"Homicide" (1964) TV series 1964-1976

Director:

Colin Eggleston

Writer:

Lynn Bayonas (writer)

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

20 October 1964 (Australia)

Genre:

Action | Drama

Plot Keywords:

Australia | Police | One Word Title

Awards:

10 wins

Cast

Leonard Teale	...	Det. Sgt. David Mackay / ... (357 episodes, 1965-1974)
George Mallaby	...	Det. Sgt. Peter Barnes / ... (267 episodes, 1966-1974)
John Fegan	...	Insp. Jack Connolly (205 episodes, 1964-1969)
Alwyn Kurts	...	Insp. Colin Fox / ... (184 episodes, 1968-1974)

Runtime:

50 min (509 episodes)

Country:

Australia

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White (1964-1971) | Color (1972-)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Channel 10 Studios, Nunawading, Victoria, Australia

Company:

7 Network

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Removalists (1975)

One of Australia's earliest and best television series

This was one of my very first recollections of an Australian television series. It was a police drama involving elegant dressed detectives, stationed in the city headquarters,investigating serious crimes (mainly murders), which is probably where it gets the name "HOMICIDE". The first pilot to the series was debut before I was born back in 1964, hence I cannot comment on what I haven't seen. I recall later episodes and when I heard the opening score (being a well composed classic) at a much later age, it rang a bell to when I was probably four or five years old. Firstly, it was made on a shoe string budget and I later discovered that most of the actors also played their own stunts. It has a blend of great Australian actors and most of them would later be noticed on other Australian television.

What made this television series special in my humble opinion, is recalling that most of the episodes that I saw were all urban based, being something very very rare for Australian television, as most of Australian television is always based on the outback, unfairly giving an international image of Australians as only rural in nature (hoping not to offend anyone here). This is one feature of Australian television that really annoys me, and the portraying of a one sided image of Australian life does not do Australian culture much justice, especially, ignoring the fact that there are also skyscrapers and densely populated cities. The series "HOMICIDE" did try to fill in this Australian picture. By the same token, anyone who enjoyed this series would also enjoy the rural counterpart "MATLOCK POLICE", being in my humble opinion the rural equivalent of 'HOMICIDE" - and also amongst Australia's very best television. This would have to be amongst Australia's earliest and sadly the very best of Australian television series.