Bluey

Entertaining Australian cop show of the 1970s which sank like a stone due to unfortunate timing when it first went to air . Lucky Grills turned in a thoroughly competent performance throughout the series short run as Detective Sergeant Bluey Hills - the rotund, street wise rebel of Melbourne's Russell Street Police Headquarters. The late Gerda Nicholson provided an ideal foil to Grills as Sergeant Monica Rourke.There was always plenty of action with car chases ,gun play and good old fashioned punch -ups being the order of the day together with a tasty sprinkling of snappy banter and witty one liners .Still crops up occasionally - usually buried in the no man's land of midnight to dawn on Channel 7 where it's remained throughout its life.What a pity we don't make shows like this any more.Still good value after all these years.

Bluey was shown late night on British television. It was still a time when Australian soaps did not populate the daytime schedules. So an Australian cop show in the late 1970s was rather novel where as before you were left with Skippy the Kangaroo as the nearest thing to crime solving.

The show focused on detective 'Bluey' Hills played by Lucky Grills. Bluey smoke, drank and was very fat. He was also used to using brute force on criminals. I reckon the show was inspired in parts by British shows like The Sweeney and also American shows like Cannon.

Bluey was set in Melbourne and he and his team would use unconventional methods to solve cases. It was an enjoyable late night show.

Some of the acting might be a little bit wanting in parts but forget that, these are entertaining stories and characters; refreshing to watch from what now seems a world apart. Featuring a cop who drinks like a fish and smokes like a chimney, breaks all the rules, but whose heart is in the right place and at the end of the day simply fights for justice for the downtrodden in society.

Made in Australia this series had a cult following in parts of the UK in the seventies. Lucky Grills was even enticed over from oz and I remember a local news program re-enacting some Bluey chases through the streets of Liverpool.

Oh and the theme tune is totally fab!