AustLit
BiographyHistory
Bio changes summary
Writer/producer Judith Colquhoun began her professional writing career in television during the early-mid 1970s and has since had an extensive career providing episodes for many of Australia's most popular television series, including Bellbird, The Flying Doctors (1986/1990), A Country Practice (1982-94), Blue Heelers (1994-97), Home and Away (2003) and Neighbours (1994-2007).
Colquhoun's earliest known series episodes were for the anthology series Quality of Mercy (1975) and country soap-opera Bellbird, along with the 1978 telemovie A Good Thing Going (1978). During the 1980s, she wrote for such shows as Holiday Island (1981) and Saturdee (1986), as well as scripting numerous episodes of A County Practice and the television film Hector's Bunyip (1986). Her credits in the 1990s include G.P. (1995), Ocean Girl (1995-96), and Search for Treasure Island (1998), while her post-2000 work has included scripts for The Farm (2001), Something in the Air (2001-02), MDA (2002), and almost forty episodes of Neighbours.
Among Colquhoun's career achievements are several Australian Writers Guild (AWGIE) awards, including three for episodes of A Country Practice: 'When the Bough Breaks' (1984), 'Licensed to Kill' (1988), and 'Bel Canto' (1990).
Most Referenced Works
Awards for Works
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y
Thicker Than Water
Fitzroy North
:
Black Pepper
,
2014
7471164
2014
single work
novel
crime
'Writers and artists had come here for centuries but she was neither. She was not even seeking a new lover or running away from an old one. No, her mission was altogether different. And the fact that she came in a Boeing instead of a chariot drawn by griffins should not have encouraged anyone to doubt the seriousness of her purpose. Lucy was Nemesis. She had come to settle a very old score.
'As her mother Kate lay dying, Lucy O’Connell had learnt of a rape committed in Carlton by a young Italian boy. Not the best introduction to the parent she had never known and, yes, it was a long time ago, but Lucy believes it is never too late for justice.
'Wary of the amorous Stefano’s assistance, she battles her way through Italian bureaucracy and finally traces her father, Paolo Esposito, to his restaurant by a beach in southern Italy. There she meets his wife Silvana and her own half-siblings: cheeky Andrea, studious Chiara, scatty Rosaria.
'She lives an uneasy lie with this new family. She obsesses over how to punish her father without hurting the others. Violent forces gather. Still she ignores the friends, who insist that penitence can be more real than a mumbled rosary might suggest. That la vendetta is not the work of gods but of devils.' (Publication summary)
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form
y
MDA
Medical Defence Australia
( dir. Shawn Seet
et. al. )agent
Australia
:
Screentime
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
,
2002-2005
Z1881854
2002-2005
series - publisher
film/TV
crime
'Enter the world of Medical Defence Australia, a medico-legal organisation that exists to defend doctors and where necessary compensate patients. All cases at MDA combine elements of law and medicine so each case is managed by a doctor and a lawyer who agree on how to proceed. It's a unique organisation that delves into morally complex and emotion filled relationships between doctors and patients.'
Source: Australian Television Information Archive (http://www.australiantelevision.net/mda/mda.html). (Sighted: 22/2/2013)
- 2006 nominated Logie Awards — Most Outstanding Drama Series
- 2003 nominated The International Emmy Awards — Drama Series
- 2002 nominated Australian Film Institute Awards — Best Television Drama Series
- 2004 nominated Australian Film Institute Awards — Best Television Drama Series
- 2005 nominated Australian Film Institute Awards — Best Television Drama Series
- 2005 nominated Australian Film Institute Awards — Best Screenplay in Television
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form
y
Blue Heelers
( dir. Mark Callan
et. al. )agent
1994
Sydney
Australia
:
Hal McElroy Southern Star
Seven Network
,
1994-2006
Z1367353
1994
series - publisher
film/TV
crime
A character-based television drama series about the lives of police officers in the fictitious Australian country town of Mt Thomas, this series began with the arrival of Constable Maggie Doyle (Lisa McCune) to the Mt Thomas station in the episode 'A Woman's Place'. Doyle and avuncular station boss Senior Sergeant Tom Croydon (John Wood) were the core characters of the series until the departure of Lisa McCune.
Immensely popular for a decade, Blue Heelers was cancelled in 2006 after thirteen seasons. The announcement was front-page news in Australia's major newspapers including The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney's Daily Telegraph, The Herald Sun and The Age in Melbourne, and Brisbane's Courier Mail.
On June 8, 2006 Ross Warneke wrote in The Age:
'It's over and, to be perfectly blunt, there's no use lamenting the demise of Blue Heelers any more. When the final movie-length episode aired on Channel Seven on Sunday night, 1.5 million Australians tuned in, a figure that was big enough to give the show a win in its timeslot but nowhere near big enough to pay the sort of tribute that this writer believes Heelers deserved after more than 500 episodes.It is unlikely there will be anything like it again. At almost $500,000 an hour, shows such as Blue Heelers are quickly becoming the dinosaurs of Australian TV.'
- 1998 winner Logie Awards — Most Popular Series
- 1997 winner Logie Awards — Most Popular Series