lonely hearts/ fair cop

Just marvellous to see Joan Letch in an episode of D4 from 23 September 1974 called 'Lonely Hearts', as an actual character with, you know, character, called Lillian White. She's a policewoman, as you see, and she does things, she's not preposterous, she's not a nosy bitch or a bad neighbour, they should have made her a regular. Big mistake. 

The next episode is 'Fair Cop' which gives us the pleasure of seeing Crawfords stalwart Colin McEwan, as a criminal with the fabulous name of Earl Fowler...

...teamed with the solidly incredible Ross Higgins, as a slightly unethical policeman. Of course the two would be working together five years later in Kingswood Country. 

Behind Higgins there is the corner of Church and Bridge St Richmond, close to where the Orange Ice Cream Parlour used to but no longer stands

I'm guessing below is a version of the arcade that once and may still run behind those buildings. I haven't been there for a while. I'll check and get back to you.

And for what it's worth here's Higgins at the north end of Docker St, Richmond. Nothing too special about that, just always like to note when I can actually identify a place. 

division 4 'a waste of time' 12 july 1972

Keith Eden is Arthur Morrison, recently released from prison and hoping to go straight and/or meet his estranged son. There are lots of extremely interesting elements to this episode, starting with the opening sequence presumably shot from upstairs at Flinders St station. This is the intersection of Elizabeth and Flinders st and the tram terminus which is very drab and sparse compared to the glories of today. 

Irritatingly we are led to believe (I suppose it isn't outright stated) that the central character in this episode has come from Pentridge. But the 57 doesn't go past Pentridge, it just doesn't. Imagine thinking it did. 

The priest who was travelling with him goes to the tram stop in Flinders St which suggests to me that he lives in the eastern suburbs but actually we see his home later and it's in Yarra Central so who knows what he was up to, going places he shouldn't. 

Morrison tries to buy a second class ticket on the train and he's told they don't have those anymore. He was in prison for five years (which means he went in in 1967) and they stopped second class tickets (switched to 'economy') in March 1970.*

He goes to where he used to live, apparently it's Risley St, Richmond - that's not a guess. They're building something there, unclear what it is in the show, but it's clear now, it's a car park. 

Keith Eden, 1917-2003. I always like it when people born early in the 20th century get into the 21st. He is a great character actor, Crawfords had so many! I wonder if this was him... (Age 4 September 2000 p. 11). By the way, Bolte was dead 13 years by this time. 

 * 'No more second class: no it's economy' Melbourne Age 25 October 1969 p. 3

homicide ep 12 s 5, 'surprising what people can do' (and a bit of 'a nameless grave')

This is a very fine, tight, well-scripted, documentarily fascinating episode of Homicide first screened on 8 April 1975. Thrillingly it stars Hilda Scurr who I've discussed here before, as well as Peter Corbett. You don't need to know the various bits and pieces of the story, but here are some of the locations. 

Corbett's character is called Kenneth Cook. This is him (yes, he's just been shot in the arm, don't worry he's ok) in the car park of Coles New World. I am assuming this is the Coles in Swanston St (I may be wrong).  

Age 29 December 1972 p. 8. Presumably this is Coles' nice new (or at least nice newish and recalibrated for Coles) supermarket car park. It has other shops in it, which I can't quite imagine. 

I'm not sure where this is, I think I might be able to find it out. I also don't know who owned the car with the registration number KSN 968, sorry. 

This is Kenneth Cook standing in the car park of his block of flats, which today is known as Perry Palms (124 Perry St). He's looking towards 200 Hoddle St, which was at that time the HQ of Patterson Press. To the right of the picture is the huge Hoddle St Housing Commission complex, but the choice was made to omit this. 

2 and 4 Egan St Richmond, the Hilda Scurr character Frances Brown lives here. 

Egan st looking east. 

Hilda Scurr was brilliant. 

Bizarrely in the episode 'A Nameless Grave' (which aired two weeks later on 22 April) the Ds are in Egan St again - this time trying to visit Sheila Florence's character. 

Just above Dennis Grosvenor's head you can see 2 Egan St. I suppose they were all set up in Egan St so why not fit in a bit of extra filming. 

covid brain

So I think I was ok for a couple of weeks but now I am pretty sure my covid brain has come back, I have no idea what causes it but something is causing it. It made for a pretty weird day today because I went to have lunch with Alanna (that was an hour or so) then I wanted to go to the State Library and look at some things I had ordered a few days before relating to French Island and most particularly its nuclear power plant proposal from the 70s, which went nowhere, and so after leaving Gertrude St Fitzroy, I got on a tram to the city, having just missed an 86 I got a tram down Brunswick Road and for some reason missed the right tram stop and I was at Parliament station so I thought - well it's a bit of a waste of time but I'll get the train to Melbourne Central and then I'll be at the SLV, piss easy. Well. No trains from Parliament actually went to Melbourne Central this afternoon it would seem and instead I got on the wrong train, to Richmond (I ran for it, I didn't know where it was going but I hoped that since the train on platform 3 was going to Flinders st, the train on platform 4 would go the other direction. Not at all. It went to Richmond.) So then I had to get a train to Flinders Street, and then thought I would get a tram up Flinders Street, but there were no trams in Flinders Street, for no reason I could see. So I walked it. Finally I was there (if you think this is boring to read, imagine living it). Whatever I'd ordered at the SLV (I tried to access my SLV account on my computer but it wouldn't open) only three things were there. One of them was this:

...which looks great but was actually not a bit great (for my purposes). Whatever the story was of nuclear power on French Island, no-one seems to have done much of an investigation/narrative although really I have only looked in contemporary books/publications, other stuff not apparent. 

Then I decided to go home but that's when things got really like a bad dream, because I was sucked into Melbourne Central itself because I thought I'd just look at the free library but it was very light on and I got into an argument with two men there over this book: 

...and whether it was about Lacan or Hitchcock, and I said it was about Lacan, although what the fuck would I know, I just didn't think it was likely to be 'about' Hitchcock but either way I didn't want to talk about it. Then I was trying to get out but I ended up going into a pen store, and buying some stuff, that was silly and then I was just feeling super disoriented, and I finally managed to focus adequately to get the fuck out of there. I wonder if shopping mall sales are up due to covid. 

Here's Nancy having just had her dinner and contemplating the world outside. 

april 28-29 debrief part 1

Last night there was a party in Richmond. These pictures are a social documentary of it. New Estate played at it. It rained. Aftwerwards, The Tranquilizers at the Old Bar.