Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Directors: Various, Via Vision Entertainment.
Cast: John Wood, Grant Bowler, Lisa McCune, William McInnes, Martin Sacks.
2018 marks the 25th anniversary of this engaging series that features an all-star Australian cast. It is also remembered for its two main stars Lisa McCune, a four-time recipient of the Gold Logie, and John Wood, who also won Gold.
There’s a good bit of nostalgia as you relive episodes 1-96 about country cops living and working in a close-knit rural community.
The Logie Award-winning show, which primarily focuses on the daily lives and relationships of the residents of Mount Thomas, was one of the highest rated in the history of Australian television.
Mt Thomas is an ordinary town, with a population of 10,000, but the crime rate is above average. It’s an eye-opener to see how principles hold sway and, most of the time, decency gains over evil.
Each of the young team of police experience an impact of events. As the nucleus of the series develops, we learn to grow with them and their loved ones, while watching their successes and their failures. This was precisely what Blue Heelers creator/producer Hal McElroy had set out to achieve. The concept and development of this series has an interesting story after he learning that his 18-year-old friend was planning to become a police officer.
Along with scriptwriter Tony Morphett, they reveal the human side of the policing, endeavouring to close the gap between police and the public.
What’s clearly obvious is that just like the rest of the community, police officers have feelings, regrets, aspirations and fears. Hand-in-hand goes the hope that the show would act as a tribute to the courage of police officers, risking their lives everyday, never knowing if they’d return home at the end of the day. How true.
Each episode is presented from the perspective of the officers, through a specific technique employed by McElroy.
Viewing the special features, you get some insights from photo galleries and audio commentaries by some of the stars.
It has been described as ‘A Country Practice meets Cop Shop’, and as “the contemporary cousin of British cop show, Heartbeat“.
This first special edition DVD box installment also includes the very first pilot episode.
You could win the 27-disc DVD set of Blue Heelers, Collection One, if you correctly tell us the number of episodes it contains.
Entries should be sent to [email protected] by next Monday, 29 October 2018. Names of the winners will be announced in Frank Cassidy’s PS-sssst…! column next week.
