1964-1976Created by Hector and Dorothy Crawford, Homicide was based on their successful radio serial D24 [known as C.I.B. outside Melbourne] and American cop shows like Dragnet and Naked City. The Crawfords touted the pilot around Australian television stations for over a year before HSV 7 in Melbourne decided to run with it. It was a risk that paid off. Not only was Homicide a long-running hit which employed most of Australia’s top actors in a rather barren era, but other television stations asked Crawfords to produce shows for them. These include Hunter, Division 4, Matlock Police, The Sullivans and The Flying Doctors.
O.K., let’s go back to October 1964. Menzies is in the Lodge. New Zealanders Dinah Lee and Ray Columbus are spreading the word of mod to Australian teenagers (Yeah-Yeah Yeah-Yeah!). 20 year old men are being called into National Service. A gangland war has broken out in Sydney. Ian ‘Turps’ Turpie is about to rob a bank...
1. The Stunt 20 October 1964 First episode of Melbourne-produced drama series tracing the work of three detectives from Russell Street Police Headquarters. In a mock raid on a bank by a group of university students one of the young “gangsters” is armed with a toy revolver, but the lighthearted rag ends in tragedy.
Cast
Detective Bronson...Terry McDermott
Detective Fraser...Lex Mitchell
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Guests
Ian ‘Turps’ Turpie, Gordon Glenwright, Susan Haworth, Lawrence Beck and John Derum.
Available on video: Homicide 30 Years On, Visual Entertainment Group, VEG 003, 1994.
‘Melbourne Challenge to TV Detective Imports.
The first Australian-made one-hour crime detection series will be launched from HSV-7 at 7.30 p.m., Tuesday, October 20, with the blessing of the Victorian Police Department.
Entitled Homicide, the series will run initially for 13 programmes, each of which will be based on a crime history from police files.
Inspector F. W. Woonton, of Police Public Relations, said the department was proud to co-operate with the producers and make available all the “props” it could for the series.
He added that it was good to see actors in the series who look “so like real police”.
Homicide is produced by Crawford Productions. It is considered a bold venture into a field where smooth, sophisticated American crime series have excelled.
Crawford Productions were also responsible for the long-running courtroom series Consider Your Verdict.
The three regular stars in the series are modelled on members of the Victorian Police force who have to deal with an average of one murder a month.
They are: John Fegan, who appears as inspector Connolly, a seasoned police investigator and hard taskmaster.
Terry McDermott as Detective Sergeant Bronson, a strong, calculating detective, and the backbone of the team.
And, Lex Mitchell, as Detective Fraser, a brash, enthusiastic member of the force with a reputation for being a “ladies’ man”.
According to the publicity information the series presents the three detectives as they might exist in any major police headquarters in Australia.
“They are not the knock-down, drag out type of character so often portrayed in the theatre, or on the screen”.
“They are the father of a growing family; the fellow next door budgeting to pay off his double-fronted home, and the smartly dressed young man about town, whose plans include a sports car, a transistor and a beautiful girl”.
In the first edition of the series, entitled The Stunt, a group of high-spirited students stage a mock raid on a bank. But there’s a tragic “mistake”.
One of the bank guards isn’t warned that it is a stunt. When a student is shot the Homicide Squad move in.’
-The Age TV-Radio Guide, 15 October 1964, page 3. 2. Handful of Money 27 October 1964 A kindly old couple who run a milk bar in an inner suburb are found brutally murdered. A young man is charged with the crime but some doubts about his guilt complicate the issue and bring Bronson and Connolly into conflict.
Cast
Detective Bronson...Terry McDermott
Detective Fraser...Lex Mitchell
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Guests
Daphne Millar, Jack Capewell, Eric Coladetti and Marion Edward.
3. The Rosary
3 November 1964
For three days, a cottage in the Dandenong Ranges provides a perfect honeymoon hideaway. But then the young bride is murdered.
Cast
Detective Bronson...Terry McDermott
Detective Fraser...Lex Mitchell
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Guests
Lorna Forbes, Alethea Murphy, Ron Pinell and Don Pascoe.
4. The Knot
10 November 1964
The body of a young woman is found in a suburban park. No one comes forward to identify her and then a second tragedy occurs.
Cast
Detective Bronson...Terry McDermott
Detective Fraser...Lex Mitchell
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Guests
Robert McDarra, Kit Taylor, Stella Lamond and Madelaine Orr.
5. The Man in the Suede Jacket
17 November 1964
Mrs. Nancy Tate is kidnapped by two men and taken to a lonely spot in Donvale, where she is murdered. A mysterious eyewitness sees the shooting.
Cast
Detective Bronson...Terry McDermott
Detective Fraser...Lex Mitchell
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Guests
Eve Hardwicke, Raymond Wheeler, Douglas Kelly, Felicity Young and Bill Lewis.
6. Aunt Sally
24 November 1964
Two masked men hold up a factory, shoot a clerk and steal the £10,000 payroll.
Cast
Detective Bronson...Terry McDermott
Detective Fraser...Lex Mitchell
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Guests
Clifford Neate, Al Mack, Dawn Klingberg and Peter Drake.
7. The Scent of Death
1 December 1964
Homicide detectives assist in the search for a missing boy.
Cast
Detective Bronson...Terry McDermott
Detective Fraser...Lex Mitchell
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Guests
Keith Birney, Patricia Kennedy, Penelope Shelton, Leonard Lee and Tony Sheldon.
8. The Missing Letter
8 December 1964
A middle-aged man is reported missing and three weeks later his battered body is recovered from the Yarra. Two anonymous notes provide an important clue.
Cast
Detective Bronson...Terry McDermott
Detective Fraser...Lex Mitchell
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Guests
Sonia Borg, Louise Homfrey, Thomas Dysart and Kurt Ludescher.
9. The Silent Witness
15 December 1964
When an attractive young girl is murdered, it doesn’t take the Homicide detectives long to identify her killer but they have a difficult time gathering sufficient evidence to bring him to trial.
Cast
Detective Bronson...Terry McDermott
Detective Fraser...Lex Mitchell
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Guests
Ron Tunstall, Frances McDonald, Fay Kelton and Freda Wilson.
10. The Hook
26 January 1965
A man witnesses a violent murder aboard a boat and goes for the police. He claims he was unable to identify the killer.
Cast
Detective Bronson...Terry McDermott
Detective Fraser...Lex Mitchell
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Guests
Peter Williams, Norman Yemm, Marcella Burgoyne, Roma Johnstone and Peter Armstrong.
11. Man Hunt
2 February 1965
William Nelson, serving a life sentence for murder, escapes from custody to seek revenge.
Cast
Detective Bronson...Terry McDermott
Detective Fraser...Lex Mitchell
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Guests
Leonard Teale, Patsy King, Carl Bleazby and Barbara Brandon.
‘I was a pretty nasty character.’
-Leonard Teale, remembering William Nelson, the part that led to his becoming Senior Detective David Mackay, in an interview with Marsha Prysuska, TV Times, September 15 1966, page 15.
12. Decimal Point
9 February 1965
Bronson connects the murder of an escaped convict with a five-year-old robbery.
Cast
Detective Bronson...Terry McDermott
Detective Fraser...Lex Mitchell
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Guests
Owen Weingott, Jan Leeming, Ronald Quinn and Earl Francis.
13. Aftermath
16 February 1965
A former chief of Homicide is fatally stabbed and his body left in the drive-way of Inspector Connolly’s house.
Cast
Detective Bronson...Terry McDermott
Detective Fraser...Lex Mitchell
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Guests
Betty Dyson, Allen Bickford, Eric Reiman and Fay Kelton.
14. Business is Business
23 February 1965
An advertising agent informs police that someone is making repeated attempts on his life. The police find many suspects.
Cast
Detective Bronson...Terry McDermott
Detective Fraser...Lex Mitchell
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Guests
John Tydde, Felicity Young, Denis Doonan and Ian Boyce.
15. The Skeleton
2 March 1965
A body found floating in Port Phillip Bay is identified as that of professional gambler George Duff. Police are surprised when their investigations reveal Duff was married to the headmistress of a leading girls’ school.
Cast
Detective Bronson...Terry McDermott
Detective Fraser...Lex Mitchell
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Guests
Chuck Kehoe, John Golding and Elizabeth Wing.
16. The Juveniles
27 April 1965
It’s not often a murder investigation starts off at a baby-sitting agency-but that’s where the detectives find their first real lead to how and why an attractive and popular teenage girl met her death.
Cast
Detective Bronson...Terry McDermott
Detective Fraser...Lex Mitchell
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Guests
Neva Carr-Glyn, Judith Arthy, Paul Karo, Ken Sterling and John D’Arcy.
17. Motive for Two
11 May 1965
Cast
Detective Bronson...Terry McDermott
Detective Fraser...Lex Mitchell
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Guests
Kurt Ludescher, Max Meldrum, Leonard Teale and Benita Harvey.
18. Strange Cargo
18 May 1965
Cast
Detective Bronson...Terry McDermott
Detective Fraser...Lex Mitchell
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
19. Dead on Two
25 May 1965
At a deserted country house where a migrant has been shot, the detectives find unmistakable evidence of a second shooting but no trace of a second victim.
Cast
Detective Bronson...Terry McDermott
Detective Fraser...Lex Mitchell
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Guests
Alister Smart, Blaise Antony, Vanessa McGurk and Paul Smith.
Script by Sonia Borg.
20. The White Mistress
8 June 1965
The detectives rely on the experts of the Forensic Science laboratories when they investigate the death of someone who had apparently ceased to exist before being murdered.
Cast
Detective Bronson...Terry McDermott
Detective Fraser...Lex Mitchell
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Guests
Rhoderick Walker, Joan Letch, Edward Howell and Dorothy Bradley.
21. The Violators
15 June 1965
This episode is introduced by John Fegan. It concerns the dangers of parents who refuse to face the consequences which can arise from criminal assault upon a young girl and how this can lead to further tragedy.
Cast
Detective Bronson...Terry McDermott
Detective Fraser...Lex Mitchell
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Guests
Lynette Curran, Mal Carmont, Ben Gabriel and Roger Diss.
22. The Partners
22 June 1965
A man is found dead in a burnt-out car at the foot of a cliff; but was it an accident? or murder!
Cast
Detective Bronson...Terry McDermott
Detective Fraser...Lex Mitchell
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Guests
Laurier Lange, George Fairfax, Vivienne Lincoln, Roy Day and William Hodge.
23. The Brand
29 June 1965
Cast
Detective Bronson...Terry McDermott
Detective Fraser...Lex Mitchell
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
24. The Ladies’ Man
13 July 1965
Cast
Detective Bronson...Terry McDermott
Detective Fraser...Lex Mitchell
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
25. One Man Crime Wave
20 July 1965
Cast
Detective Bronson...Terry McDermott
Detective Fraser...Lex Mitchell
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
26. The Forgotten Murder
27 July 1965
Cast
Detective Bronson...Terry McDermott
Detective Fraser...Lex Mitchell
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
This is where the complete guide finishes for now. The episodes continue as I find them...
One Step From Murder
Witch Hunt
Double Cross
14 September 1965
When a body is washed up on St. Kilda Beach the detectives say that the victim was involved in one of the worst crimes of all-smuggling narcotics.
Cast
Detective Bronson...Terry McDermott
Senior Detective David Mackay...Leonard Teale
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
For Pity’s Sake
21 September 1965
A series of killings of young women puts detectives on the trail of a dangerous paranoic.
Cast
Detective Bronson...Terry McDermott
Senior Detective David Mackay...Leonard Teale
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Guests
Lynette Curran, Alister Smart, Anne Charleston, Doug Kelly, Joseph James and Roy Day.
Birds of a Feather
28 September 1965
Cast
Detective Bronson...Terry McDermott
Senior Detective David Mackay...Leonard Teale
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
The Old Game
12 April 1966
Two women act as decoys with two thugs waiting in the background. It’s an old game that leads to one unsuspecting victim after another being attacked and robbed. The Homicide crew moves in when one of the victims succumbs to his injuries.
Cast
Detective Bronson...Terry McDermott
Senior Detective David Mackay...Leonard Teale
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Guests
Dawn Klingberg, Gaye Anderson, Maurie Fields, Jack Allen, Chuck Keogh and Ron Shand.
56. Vendetta
26 April 1966
Cast
Detective Bronson...Terry McDermott
Senior Detective David Mackay...Leonard Teale
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Detective Hudson...Les Dayman
‘I regard Bronson’s death as a great mistake... You can’t just kill off a hero like that... there’s the question of dramatic balance... to enact the death of a man who is virtually yourself is a wicked experience. Now Bronson is gone I feel a part of me has died.’
-Terry McDermott, reflecting upon the fate of every TV cop who asks for top billing and a raise, in an interview with John Pinkney, TV Times, [Melbourne edition] April 6 1966, page 11.
Let’s Get Together
Crowds at Melbourne’s Moomba Festival are used as a cover by a gang of jewel thieves. An American named Baker is their leader.
Cast
Senior Detective David Mackay...Leonard Teale
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Detective Hudson...Les Dayman
Guests
Ron Farley...George Fairfax
Baker...Joe McCormick
Marie...Dorothy Moore
Charlie Croft...Neil Phillipson
Alic...Anne Charleston
Henry Dowe...Kenric Hudson
Wasp Nest
Ray Fox alleges two women are trying to kill him. Fox tells the Homicide detectives a story so incredible he doesn’t expect to be believed but the truth, when it comes to light, is more incredible still.
Cast
Senior Detective David Mackay...Leonard Teale
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Detective Hudson...Les Dayman
Guests
Bettine Meikle...Dulcie Davenport
Ray Fox...Ian Smith
Circumstantial Evidence
Maree Duncan tells the police that her husband has threatened to kill her. She is found shot dead.
Cast
Senior Detective David Mackay...Leonard Teale
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Detective Hudson...Les Dayman
Guests
Marie Duncan...Joanne Duff
Richard Watts...Leonard Bullen
Where There’s a Will
Is Maggie the ill-used wife she claims to be, or a dangerous woman capable of deliberate murder? Arrested for shooting her husband, but she says it was self-defence, but a hint of complicity between Maggie and her stepson makes the Homicide team suspect her story.
Cast
Senior Detective David Mackay...Leonard Teale
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Detective Hudson...Les Dayman
Guests
Bettina Welch, Kit Taylor.
End of Class
Her fellow students are horrified when Lorraine Purvis hurtles to her death from a city rooftop. Some of them come under suspicion as Homicide look for the answer: was it suicide, accidental death or murder.
Cast
Senior Detective David Mackay...Leonard Teale
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Detective Hudson...Les Dayman
Guests
Ronald Heimans, Brian Hannan, Joy Mitchell.
Merry-Go-Round
A man meets his death and in the search for his killer the Homicide detectives uncover a macarbre story of drug addiction and the relentless exploitation of its victim.
Cast
Senior Detective David Mackay...Leonard Teale
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Detective Hudson...Les Dayman
Guests
Carol Long...Patsy King
Rita Bates...Barbara West
One Man Show
An art collector is stabbed to death and Homicide investigations have just begun, when Det. Hudson’s girlfriend ‘Tinker’ Bell is reported missing. Tension Mounts as her disappearance is linked with the most likely suspect for the murder.
Cast
Senior Detective David Mackay...Leonard Teale
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Detective Hudson...Les Dayman
Guests
Gerard Kennedy, Diane Chamberlain.
Whistle in the Dark
4 April 1967
Cast
Senior Detective David Mackay...Leonard Teale
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Detective Hudson...Les Dayman
Guests
Edward Howell, Anne Charleston.
One-Eyed Luck 11 April 1967 Detective Doug Marshall is badly wounded during an investigation by Homicide detectives into the murder of gambler Bernie Little.
Cast
Senior Detective David Mackay...Leonard Teale
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Detective Hudson...Les Dayman
Guests
Roger Climpson, Mike Dorsey, Marie Clarke, Beverley Kirk and Betty Dyson.
The Wild Cockatoo
9 May 1967
Security guard Dave Carter is shot dead during a factory break-in and a fellow-guard, Harry Parr, is knocked unconscious. The Homicide team is convinced that Parr could help them identify the killers but Parr, for personal reasons, refuses to co-operate.
Cast
Senior Detective David Mackay...Leonard Teale
Inspector Donald Connolly...John ‘Jack’ Fegan
Hudson...Les Dayman
Guests
Robert McPhee, Dorothy Moore, Allan Kenny and Juna Kazins.
207. As The Twig is Bent
‘Resplendent in their pork pie hats, Alwyn Kurts, Leonard Teale, Michael Long and George Mallaby are the legendary Homicide squad. The episode focuses on the exploits of a small-time gambler, with chase scenes and house fires thrown in for added suspense. Oh, and some fabulous dialogue. Says the gambler’s gal, “before I met you everything in my life was so stupid and old fashioned. Now I just want to enjoy myself”. “Well”, says the gambler, “Why did you get dressed?”.’
-Tony Squires’s synopsis for the TV Nostalgia Festival at the Valhalla Cinema, Sydney, August 1996.
The Amateurs
Wealthy law student, Mark Allen, leads a fellow student into “fast events”, resulting in his becoming a suspect for armed robbery and murder.
Cast
Inspector Colin Fox...Alwyn Kurts
Senior Detective David Mackay...Leonard Teale
Senior Detective Peter Barnes...George Mallaby
Detective Patterson...Norman Yemm
Guests
Mark Allen...Stewart Leslie
Simon Carter...Leon Gregory
Traveller’s Tale
Janet Craig, wife of a wholesale drug traveller, is strangled with a piece of flex. Her husband tells police that the dress ring she was wearing is missing, as well as his sample drug case.
Cast
Inspector Colin Fox...Alwyn Kurts
Senior Detective David Mackay...Leonard Teale
Senior Detective Peter Barnes...George Mallaby
Detective Patterson...Norman Yemm
Guests
Trevor Canning...Mark Kelly
Brenda Barlowe...Kay Eklund
An Unwelcome Guest While digging a swimming pool at his new home, Walter Clarke discovers a woman’s body. She is identified as the previous owner.
Cast
Inspector Colin Fox...Alwyn Kurts
Senior Detective David Mackay...Leonard Teale
Senior Detective Peter Barnes...George Mallaby
Detective Patterson...Norman Yemm
Guests
Arthur Mulligan...Brian Wenzel
Lois Davison...Noeline Brown
The Homicide Story
24 November 1970
Leonard Teale narrates a documentary celebrating six years of Homicide.
Available on video: The Homicide Story, Visual Entertainment Group, VEG 004, 1994.
‘Apart from gathering the reputation that we could produce, if called upon, quite an agreeable series about a pet echidna, the greatest success, surely, in securing an audience for the local product was Crawfords’ Homicide series. This was forcefully brought home in a rather extravagantly long special last year, celebrating the thousandth or the millionth Homicide (I forget which). There sat the Dreamer himself-Hector Crawford, polished and gleaming, looking like a hastily made-up review caricature of Harold Holt, his tide of silvery hair gradually silting up the back of his collar. He had obviously backed a winner-by using stage sets that nervously trembled at every touch, and filling his production staff with nepotistic zeal, he’d managed to produce his little goldmine at incredibly low expense. It didn’t seek to define anything characteristically Australian, and so never encouraged any Australian potential; but it did provide work of a steady, if unvarying, kind for actors in this country (even if the wages offered were also, it seems, products of Mr. Crawford’s admirable thrift).
Even though, despite this environment, a few actors could suggest some distinctive local colouring, mundane cares seldom penetrated Hector Crawford’s policedom; his subject is probably the most corrupt institution in Australian life, yet it was only rarely you could wonder whether, for instance, perhaps lovable, crusty old Jack Fegan (who was playing the Homicide chief at the time of the Victorian police trials) had been receiving illicit abortion payoffs all these years without you ever noticing it. This, as IU say, was only a momentary, if alarming, worry: soon we were back in the old homicidal context, with Jack Fegan putting his lovable, crusty old boot into yet another malefactor’s skull.
It was unpretentiously a police thriller: even the music smelt of those prelapsarian radio serials, and the whole thing seemed just an exercise in fiftiesishness, in cinquantiemerie, a survival of that dreadful decade which we have all mercifully outgrown.’ -Robert Lindsay, looking at Australian television from the underground left-wing press perspective, Chauntecleer, Number 6, 1971. pages 2-3.
The Initiation
29 May 1973
Cast
Inspector Colin Fox...Alwyn Kurts
Senior Detective David Mackay...Leonard Teale
Senior Detective Peter Barnes...George Mallaby
Senior Detective Philip Radford...Gary Day
Guests
Terry McDermott, Carmen Duncan, Graeme Blundell.
The first colour episode of Homicide.
Available on video: The Homicide Story, Visual Entertainment Group, VEG 004, 1994.
Homicide 30 Years On
October 1994
Thirtieth anniversary special, hosted by John Wood and Lisa McCune, stars of the Seven Network’s current successful police drama, Blue Heelers.
Available on video: Homicide 30 Years On, Visual Entertainment Group, VEG 003, 1994.
Last revised 26/8/96