''Cop Shop'' is a long-running Australian

police drama The police procedural, police show, or police crime drama is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasises the investigative procedure of police officers, police detectives, or law enforcement agencies as the protagonists, as ...

television series produced by

Crawford Productions Crawford Productions is an Australian Media (communication), media production company, focused on radio and television production. Founded in Melbourne by Hector Crawford and his sister, actress and voice artist Dorothy Crawford, the company, a ...

that ran for seven seasons between 28 November 1977 and 23 July 1984. It comprised 582 one-hour episodes.

Synopsis

The show revolved around the everyday operations of both the uniformed police officers and the plainclothes detectives of the fictional Riverside Police Station. It also took a significant interest in the private lives of the characters. While many Crawford Productions police dramas combined videotaped interiors with location footage shot on

16mm 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 mm and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, ...

film, ''Cop Shop'' was shot entirely on video, including external scenes. Two one-hour episodes were broadcast each week and featured a specific police investigation and a guest cast whose stories formed a self-contained narrative block. Alongside this the ongoing narratives of the regular characters continued in longer, more open-ended

soap opera A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...

-style story threads. This same soap opera-drama series hybrid format was also used in the series '' Skyways'', '' A Country Practice'' and '' Carson's Law''. After a run of six years, the show completed taping its last episode on 22 December 1983 and the final episodes were screened in the first half of 1984.

Awards

''Cop Shop'' won many awards including

Logie Awards The TV Week Logie Awards (known colloquially as The Logies) is an annual ceremony celebrating and honouring the best shows and stars in Australian television, sponsored and organised by the magazine ''TV Week''. The event is telecast live and ...

for most popular series and most popular actors, with Peter Adams and Paula Duncan winning multiple times. The show also won a number of other industry awards."Cop Shop"
''Australian Screen''. Retrieved 10 September 2013.

Cast

During its long run, many of Australia's new and established actors appeared in the show. * Peter Adams as Det Jeffrey 'JJ' Johnson *

Tony Bonner Anthony Frederick Bonner (born 23 November 1943) is an Australian television, film, and stage actor and singer. Bonner became famous in the 1960s children's television series ''Skippy the Bush Kangaroo'', later moving on to lead roles in th ...

as Det Snr Const Don McKenna * Liz Burch as Liz Cameron * Andrew Clarke as Max Saunders / Mervyn Young * Terence Donovan as Det Sgt Vic Cameron * Paula Duncan as Det Const Danni Francis * Nicholas Eadie as Const Sam Phillips * Alan Fletcher as Const Frank Rossi * Billie Hammerberg as Insp Joyce Stratton *

Alwyn Kurts Alwyn Cecil Kurts (28 October 1915 – 4 May 2000) was an Australian drama and comedy actor of radio, television and film, best remembered for his role as gruff Inspector Colin Fox in the TV series ''Homicide''. Biography Kurts' father, Donal ...

as Sgt Reg Wallis * John Lee as Insp Ian Timms * Joanna Lockwood as Valerie Johnson * John McTernan as Sgt Tom Shannon * George Mallaby as Det Snr Sgt Glen Taylor * Terry Norris as Sgt Eric O'Reilly * John Orcsik as Det Mike Georgiou *Louise Philip as Claire O'Reilly *Gregory Ross as Const Tony Benjamin * Bill Stalker as Det Sgt Peter Fanelli (previously appeared as Fanelli in '' Skyways'') * Lynda Stoner as Const Amanda King *Olga Tamara as Det Const Julie Mitchell * Gil Tucker as Const Roy Baker *

Rowena Wallace Rowena Wallace (born 23 August 1947) is an English-born Australian stage and screen actress, most especially in the genre of television soap opera. She is best known for her Gold Logie-winning role as conniving Patricia "Pat the Rat" Hamilton/ ...

as Pamela Taylor * John Walton as Terry Linford Jones / Tom McNamara * Patrick Ward as Const Peter Fleming * Diane Craig as Alison Finlay / Eve Kadar (29 episodes) * Lisa Armytage as Jennifer Grant (12 episodes) * Scott McGregor as Constable Stephen Waters (7 episodes)

DVD releases

The series has been released exclusive to DVD in 22 Volumes

Broadcast

''Cop Shop'' was originally screened in a twice weekly format on Monday and Thursdays at 20.30 in Sydney and Melbourne. At various stages of the series each city was either a week ahead or behind the other or at the same stage. Later the series changed nights in Sydney to Wednesdays and Thursdays and then Thursdays and Fridays. It was eventually screened as a two-hour weekly block in both cities on Mondays in Melbourne and Thursdays (later Saturdays) in Sydney. The final 36 episodes screened in a late night 23.30 slot in Sydney on weeknights from Monday 26 November 1984. ''Cop Shop'' aired briefly during 1989 on the UK-based, pan-European satellite TV channel, Lifestyle. It aired during the afternoon along with another Crawfords Production, '' Skyways''.

Producers and directors

* Hector Crawford – Executive Producer *Ian Crawford – Executive Producer *Ian Crawford – Producer *Terry Stapleton – Producer *Marie Trevor – Producer *Philip East – Director * Charles "Bud" Tingwell – Director *Sean Nash – Director

References

External links

Crawford Productions

* {{IMDb title, id=0082201, title=Cop Shop
Cop Shop at the National Film and Sound Archive''Cop Shop'' – Ep 485
at

Australian Screen Online The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting, and providing access to a national c ...

Australian television soap operas 1970s Australian drama television series 1970s Australian crime television series Seven Network original programming 1977 Australian television series debuts 1984 Australian television series endings Television shows set in Melbourne Television series by Crawford Productions 1980s Australian drama television series 1980s Australian crime television series