Set in 1959 with rock and roll entering the small town of Ballarat. Dr Lucien Blake (Craig McLachlan) is an world war 2 veteran and an ex prisoner of war in the far east.
Blake has returned to Ballarat to take over his late father's medical practice and also become the local police surgeon.
His first case is that of Ann Fitzgerald, a pregnant teenager who resided at the reform school. Her body was found in the lake but she Blake believes that she was run over.
The first suspect is teacher who might have made Ann pregnant, he also sells amphetamines to the local teens.
In reality a small sleepy Australian town in the 1950s was probably more backward than Ballarat.
Rock n Roll likely arrived in towns like Ballarat just before Mad Max was released in 1979. If you think I exaggerate even in the 1970s, Aboriginal Australians were classed as other fauna and flora rather than human beings.
So I will cut it some revisionist slack. Blake has a modern attitude which might be shaped by his wartime experience. After all Dystopian novelist and doctor, JG Ballard also grew up in prisoner of war camp.
Ballarat is full of stuffy and conservative men and women. Ann was looked down at for being a reform school girl. A larrikin type. Maybe an illicit love affair was a clue to her murder.
The first episode was a slog. Too much time with Blake being insufferable over a nude painting in a gentleman's club. I get it he is a maverick in a townful of wowsers.
In the end Blake has his suspect but no proof. Instead of police evidence, it is that old faithful, a full confession that clears up the mystery.