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Sleuth 101
Who doesn’t love a good “whodunnit?”
Mysteries underpin all our procedural dramas. The key ingredients -set up, victims, suspects, red herrings, motives, detection, re-evaluation, revelation- always become writers’ breadcrumbs astutely placed along a plotline.
But it’s been many years since the “whodunnit” made an appearance in a television game show. Ian McFadyen’s Cluedo aired in 1992 on Nine, and the UK’s 1970s series Whodunnit? was an early classic.
The ABC, which has a huge track record in UK crime dramas, improvises with the magnifying glass for the mystery-comedy series, Sleuth 101.
Hosted by comedian Cal …
Vale: Lynn Bayonas
Australian Producer and Writer Lynn Bayonas has died, following a long battle with cancer.
Bayonas was Producer of children’s series The Saddle Club for Crawford Productions from 2001 – 2008 after a six year stint as a writer in Hollywood on Sunset Beach and Prime Time (US).
Screen Hub notes she started in the industry almost by accident, as a young Australian in London in the 1960’s, who became Orson Welles’ assistant, where she learnt the art of screen storytelling.
A 2002 profile in The Age notes Welles taught her about flexibility in storytelling, …
Vale: Monica Maughan
Respected actress Monica Maughan, best known for her television work in Prisoner, has died in Melbourne.
She also won an AFI and Logie award for her work in The Damnation Of Harvey McHugh, played Nana Scott to a young Graham Kennedy in The King, and appeared in numerous Australian productions including The Librarians, MDA, Blue Heelers, Crackerjack, Halifax FP, The Genie from Down Under, The Gillies Report, The Flying Doctors, Come in Spinner, Coln Carpenter, The Box, Matlock Police and Homicide.
Her performance in Nightmares and Dreamscapes “Crouch End” aired on Wednesday …
Farewell to ‘Bud’
At 10:30am today at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne, family, friends, colleagues and dignitaries will farewell actor Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell in a State Funeral.
86 year old Tingwell died in hospital last Friday after a battle with prostate cancer, his son Christopher and daughter Virginia were by his side.
So beloved was the veteran star that mourners have had to arrange reserve seating and be seated by 10am. Many more are expected to overflow outside the cathedral.
Tingwell made more than 140 film and television appearances across seven decades including such works as The …
Very Young Lions
Just a few years ago smooth suited Aussie detectives were all the rage on telly, but unlike City Homicide, they couldn’t seem to find an audience. Maybe we were all too distracted by reality TV at the time. Or possibly Marshall Law (kidding).
One such show, 2002’s The Young Lions, is about to get a rerun on 9HD.
The series based around the professional and private lives of four rookie detectives, starred Alex Dimitriades, Alexandra Davies, Tom Long, Anna Lise Phillips, Penny Cook as a Chief Inspector (years before Noni Hazlehurst met ‘Bernice …
End of an era
When Ian Smith’s final appearance as Harold Bishop airs tomorrow on Neighbours it brings to a close over 20 years’ association with the show.
Ironically it airs 30 years to the day that Prisoner first screened on Australian television. Smith had been acting on the other Grundy production prior to assuming the role of the now-legendary Bishop.
Both shows were created by writer Reg Watson.
“The day that we made the last episode (of Prisoner) Reg Watson came to me and asked me if I’d be interested in a stint in this new show …
Vale: Reg Evans
The Herald Sun has noted the death of character actor Reg Evans, 80, in Victorian bushfires.
An English migrant, Evans was born in 1928, started in television in 1964 on Consider Your Verdict, and worked on many Australian series: Skippy, Division Four, Matlock Police, Power Without Glory, Homicide, The Sullivans, Skyways, Are You Being Served, Prisoner, The Flying Doctors, Snowy River, MDA, Seachange, Something in the Air and Blue Heelers.
His film career includes Mad Dog Morgan, Mad Max, Manganinnie, Women of the Sun, Gallipoli, Kitty and the Bagman, Strikebound, Evil Angels, …
Vale: Ernie Bourne
Character actor Ernie Bourne, best known as ‘Fester Fumble’ in the ABC children’s show Adventure Island, has died, aged 82.
Bourne was an all-round performer appearing in television, stage and film.
Television audiences saw him appear in Blue Heelers, Thunderstone, and Good Guys, Bad Guys. He played the ongoing role of Mervin Pringle in Prisoner (pictured), and played the role of Rob Lewis in Neighbours. His CV includes a string of classic Australian shows including Homicide, Matlock Police, Division 4, Cash & Company, Bluey, Cop Shop and Carson’s Law.
In 1967 Mr Bourne appeared …
Stars to celebrate Prisoner
Next month marks the 30th anniversary of Prisoner airing on the O-TEN Network.
The iconic television soap hit the airwaves on February 27th 1979, a milestone that will be marked with a reunion and party on the hallowed grounds of Wentworth Detention Centre, hosted by Val Lehman (Bea Smith) on Sunday February 22nd.
And Prisoner will also feature in a unique event at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne next month when it celebrates the career of actress Jude Kuring.
Kuring, played the infamous role of thug Noeline Bourke in the …