The Flying Doctors (1986–1994)

This series chronicles the events surrounding the activities of the Royal Flying Doctors Service, which operates its own aircraft -in this case from the base at Coopers Crossing, an ... See full summary »

Stars:

Lenore Smith, Robert Grubb, Maurie Fields

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Lenore Smith	...	Kate Wellings (172 episodes, 1986-1994)
Robert Grubb	...	Dr. Geoff Standish (155 episodes, 1986-1994)
Maurie Fields	...	Vic Buckley (149 episodes, 1986-1994)
Val Jellay	...	Nancy Buckley (110 episodes, 1986-1994)
George Kapiniaris	...	Dimitrios 'D.J.' Lonniadis (97 episodes, 1987-1994)
Peter O'Brien	...	Sam Patterson (76 episodes, 1987-1991)
Rebecca Gibney	...	Emma Plimpton (73 episodes, 1986-1991)

Storyline

This series chronicles the events surrounding the activities of the Royal Flying Doctors Service, which operates its own aircraft -in this case from the base at Coopers Crossing, an otherwise hardly notable town- to fly its medical staff throughout the Australian outback, where roads are too scarce and distances too immense to reach patients for medical care or get them to hospital by car in time. Doctors, nurses, pilots and base staff change throughout the seasons, often coming from the city and finding it difficult to adapt to life in the godforsaken countryside and be accepted by the isolated local community; there are of course the usual colleague stories. In most episodes they make one or more flights for routine medical examination sessions and/or emergency help, sometimes continued on board and/or in the hospital. Furthermore there are various sidelines, mainly concerning the local characters such as bar-owners Vic and Nancy, who also provide the only rooms, and some of their ...

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Plot Keywords:

medical | hospital | doctor | australia | child flying airplane | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Australia

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 May 1986 (Australia)

Also Known As:

De flyvende læger

Filming Locations:

Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia

Company Credits

Production Co:

Crawford Productions, Nine Network Australia

Technical Specs

Runtime:

50 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Maurie Fields and Val Jellay played husband and wife in this show. They were married in real life.

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Quotes

Dr. Tom Callaghan: Nothing ever changes out here, except the date.

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Connections

Follows The Flying Doctors (1985)

User Reviews

Forget Neighbours - this is the real 80s Aussie drama

Recent reruns of this well-acted and well-written drama from the mid-eighties have reminded me just how good 'The Flying Doctors' was. The key word for me is realism, maybe because the plotlines were based on actual RFDS (Royal Flying Doctor Service) cases, and checked for accuracy by the real Flying Docs. The acting was very believable, and the characters became like old friends. The publicans' wisdom of Vic, the pub landlord in Cooper's Crossing, still makes me laugh - true blue Australian humour. And I still cry every time I see the last episode from the first series, where the pilot dies, because he was one of my favourites. But each series had its bonuses - this show is very easy to dip into, as well as follow as a soap.