Classic Aussie drama for August

Crawford Productions have just released the latest DVD box set of Cop Shop.

The action continues in Cop Shop.

In this volume, the law enforcers of Riverside Police Station clamp down on a gang of teenage hoodlums who are terrorising the elderly residents of a block of flats, and a prostitute makes the fatal mistake of trying to rip-off her place of employment. A car park attendant starts burgling the homes of his customers, and a crooked charity collector fleeces several of the boys in blue.

A heavily armed psychopath goes on a shooting spree to clear the streets of the people he perceives to be scum, and a knife wielding weirdo dubbed the Riverside Ripper begins targeting the former prostitutes that live in a halfway house. A stand-over merchant starts firebombing nightclubs which refuse to pay for protection, and Detective Sergeant Jeff Johnson (Peter Adams) returns from America to help clamp down on an international drug cartel which has brought junkies and pushers into the district.

Detective Tom Shannon (John McTernan) is gunned down whilst investigating a restaurant chain which is running a counterfeit money laundering racket, and Detective Mike Georgiou (John Orcsik) is left facing a murder charge when a conniving teenage girl starts making a nuisance of herself. Meanwhile romance could be on the cards for Detective Senior Sergeant Peter Fanelli (Bill Stalker) when he meets Yvonne Holmes (Annette Andre) and her wayward son.

Familiar faces appearing in these episodes include Ian Smith from Neighbours; Anna Hruby and Debra Lawrance from Home & Away; Cornelia Frances, Ric Herbert and Peta Toppano from The Young Doctors; Maggie Kirkpatrick from Prisoner; Brian Blain, Andrew Clarke and Stephen Comey from Sons & Daughters; Barry Creyton from The Mavis Bramston Show; Queenie Ashton from Blue Hills; Michael Caton and Andrew McFarlane from The Sullivans; Joe Hasham and Bunney Brooke from Number 96; and Lenore Smith and Terry Gill from The Flying Doctors.

Those of you that are based in Australasia can order Cop Shop Volume 14 from Crawfords DVD. https://crawfordsdvd.com.au/ Fans who are based in the UK or anywhere else in the world can place their orders with Eaton Films.  https://shop.eatonfilms.co.uk/

Via Vision Entertainment will be re-issuing episodes 533-666 of A Country Practice on DVD on the 18th August.

In these instalments the residents of Wandin Valley are up in arms when councillor Alf Muldoon (Brian Moll) hatches a plot to develop a local beauty spot. Wedding bells toll for doctors Terence Elliott (Shane Porteous) and Alex Fraser (Diane Smith), but heartache and tragedy are waiting in the wings for the newlyweds when Terence’s junkie daughter blows back into town and when Alex gives birth to a child which will die shortly after birth.

Return to Wandin Valley on DVD.

Esme Watson (Joyce Jacobs) is convinced that an alien has arrived in the district following a UFO sighting, and Cookie (Syd Heylen) has hopes for a big win on the horses when plumber Bob Hatfield (Gordon Piper) develops clairvoyant powers.

Jo Loveday (Josephine Mitchell) is horrified to discover that she’s living with a drug pusher, Matron Maggie Sloane (Joan Sydney) suffers a heart attack whilst trying to save the bush nursing hospital from closure, and park ranger Cathy Hayden (Kate Raison) is accused of being involved in a sickening native bird smuggling racket. Elsewhere a locum doctor is exposed as being a pethidine addict, and vet Matt Tyler (John Tarrant) is left homeless when his caravan burns to the ground.

Familiar faces appearing in these episodes include Elaine Smith, Terence Donovan and Geoff Paine from Neighbours; Lyn Collingwood from Home & Away; Louise Howitt, James Condon, Kit Taylor, Julie Nihill, and Willie Fennell from The Young Doctors; Greg Bepper from Class of 74;

Antonia Murphy, Kim Lewis, Sarah Kemp and Noel Hodda from Sons & Daughters; Elaine Lee from Number 96; Les Dayman and Toni Pearen from E Street; Vincent Ball from Crossroads; Lois Ramsay from The Box; Michael Caton and Gerry Duggan from The Sullivans; and June Salter from The Restless Years. Other cropping up in the action include Gary Sweet, Georgie Sterling, and Smokey Dawson.

Viewers worldwide can pre-order A Country Practice: Collection Five now from the Via Vision website. https://viavision.com.au/

The hunt is on for a fortune in Woman of Secrets.

Grace Gibson Productions have released another batch of vintage radio serials from their archives. In Woman of Secrets we meet detective writer Lorraine Clifford (Margo Lee) who finds herself acquainted with merciless crime boss Bart Noland (Kerry Frances), they become unlikely bedfellows in the hunt for her late fathers will which could lead to a huge fortune. The all-star cast includes Thelma Scott from Number 96, Don Pascoe and Walter Pym.

More shady characters are pursued in Spiral Ten.

In volume 2 of Spiral Ten private detectives Frank Connor and Joe Muntz take on more risky cases from their office in Sydney’s colourful King’s Cross district, and the latest release of the political satire How Green Was My Cactus deals with Tony in Japan, The Black Wiggle and Gazza’s Home Olympics.

All of these radio serials can be purchased by listeners worldwide on CD, USB or as digital downloads from the Grace Gibson website. https://gracegibsonradio.com/

Photographs © Crawford Productions/WIN/Eaton Films. JNP/Via Vision Entertainment. IRS Grace Gibson Productions.