More classic Aussie drama for you
Cop Shop fans will be pleased to learn that the 21st DVD box set of the series is now available to purchase.
Unfortunately, episode 530 is missing from the archives but a detailed summary is given for this missing edition. If you think you might have a copy of this episode, please email me and I’ll pass your details on to Crawford Productions who are keen to recover it.
In this box set Senior Sergeant Eric O’Reilly (Terry Norris) returns to Riverside Police Station after becoming bored with retirement and resumes control of the charge counter when Reg Wallis (Alwyn Kurts) retires from the force. There are wedding bells for detectives Mike Georgiou (John Orcsik) and Danni Francis (Paula Duncan), and the pitter-patter of tiny feet will soon be on the cards.
Meanwhile, Constable Frank Rossi (Alan Fletcher) struggles to cope with the pressures of police work and almost takes a swing at a drunken 18-year-old. Detective Tony Benjamin (Gregory Ross) has a supercrim in his sights but an insider with a morphine addiction attempts to sabotage the investigation by leaking information and tampering with police evidence.
Mike Georgiou is brutally bashed when he goes undercover amongst a group of bikies, and Constable Roy Baker (Gil Tucker) is flabbergasted to learn that his dead father Alf (John Ewart) is alive and well. When a sculptor moves into the same apartment block as Detective Amanda King (Lynda Stoner) she begins to suspect that he could be a deviant that uses chloroform in his sexual assaults but has she got the wrong man in her sights?
Left: Mike Georgiou (John Orcsik) and Danni Francis (Paula Duncan) tie the knot in Cop Shop. Right: Detective Tony Benjamin (Gregory Ross) has a supercrim in his sights.
A pyromaniac dubbed the Mount Baxter Fire Bug kills two cleaners when he causes an explosion at a shopping centre. When a young couple moves into their new home, they find the serenity of country life is shattered when they are terrorised by a mysterious man who is after his ill-gotten gains. A 16-year-old girl who is struggling to get through her HSC turns to drugs, an illegal Greek immigrant witnesses a murder, and a middle-aged kleptomaniac can’t resist stealing her weekly supermarket shopping. A husband attempts to murder his wealthy wife so that he can shoot through with his floozy, and a bogus employment agency is acting as a front for a passport racket.
Across town a struggling vacuum cleaner salesman who is leading a double life as a bigamist is forced to turn to crime to support his two families, and a clairvoyant begins having visions of a series of murders in which young female hitchhikers are knifed to death. Things go bad for a prison educational officer when she becomes romantically involved with an inmate, and a mother takes drastic action when her young daughter is brutally molested and murdered by a pervert.
Familiar faces appearing in these episodes include Richard Meikle, James Condon and Julia Peters from The Young Doctors; Belinda Giblin and Sean Scully from Sons & Daughters; Fiona Spence and Carol Burns from Prisoner: Cell Block H; Bunney Brooke from Number 96; Stefan Dennis from Neighbours; Frank Lloyd from Home & Away; Terry Gill from The Flying Doctors; Natalie Raine from Matlock Police; Norman Yemm from The Sullivans; and Briony Behets from The Box.
Those of you that are based in Australasia can order Cop Shop Volume 21 from Crawfords DVD. Fans that live in the UK or anywhere else in the world can place their orders with Eaton Films.
Via Vision Entertainment have re-issued the final two seasons of A Country Practice on DVD.
In these concluding episodes of the long-running saga Frank Gilroy (Brian Wenzel) dreams of becoming the first mayor of Wandin Valley, town gossip Esme Watson (Joyce Jacobs) suffers a stroke, and Bernice Hudson (Judith McGrath) is diagnosed with cervical cancer. Perce Hudson (Allan Penney) has trouble with his prostate, and there are wedding bells in the air for Dr Terence Elliott (Shane Porteous) and Matron Rosemary Prior (Maureen Edwards).
Meanwhile, a terrifying bushfire rages through the valley leaving death and destruction in its wake. As the townsfolk begin rebuilding their shattered lives Matron Maggie Sloane (Joan Sydney) is charged with overseeing the construction of the new Community Health Centre.
Left: Esme Watson (Joyce Jacobs) fights for her life. Right: Former copper Frank Gilroy (Brian Wenzel) is after a new challenge.
Dr Harry Morrison (Andrew Blackman) is shocked to discover that his wife Kate (Michelle Pettigrove) intends to divorce him, and ranger Ian McIntyre (Paul Gleeson) uncovers a sickening dogfighting racket in the national park. Constable Danny Sabatini (Vince Colosimo) is accused of bashing a drunken hoon, and there is cause for concern when toxic waste is found dumped in the district. Farmers fear for their livelihoods when there’s a suspected outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, and a married man suffers a heart attack after checking into a motel room with his homosexual lover.
Familiar faces appearing in these episodes include Raina McKeon and Noel Trevarthen from The Young Doctors; Vincent Ball from Crossroads; Peter Phelps, Sean Scully and Alyce Platt from Sons & Daughters; Elaine Lee and Bunney Brooke from Number 96; Moya O’Sullivan, Rebekah Elmaloglou, Andrew Bibby, Geoff Paine, Darius Perkins and Delta Goodrem from Neighbours; Michael Caton from The Sullivans; Anna Hruby from Home & Away; Tim Elston from Richmond Hill; Jane Hall from All Together Now; Terry Gill from The Flying Doctors; and Kris McQuade from Wentworth. Others cropping up in the action include Colleen Clifford, Noel Ferrier, and Frankie J. Holden.
You can order A Country Practice: Collection Eight from the Via Vision website.
Spooky Tales..
If you are after some suitable entertainment for Halloween then the classic radio serial Mostly Ghostly should hit the spot. Produced in 1960, this series of short ghostly tales voiced by Moray Powell will have you quaking in your boots.
Left: The classic radio serial Mostly Ghostly is ideal entertainment for Halloween. Right: Moray Powell stars in Mostly Ghostly.
You can order the series on CD, USB or as a digital download from the website of Grace Gibson Productions.
Photos copyright. Crawford Productions/WIN/Eaton Films. JNP/Via Vision Entertainment. IRS Grace Gibson Productions.
