim or the world. Something happened, Jim went and that was that. Now her carefully erected barrier against despair is torn down.

'TOM BAXTER 40-60. The theft of his wool adds one more burden to the many being borne by this economically depressed sheep farmer, but Tom remains pretty philosophical about it all.

'PHIL SANDERS 30-40. Second victim of the wool thefts. Phil would be better described as "grazier" than "farmer". A well spoken contrast to Tom Baxter.

'COMMERCIAL TRAVELLER Age optional. Bob taps him on the head and steals his car.

'MRS. SANDERS Very much her husband's wife. Age 30-40.

'OCKER: 50-70. Bar fly with a long memory who befriends Jim.

'"FARMER" JOHNSON 40-60. Shady dealer in wool and other agricultural produce who has no scruples and fewer friends.

'BARMAN AT THE LONERGAN PUB

'EXTRAS Drinkers at the Lonergan pub.

'ACTUALS Ambulance officers.'

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: see The Writer in Australian Television History.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Crawford Productions ; Network Ten , 1971 .
      Extent: 44 min. 51 secs (according to the script)p.
      Series: form y separately published work icon Matlock Police Terry Stapleton , Ian Jones , Everett de Roche , Ian Jones , Terry Stapleton , Keith Hetherington , Patrick Edgeworth , Tom Hegarty , Douglas Tainsh , Graeme Koetsveld , Peter A. Kinloch , Sonia Borg , Don Battye , Robert Caswell , George T. Miller , Gwenda Marsh , Cliff Green , Vince Moran , Luis Bayonas , David William Boutland , Phil Freedman , Keith Thompson , Denise Morgan , C.F. Barnes , Robert Bruce , Alan Cram , Vern Perry , Martin Robbins , John Dingwall , George Mallaby , Jim Stapleton , Simon Wincer , Melbourne Australia : Crawford Productions Network Ten , 1971-1976 Z1638563 1971 series - publisher film/TV detective crime

      The Matlock Police series (originally simply titled Matlock) was commissioned from Crawford Productions by ATV-0, in response to the popularity of rival-network police dramas such as Homicide and Division 4. Crawford's was initially reluctant to create another police series, but ATV-0 pressured the company for some time. Eventually, Ian Jones and Terry Stapleton devised the concept of a regional (Victorian) police series to provide viewers with something different. The more relaxed atmosphere of the country-town setting also allowed the writers to delve into the private lives of the main characters, rather than focusing heavily on big-city organised crime. In this respect, the series was situated somewhere between Homicide/Division 4 and Bellbird. The series did, however, cover typical rural policing, including such issues as break and enters, domestic issues, itinerant workers, brawls, petty crime and robberies, road accidents, the occasional homicide, and cattle rustling. On other occasions, the Matlock police also assisted Melbourne police in locating criminals on the run (among other problems). The idea behind the show was to reflect the causes of crime in a small community and show the effects on both the community and the officers themselves.

      The fictional town of Matlock (loosely based on Shepparton in Victoria) is situated inland on the Central Highway, approximately 160 kilometres north of Melbourne. Although the town's population is only seventeen thousand, this increases to around seventy-five thousand when the district is included. The Matlock Police Station is typical of a Victorian country town, with a Uniform Branch and a Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB). The CIB is headed by Detective Sergeant Vic Maddern, who grew up in the Matlock district and is an accomplished bushman. Second in command is Detective Allan Curtis, aged in his mid-twenties. Previously from Melbourne, Curtis has just been sent to his first country posting (against his will) when the series begins. Head of the Uniform Branch is Sergeant Bert Kennedy, an Englishman who migrated to Australia in 1950. A thorough but also easy-going man with a good sense of humour, Kennedy is married to Nell and enjoys the country life in Matlock, so much so that he has knocked back promotion to avoid moving to Melbourne. Several constables are attached to the Uniform Branch, but the most prominent is a motorcycle cop, Constable Gary Hogan, who performs a wide variety of duties. Hogan is about thirty, a friendly, easy-going person who grew up in the country and is always willing to help in whatever work is going.

      Number in series: 36
      1971 .
      person or book cover
      Script cover page (from the Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection)
      Extent: 77p.
      (Manuscript) assertion
      Note/s:
      • The Crawford Collection holds two copies of this script, both copied on pink paper and labelled 'Episode 3N' on the cover page.
      • Copy 1 is, according to a notation in red felt pen in the top right-hand corner of the cover page, designated for Simon Wincer: the cover page is heavily annotated in brown ink, black ink, blue felt pen, black felt pen, green ink, red felt pen, and blue ink.
      • An annotation in black felt pen on the first page of copy 1 reads 'Ray McKenna'. Other annotations in Copy 1 are in black ink, blue ink, and brown ink. The annotations cover a range of changes, from altering and adding stage directions, to adding new dialogue, to noting music cues, to sketching out the blocking of scenes on the blank back of the script pages. The annotations are in at least two different hands, and perhaps more.
      • Copy 2 is, according to a notation in red felt pen in the top right-hand corner of the cover page, designated for Henry Crawford. There are no further signs of annotation on copy 2.
      • The file also contains the following ancillary material, access to which is restricted:
        1. Casting call sheets.
        2. Cast list.

      Holdings

      Held at: AFI Research Collection
      Local Id: SC MAT : 36
Last amended 30 May 2013 15:15:51
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