australian television information archive

Life in the old dog yet

Tom Croydon must never leave Mt Thomas. Let him spend the rest of his days floating from the station's front desk to his office with words of wisdom, but for the sake of Australia's most successful cop show don't let him retire.

Croydon, played by John Wood, is a senior sergeant who has dealt with the calamities of country crime through 10 years of Blue Heelers. Now, along with some of his more mature colleagues, he is probably about to face the greatest threat to his career—an attack by increasingly nervy television executives.

Nose to the ground, tail in the air and ever nipping at straying shins, he has been among the more reliable Heelers. Still, it's difficult not to see those young Seven Network pups around David Leckie yelping right now.

Seven's top-rating drama, which had been attracting 1.5 million viewers every week across Australia's five state capitals, has been getting a rare mauling. The chillingly cool Horatio Caine and CSI: Miami have shown viewers a livelier way to cut up crime.

The question now is whether Seven, with its fascination with that 18-to-39-year-old demographic, will panic. Will it try to fix something that ain't necessarily broke?

We have grown up watching and enjoying two types of police drama in Australia: the homely embrace of Cop Shop, Inspector Wyndham or NYPD Blue and the disturbing, gritty, no-holds-barred worlds of Young Lions, Cops or The Shield. It has been the softer, less realistic programs that have tended to rate and last longest.

Australian viewers, weaned perhaps on the Hector Crawford police shows Homicide, Division 4 and Matlock Police, prefer to feel certain of authority and their TV cops. We like them all to be a little more reasonable and polite than Andy Dalziel or Rebus.

Tom Croydon looks like he would never scratch anything vulgarly, or hit the bottle after midnight, but he will join the banter and buy his shout at the Imperial. He welcomes you cautiously into his domain and generally he seems to have the respect, trust and affection of the town's young constables.

Then there's Mt Thomas itself, a country town that reminds us of that older Australia, when we were young, when people left their doors unlocked and when we all apparently felt secure.

No wonder we need Senior Sergeant Croydon to stick around and assure us that with sensible precautions we can still be safe.

Croydon is not the only strength of Blue Heelers—it is a team performance and always has been. Two other original cast members are still with the show: Julie Nihill as the hotel keeper and mother to the community, and Martin Sacks as detective P. J. Hasham, a character the writers have come to enjoy finding twists for more often in recent series.

But wasn't it PJ we saw first? It was either PJ or Senior Constable Nick Schultz, played by the raw but impressive William McInnes, on highway patrol pulling over likely looking young ladies for a breath test.

PJ volunteered to deal with the next car and Nick tells him to, well, make sure she's not married this time, mate. It was our introduction to Constable Maggie Doyle, played by Lisa McCune, and before she flips out her police badge she plays PJ to a break.

That first Blue Heelers went to air on Tuesday, January 18, 1994, at 7.30pm. Also in the cast were Grant Bowler as Constable Wayne Patterson, who would came to a grim end in the 8.30pm timeslot a couple of seasons on, and Ann Burbrook, who played his wife.

Along the way were Tasma Walton as Dash McInley, Damian Walshe-Howling as Adam Cooper, Rupert Reid as Jack Lawson, Caroline Craig as Tess Gallagher, Neil Pigot as Russell Falcon-Price, Ditch Davey as Evan Jones, Jane Allsop as Jo Parrish, and Paul Bishop as Ben Stewart.

Guest stars over the years have included Hugh Jackman, Kerry Armstrong, Shane Bourne, Michael Caton, Alan Dale, Ernie Dingo, Paul Mercurio, Shaun Micallef, Terry Norris, Charles "Bud" Tingwell and David Wenham.

This week's double-episode wrap-up of the 10th year of Blue Heelers gives new arrival Susie, played by Simone McAullay, the chance to make an early impression in scenes that would never have been considered a decade ago.

And will Heelers still be around 10 years from now? The Bill has lasted 20 years and Coronation Street more than 40.

So who knows—as the wise country policeman says, "Even good coppers make mistakes." Seven moved the show to its present Wednesday-night timeslot in March 1998. The last big foolish risk it took with it was letting Maggie Doyle wander off. Still, best keep an eye on Tom.

Blue Heelers screens on Wednesday at 8.30pm on Channel Seven.

By Brian Courtis
November 20, 2003
The Age