Alan Cassell

Blue Heelers was one of Australia's longest running weekly television drama series. Blue Heelers is a police drama series set in the fictional country town of Mount Thomas. Under the watchful eye of Tom Croydon (John Wood), the men and women of Mount Thomas Police Station fight crime, resolve disputes and tackle the social issues of the day. We watch their successes and their failures and learn to grow with them and their loved ones as the heart of the series develops.

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Bony is an Australian television series made in 1992. The series of 13 episodes followed on from a telemovie made in 1990. The series was criticised for casting a white man (Cameron Daddo) as the title character Detective David John Bonaparte, under the tutelage of "Uncle Albert", an elderly Aborigine (Burnham Burnham). Bony was supposed to be a descendent of the Bony character created by Arthur Upfield in dozens of novels from the late 1920s until his death in 1964.

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The Power, The Passion is an Australian television daytime soap opera produced by the Seven Network in 1989. The series was devised to lure audiences away from American imports such as The Bold and the Beautiful and The Young and the Restless but failed to make an impact and was cancelled due to low ratings after 168 episodes. The cast included Kevin Miles, Olivia Hamnett, Ian Rawlings, Danny Roberts, Jill Forster, George Mallaby, Nick Carrafa, Allan Cassell, Ross Thompson, Jane Clifton, Jon Finlayson and Julian McMahon in his TV debut.

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For two brilliant young athletes - Roger Bannister of England and John Landy of Australia - the 1952 Helsinki Olympics present an exciting challenge. But events help set them on the path to something even more memorable than an Olympic gold medal - the race to break the four-minute mile....

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Mission: Impossible is an American television series that chronicles the missions of a team of secret American government agents known as the Impossible Missions Force. The show is a revival of the 1966 TV series of the same name. The only actor to return for the series as a regular cast member was Peter Graves who played Jim Phelps, although two other cast members from the original series returned as guest stars. The only other regular cast member to return for every episode was the voice of "The Tape", Bob Johnson.

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16 year old Australian girl Belinda (Deanne Jeffs) wants to become a ballerina. To makes ends meet, she takes a job as an exotic dancer in a Sydney cabaret. Eventually, she is able to reach her goal, but not before experiencing humanity at best and worst of times.

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Kate McLelland's life is a normal one of a girl her age in the eastern suburbs, until her discovery that she is adopted. This is the story of her search for her natural mother and the resulting relationship.

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The trials and tribulations of the Goddard family after the entry of Australia into the Vietnam War.

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Rafferty's Rules was an Australian television drama series which ran from 1987 to 1990 on the Seven Network. Rafferty's Rules was one of the first programs undertaken by the Seven Network's then new in-house drama unit, going into production in May 1985 as "a 15-part courtroom drama". The program had started out as a pilot episode, recorded in early 1984 with the actor Chris Haywood in the lead role. When the pilot episode was remounted later in 1984, Chris Haywood wasn't available and the lead role was re-cast to John Wood. This second recording was eventually broadcast as the program's first episode.

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The Flying Doctors is an Australian drama series produced by Crawford Productions that revolved around the everyday lifesaving efforts of the real Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia. It was initially a 1985 mini-series based in the fictional outback town of Cooper's Crossing starring Andrew McFarlane as the newly arrived Dr. Tom Callaghan. The success of the mini series led to its return the following year as an on-going series with McFarlane being joined by a new doctor, Chris Randall, played by Liz Burch. McFarlane left during the first season and actor Robert Grubb came in as new doctor Geoff Standish. The series' episodes were mostly self-contained but also featured ongoing storylines, such as Dr. Standish's romance with Sister Kate Wellings. Other major characters included pilot Sam Patterson, mechanic Emma Plimpton, local policeman Sgt. Jack Carruthers and Vic and Nancy Buckley, who ran the local pub/hotel, The Majestic. Andrew McFarlane also later returned to the series, resuming his role as Dr. Callaghan. The popular series ran for nine seasons and was successfully screened internationally.

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A reporter looking into the death of a research scientist finds more deaths connected to the man, including some dubious "suicides". He discovers that the scientist may have been killed to cover up a secret government plot concerning mind-control drugs that have been tested on unknowing civilians, and he becomes involved with the scientist's daughter, who is trying to clear her father's name.

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Teenager Ernie lives with his alcoholic father in the harsh and lawless opal fields of Coober Pedy in outback South Australia. When his cache of precious opals is stolen, Ernie and his best friend are determined to find the thief.

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Special Squad was an Australian television series m The series focused on an elite division of the Victoria Police, which handled crimes either too sensitive or specialist for regular squads. The Special Squad was headed by Det. Insp. Don Anderson, with his main operatives being Det. Snr. Sgt. Greg Smith, and Det. Sgt. Joel Davis.

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Down-on-their-luck drifters Kearney and Martin wander into the small town of Cedar Creek looking to swindle a few pounds from the locals. After a not-too-friendly reception, the pair decide to move into an abandoned shack on the outskirts of town. They are soon joined in their new home by Joycie, another town outcast with a shady past. While the three manage to start a rather happy life together, they soon find that others in the town strongly disapprove of their living arrangements.

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This Australian crime drama chronicles the life of notorious, keen witted, acid tongued 1920s Melbourne gangster Squizzy Taylor. Wormy and diminutive, yet cunning and determined small-time hoodlum Squizzy Taylor rises to prominence and popularity in Melbourne, Australia in the 1920's. Squizzy romances brash moll Dolly and works for bookie Henry Stokes before branching out on his own while being hounded by the police and courted by the press the whole time.

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A slightly disturbed young amateur photographer finds that his father has been secretly having an affair with his co-worker. Thus begins a spiral into blackmail, stalking, and voyeurism.

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Sara Dane is a 1982 Australian television miniseries about a woman transported from England to Australia for a crime she did not commit.

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After a highly successful raid on Singapore Harbour, soldiers of Z Special Unit lead a new expedition in Singapore, with disastrous results.

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Two teenage surf chicks from the southern suburbs of Sydney ingratiate themselves with a new group of boys.

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The club buys a talented young player, Geoff, for a record sum of money. The team members do not like their new star and friction develops immediately. Game after game is lost until Geoff begins to realize that there is more at stake than just his own career.

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During the Boer War, three Australian lieutenants are on trial for shooting Boer prisoners. Though they acted under orders, they are being used as scapegoats by the General Staff, who hopes to distance themselves from the irregular practices of the war. The trial does not progress as smoothly as expected by the General Staff, as the defence puts up a strong fight in the courtroom.

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Up-and-coming senator Nick Rast's young son is terminally ill with leukemia. A mysterious faith healer, Gregory Wolfe, appears and seems to cure the boy. Rast's wife Sandy falls in love with Wolfe, but the powerful interests behind Rast's career, represented by geriatric monster Doc Wheelan are less happy with events.

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Cathy Baikas is a woman of Greek heritage who lives in Sydney, Australia with her three-year-old daughter. When her daughter's father kidnaps the child and takes her back to Greece, Cathy discovers the authorities can do little to help her. She turns to the media. The editor of a major daily newspaper proves sympathetic to Cathy's problem and begins giving her case press coverage. The film is based on a true story.

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A group of crooks plan a heist to steal twenty million dollars from a Security Firm counting house.

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John Brandy is an ex-cop on holiday in Singapore with his girlfriend Ginger when he hears an old Perth banker friend of his, Frank Newman, has committed suicide. He travels to Perth and discovers that Newman killed himself after being drugged at a party and found himself in a pornographic film; he was blackmailed and embezzled money to pay off his tormentors, but when the film was distributed anyway he decided to take his own life. Newman and Ginger decide to investigate who is behind the blackmail racket.

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A sleazy private detective named Horatio Plugg is hired to keep watch over a brothel. Inspector Closer is onto him though.

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