Homicide (Australian TV Series) - Scripts

Scripts

Homicide scripts explored a number of major social issues, such as:

• pack rape (episode 21, "The Violators")
• prostitution (episode 23, "The Brand")
• loneliness, suicide and mercy killing (episode 31, "An Act Of Love")
• the occult (episode 34, "Witch Hunt")
• police shooting of criminals (episode 76, "The Snipers")
• road safety (episode 123, "No Licence To Kill")
• drugs (episode 128, "Freakout")
• the plight of pensioners (episode 208, "Everybody Knows Charlie")
• pollution (episode 314, "Fighting Fred")
• use of firearms (episode 405, "Time And Tide")
• ‘poofter bashing’ (episode 411, "A Crime Against Nature")
• youth gangs (episode 434, "The Graduation Of Tony Walker")
• child abuse (episode 463, "The Life And Times Of Tina Kennedy")
• the dangers of hitch-hiking (episode 478, "Wipe Out")

Many of these episodes were introduced by John Fegan to highlight their significance.

Scripts were usually based on real murder cases. For example, episode 211, "I, Mick O'Byrne", was based on the recent case of Ronald Ryan, the last man hanged in Australia. Another episode, "Colour of Hate", was based on the real-life murder of a young police constable. The victim's family wrote a very appreciative letter to Crawfords in which they described the episode as ‘a fine tribute to our son’s courage and devotion to duty’. The letter was later read out by Leonard Teale in the documentary The Homicide Story, who noted that it held a special place in the production team's files.

Homicide won multiple awards for its scripts, including three AWGIEs, two Logies, one Penguin and one Sammy Award:

AWGIEs:

1970: John Dingwall - Best Script for a TV Drama Series for episode 208, "Everyone Knows Charlie"

1975: Peter Schreck - episode 434, "The Graduation Of Tony Walker"

1976: Keith Thompson - Best Script for Telemovie for episode 504, "Stopover"

Logies:

1973: Fred 'Cul' Cullen - Best Script for episode 385, "The Friendly Fellow"

1974: Fred 'Cul' Cullen - Best Script for episode 414, "Twelve Bar Blues"

Penguin:

1975: Australian Film Commission Second Prize for episode 434, "The Graduation Of Tony Walker"

Sammy:

1976: Keith Thompson - Best Writer (TV Play) for episode 504, "Stopover"