form y separately published work icon The Set-up single work   film/TV   crime  
Issue Details: First known date: 1976... 1976 The Set-up
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Grapevines riddle the underworld. Some of the stories spread are rumour, some are authentic. When word on the vine spreads as far as Bluey's superior, Superintendent Willis, there can be no doubting its authenticity. He races Bluey into action to prevent an underworld contract killing.

'The word is out - Vic Nelson, a Melbourne crime boss, has been fingered for death.

'In Bluey's book, if the contract was fulfilled, it couldn't happen to a better bloke. Bluey hates Nelson and all he stands for. And in Nelson's assessment of Bluey, that feeling is reciprocated.

'But Bluey isn't the only one who would be cheering on the killers if Nelson were to die feloniously. Helen, a delicate, willowy girl of 18, has the strongest motive in the world to want Nelson dead.

'Walter Kite is a mumbling, insipid enough type, but he is Helen's protector and it only takes a gun to turn a weakling into a superman.

'Even the hippie-style preacher, expounding the virtues of love and peace would see it as a service to mankind if Nelson were no longer with us to corrupt.

'In fact, few people in Melbourne would not regard the world a better place without Nelson. And Bluey has to find ... and find out quickly ... who it is who has set Nelson up for death!'


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):

'VIC NELSON: Early/middle forties. A man of immense personal charm. He's good-humoured, good-looking and an easy knack of making people like him instantly. He dresses exceptionally well in expensive, modern clothes. All in all you couldn't wish to meet a nicer guy — except that he's a Melbourne Crime boss with a very nasty and quite sadistic history that goes back many years. He's clever, cunning and ruthless, but somehow manages to remain pleasant for all that. He's been arrested and charged many times, but never been convicted or done time. Bluey and Nelson have a bitter personal enmity that goes back two decades.

'SUPERINTENDENT WILLIS: A well-groomed man in his early fifties. A public servant type of cop. A back-room boy who exists in the rarified atmosphere at the top of Russell Street where crime is dealt with in the abstract and "future directions" are considered. Some political pressure or passing whim will sometimes occasion him to descend four floors and instigate an investigation, but for the most part his hands (and fingernails) remain clean, his well-cut clothes unsullied and his contact with everyday crims minimal. Which is not to underestimate the man. His public service facade is no more than a pose to disguise a mind which is quick and agile. He is, after all, a natural-born survivor perched on top of the tree.

'HELEN: 18 years old. A delicate, willowy girl with sad eyes and a troubled life who says no more than a dozen words in the entire script and should thus be capable of making a visual impression which is both haunting and sympathetic. She's been brought up in an orphanage, has considerable personality hang-ups and now lives on hippie-starvation level in cheap attics or damp cellars. Cheap, worn-out, hippie-style clothing. Has begged on the streets when times have been bad.

'WALTER ARTHUR KITE: Aged 23. Looks after Helen in a protective sort of way since any true relationship with her would be impossible. Kite's no picture of health himself - he's a mumbling, stumbling sort and they live rough together. Long, straggly, untidy hair and clothes. This couple should be sympathetic in an "Orphans in the Storm" sense.

'MAD SAL': Early 50's. Eccentric in shape, manner, speech and habits. Sal' is completely off her head. Don't look for any hint of sense in her because she's as mad as a coot. She's under the impression that she's been dead for twenty years and that her body is an electrical machine. Don't try and tell her otherwise.

'TINY: Early twenties and a thug. So-called because of his size which is as big as possible. A heavy under the employ of Vic Nelson who would do absolutely anything his boss would tell him without a second thought. Dangerous, nasty and mean, but put him in a suit and tie for tidiness sake.

'GRANT: Thirties. Nelson's second heavy. Not such a brute of a man but just as nasty. Nelson's given him a good living for a dozen years or more and that's bought total loyalty. If anything, Grant is the brains of the duo. The two of them have a running back-chat consisting entirely of sexual innuendo.

'SANDY: Aged 19 or so. With her friend, Liz - these two girls are a couple of fun characters who live in a strange living space above a shop. Sandy is the boss out of the two and gives the impression of being fun, bubbly, good-humoured, scatty and mildly eccentric. Not to say sexy.

'LIZ: Sandy's friend. Same age and similar. Not freaks, just fun.

'PREACHER: Any age. Hippie-style street corner preacher given to expounding the virtues of love and peace to anybody that will listen. Not too much of a maniac.

'UNIFORMED POLICEMAN: As young as possible. Just out of the academy and not up to facing Bluey at full volume. So young that his policeman's hat should look slightly ridiculous over his young face.

'EXTRAS (4): The preachers' congregation.

'VKC:

'STUNT DRIVER:

'STUNT MAN'.

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

Note: There is some disagreement in the material regarding direction of this episode. The script lists Eddey as director, but ancillary material that post-dates the script lists George Miller.
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Crawford Productions ; Seven Network , 1976 .
      Extent: 46 min. 52 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: 7
      1976 .
      person or book cover
      Script cover page (from the Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection)
      Extent: 67p.
      (Manuscript) assertion
      Note/s:
      • The script is labelled 'Code 11506' and 'Episode No. Five' on the cover page, although it aired as episode 7. There is no indication on the cover page of to whom this copy of the script was designated.
      • The script is typed on thin white paper, with some indication of amendments in both black ink and liquid paper (see, for example, page 10). Amendments appear to be at the level of copy editing: for example, on page 13, a stage direction reading 'THERE’S A SUDDEN GLANCE OF UNDERSTAND FROM TRUSCOTT' has been altered to read 'A SUDDEN GLANCE OF UNDERSTANDING'.
      • The script appears to have been typed on at least two different machines: see, for example, the difference in pages 61 to 67.
      • The file also contains ancillary material related to this episode, access to some of which is restricted. This material includes:

        1. Cast list

        2. Two sets of casting call sheets (one labelled 'Pick-ups').

        3. A one-page sheet, handwritten in lead pencil, covering the locations for the episode on Friday 12th, Monday 15th, and Tuesday 16th. This copy is labelled 'Set-up' on the top line.

        4. A one-page sheet, typed, titled 'Location Times and Location Schedules', noting the required actors and the scenes to be shot.

        5. A one-sheet sheet (handwritten, photocopied, and then handwritten again in blue ink and black ink) covering travel and accommodation.

      • 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 : 7
Last amended 12 Dec 2013 12:07:09
X