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. 

ryan 'pipeline' (part 1)

I'm going to come back to this ep of Ryan because it has an amazing North Melbourne car chase, but first I want to honour Margaret Cruickshank in this episode and also ask: do you think she was ever denied a part because of her super long name? (And did Joe James get that part?) Also, do you think that characters had their names changed so they could fit on a line with 'Margaret Cruickshank'? I think there's basically 29 characters available on the Ryan credits screen. 'Mrs. Hall' just makes it in against MC. 

Anyway, here's Mrs. Hall who is a sympathetic character, ordinary really, nothing much to discuss. She just wonders what happened to her husband, who has disappeared. 

Could Pamela Stephenson feel less like wallpaper or a human version of a filing cabinet in this scene (really, this show)? 

I wish that when I had known James Cruickshank, which I sort of did in the late 1980s, I had asked him more about Margaret and her career. But you don't know what you don't know (iydkydk). 

That's the sort of profundity that would keep Ryan himself going for a week. Oh, by the way, here's some total madness:

Now Street? WTAF!!! Alright, I admit I looked it up, I mean I didn't think there was a Now Street in Kew (I guess Crawfords had someone to check those kinds of things in the Melways to make sure people didn't show up at real addresses looking for pretend people) but I thought maybe somewhere someone had the bright idea of a Now Street (for now people, of course). Well, no, there isn't. But I guess in a city with a Y street, anything is possible. 

Anyway that's a Y for yes I am going to get back to you* on that car chase business. 

*Y is also for you
 

ryan and more hilda scurr

The last episodes of Crawfords shows are particularly good because they get a bit ramshackle when (I assume) everyone's thinking about their next show and how to keep it going for more than a year, etc. This is episode 33 of Ryan, a ridiculously convoluted plot I only understand enough to know it's dependent on a host of crazy conspiracies. It does have Vince Martin in it as a threatening heavy.

It also has more unconvincing tension between Ryan and Julie where she seems to pine for him in some way and he is unwilling to, I don't know, marry her? It's not subtle, it's just weird. 

But the best thing is it has Hilda Scurr! As a matron who unknowingly keeps a man in a coma at the direction of a doctor who has created a conspiracy whereby a racing car driver has been 'set up' with a fake will leaving his money to a woman who doesn't exist and etc etc etc etc 

 

the great australian bite

So I don't think I've mentioned that lately I've been watching Ryan, the Rod Mullinar private detective show which also has Pamela Stephenson in it. I'll tell you more about it sometime. But right now I just want to fill you in on an episode (Episode 21) I've been looking at in which a lot of the action centres around a locale about two minutes' walk from where I live, notably at a restaurant called The Great Australian Bite. It was on the corner of Molesworth St and, I guess, Harker St (though that corner seems to be exactly the spot where Harker becomes Curzon). 

Molesworth, looking south. 

Looking down Curzon. 

I think this is the interior of the Great Australian Bite, but maybe not. It's surely not a set. 

The actual establishment. Sometime soon I'll show you what it looks like today. 

Cornelia Frances in Harker st

And the flats across the street. So that's about it. Oh, except here's an ad. 

homicide 'from the top' / 'trial'

Pamela Stephenson stars in this special double-length episode of Homicide first shown Monday 20 March 1972 between 7:30-9:30 pm under the general name Homicide Trial. It also stars Anne Haddy and the early 70s Crawfords standby of Syd Conabeare. 

Here is PS with I think Norman Kaye. 

A 

Surely a Leonard French stained glass window in the foyer of the building PS' character (Georgina Pearce) has an apartment in, in which she is a fancy prostitute with a junkie boyfriend. 

Presumably the outside of the same building as above, the owners of which had no problem with it being represented as not having many tenants but one of them is a prostitute whose junkie boyfriend is thrown off the roof. 

Anne Haddy is the junkie boyfriend's mother. She only has a few scenes but she's excellent of course. 

Got to love a bit of Syd Conabeare. 

The episode has a lot more room to breathe than your normal Homicide. Quite a few deviations.