cop shop episode 25

You can't tell me this isn't Louise Homfrey, I hope you weren't going to try. She's in one scene of episode 25 of Cop Shop, as 'Mrs Price', but as was so often the case, she is not in the credits (Mrs Price isn't listed as a character either). 

As I said earlier, Cop Shop is Crawfords demonstrating 'everything they've learned about soap opera laid upon everything they already knew about police/crime shows'; I was thinking earlier that perhaps I should take a sample episode or two and try to figure out what proportion is soap, and what proportion is action/crime solving. There'd also be value in figuring out the ratio of outside action to indoors (i.e. sets). Homicide and D4 distinguished heavily between the outdoor and the indoor stuff, and for long periods both shows had two directors per episode, focusing on each. 

CS has also learnt a lot from D4, particularly the upstairs-downstairs nature of a police station, so Riverside police station has the front desk and the uniform with the detectives upstairs and interaction - conflict between them as well as against the outside world of crims and conspiracies. 

Most of the time, it's the detectives and their home lives (JJ and Valerie and Glen, Pamela and Gayle - and for a short time early, Don and Carol McKenna and Kerrie) but also spare a thought by the way for Paula Duncan as Danni Frances, who gets handed around quite a bit early on... I'm only in the early stages though.

This is going to be a long ride. Sorry, you don't have to put up with it if you don't want to. 

division 4: 'sweet kid, good familiy'

Good solid episode with all the tension, kitchen sink drama and satisfying (if a bit sad) ending we have all come to expect from D4. 

What grabbed me the most though was the great pleasure of seeing Louise Homfrey in more than just a 'keep that noise down' role. She plays a boarding house landlady with a theatrical past. If I were writing a biography of Louise Homfrey the way some people write biographies of Margaret Dumont, I would definitely use the line she gives early in the piece regarding 'every night lights, the applause, I never missed a performance, not one, oh I was in great demand.'

These are a couple of her more unsavoury boarders who, guess what, are crims. 

One more thing to say about this one - don't get me wrong, it's great, but it's not especially great - is that for some reason it begins with the old credit sequence, abandoned a few months previously. Wonder what that was about. 

Age 20 June 1973 p. 28. 

The episode was shown in Sydney about five weeks earlier - 2 May. 

special cameo by 'louise humphrey'

This episode of D4 (screened 21 March 1973) is a great showcase for Cecily Polson who, for some reason, Crawfords always typecast as a slightly rough young woman, heart of gold optional. In this case she has one of those, and Polson plays her with genuine subtlety. But of course what really jumps out at me is Louise Homfrey, in this instance her name misspelt in the credits as Louise Humphrey. Once again, she plays a neighbour who is pissed off about being bothered. I wonder what Louise Homfrey did to get in the mood for these tours-de-force. Anyway, always good to see her. 

In this case she's talking with an extremely nasty piece of work, Bob Anderson, played by Bill Pearson. Aplomb all round. 

more more louise homfrey

Who is Ryan squintingly gleaning information from? Yes it's no other than...

'Mrs Crew' (though I'm fairly sure her name is not referred to in the actual episode, but that's what IMDB says her name is) as played by... I can't even finish this sentence.

From the Ryan episode known as 'A Little Something Special' first screened 8 December 1973. This episode is chockers* with stars, from Lex Mitchell as a murderous criminal to Jane Clifton in a one-scene, barely-seen role as a waitress. Oddly this episode was written by William Froug who was an American screenwriter. It is good, but not better than the usual locally-written fare (and has one particularly odd aspect - that Ryan would have an almost instantaneous, James Bondian sexual relationship with one of the people caught up in the intrigue, immediately after her brother is murdered. Said woman is set up in a number of ways prior to her kissing then apparently sexing with Ryan as an innocent, inexperienced, etc - it's altogether weird). 

* Shall I once again bemoan the americanishittifaction of, um, everything? 'Chockers' was autocorrected to 'checkers', it took me about a day to realise. 

more louise homfrey

This episode of Division 4 is a bit fragmented but I just wanted to mention it has Louise Homfrey in it again. Once again she is playing a self-possessed, self-reliant woman with even a touch of the feminist about her (Marg Stewart persuades Mrs Innes to consider going into a home because she says she needs to persuade her superiors of the value of policewomen). 

Oh and the amazing Pamela Stephenson, playing a woman with two boyfriends. 

...and the ever-incredible John Stanton. 

The episode is The Empty Hand, first shown 13 February 1973. 

It also, by the way, has a slight subtext about demolition (presumably by the HCV, though not stated) as Mrs Innes wants to stay in her house which is going to be bulldozed, and doesn't want to go into public housing because she can't keep her dog (Bob) there. 

louise homfrey in division 4 episode 'hide and seek' 20 september 1972

A lot of interesting things going on in this episode of Division 4 which only goes to show - scratch the surface, you'll find a whole treasure trove of people and places and things. This is the episode where Marg tells Vickers she's not going to make his coffee for him (apparently women police have laid down the law on making of tea and coffee for their male counterparts because they feel it takes them away from proper police work!). His response, incidentally, is to give her some actual police work to do. 

Lionel Long is in this episode, three years after his departure from Homicide, and weirdly his character's name is 'Alan Hunt'. I say 'weirdly' because that was the name of the recently-appointed Minister for Local Government in Victoria. Wikipedia won't tell me precisely when Hunt was given this role (his first after a long time as a Liberal politician in part, rumour has it, because he objected to the planning rules being bent on behalf of Reg Ansett in the 1960s) but he was certainly a Minister by mid-1971. The shooting on this episode was under way by 8 October 1971 - there's a scene in which Vickers brandishes a newspaper with that date - but presumably Hunt wasn't particularly famous when the script was written by ex-policeman Monte Miller; Hunt rose to a certain degree of prominence in the Hamer government and I thought/think he was opposition leader for a short time in the 1980s but Wikipedia (once again: not always our friend) doesn't say anything about that and I cbf looking into Liberal history if they're not going to do it for themselves.* Anyway, weird to have a criminal called Alan Hunt here. 

It's not weird but nice to see Louise Homfrey in a minor role as the plucky, betrousered, belligerent Mrs Malton (IMDB doesn't list her as a cast member, btw). 

God only knows how old Homfrey was by this stage but presumably mid-70s. She had a long career as a radio presenter and was one of those media personalities who had no problem acting but it was probably just a thing you needed to be able to do to keep working in amongst the things you were remarkably good at and notable for. Note the extreme similarity between the second 'still' above and the image below, which you'd have to admit even in 1929 must have been a super-weird publicity shot. 

World's News 23 October 1920 p. 19

* And yes, he was the father of the awful Federal Liberal politician Greg Hunt, Minister for Health during the pandemic.