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

'Monica inadvertently becomes witness to a homicide and sees the face of one of the killers. He also sees Monica.

'There seems no way the killers can be tracked down and they closer they get to tracing Monica's identity and whereabouts, the more people are hurt, and the more Bluey becomes concerned for her safety.

'Debbie, Gary's reporter girlfriend, makes an error in judgement which places her life in danger and leaves Bluey with a feeling of guilt.

'Monica and Bluey's great respect and affection for each other comes to the fore when Bluey tries everything to protect Monica and Monica insists that there is only one thing to be done - to use herself as bait.'

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):

'GEOFF EASTMAN: About 27, tall, good looking and a killer. He doesn't care that he gets other people in trouble as long as he gets what he wants.

'FRED RANDALL: Around the same age as Eastman. He's weak, and goes along with the one who's holding the upper hand.

'TRACY CARTER: Late 20's. Attractive Street Girl. Heart of gold.

'INSPECTOR ARTHUR FERRIS: Established.

'SERGEANT WILLIAMS: Homicide cop. Like any other.

'EDITOR: In his late 40's. Knows his job.

'FORENSIC: Happy in his work.

'COP *2: (DRIVES. NO LINES) Seen once.

'COP *1: Seen once.

'POLICE ARTIST: Good with a pencil.

'EXTRA: Body in Supermarket.'


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 (from the Crawfor Collection at the AFI Research Collection)
      Extent: 58p.
      (Manuscript) assertion
      Note/s:
      • The Crawford Collection includes three copies of this script, one held in this file and two filed separately.
      • The script is typed on thin white paper, and labelled on the cover page 'Code 11535' and 'Episode No. 32', although it aired as episode 31.
      • The script is amended throughout, including on the cover page, in white liquid paper, which has then been typed over. The amendments are relatively minor: copy-editing level changes to typing errors, rather than wholesale alterations (although see note below re. more substantial amendments and amalgamation of amendments). The amendments are relatively infrequent.
      • The file also includes three separate pages of amendments, in the form of a memo from Denise Morgan. The amendments consist of extensive changes to the three consecutive scenes before the sixth commercial break (scenes 70, 71, and 72).
      • The alterations that Denise Morgan notes in her memos have not been made to this copy of the script, so this copy of the script seemingly reflects stage two of an editing process: the script is typed, is read over and alterations made to obvious typing errors, and then it’s sent to the script editor, who sends it back with any amendments.

      Holdings

      Held at: AFI Research Collection
      Local Id: SC BLU : 31
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Crawford Productions ; Seven Network , 1977 .
      Extent: 46 min. 12 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: 31
Last amended 17 Apr 2013 13:38:56
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