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Paul Davies Paul Davies i(A32592 works by)
Born: Established: 1949 ;
Gender: Male
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BiographyHistory

After graduating from The University of Queensland with a BA (Hons) in 1970 and an MA in English Literature in 1973, Paul Davies tutored at James Cook University. Within a year, however, he was offered a position with Crawford Productions to work as a series editor and writer. His on the job training in these roles began with the classic Australian police drama, Homicide (1974-75). In all he edited 29 scripts and co-wrote two episodes for the series during its final seasons. One of these, 'Double Take' was written with a team that included Don Battye. Between 1975 and 1976 he a series writer and series editor for The Box (1975-76), and in 1976 he began a three year association with The Sullivans (1976-78) as script editor/writer. After leaving Crawfords, he wrote 'The Tree of Liberty,' an episode for the 1978 mini-series Against the Wind, and contributed scripts to episodes for Skyways (1979).

During the 1980s, Davies wrote for film, television and the stage. From 1982 up until 1991 he was an actor, writer and member of the Artistic Directorate of the Melbourne-based company TheatreWorks. Two of his plays from that period, Storming Mont Albert by Tram (1982) and On Shifting Sandshoes (1988), received Australian Writers Guild Awards (Awgies), with Storming Mont Albert having been first produced by TheatreWorks on a working suburban tram in 1982. It was performed numerous times over the next decade in Melbourne (later produced as Storming St Kilda by Tram) and in Adelaide (as Storming Glenelg by Tram). The play also helped make 'site-specific' plays popular in Australia.

Among Davies's other theatre works are Breaking Up in Baldwyn (1983), which was performed on a riverboat; Living Rooms (1986), staged in a mansion; On Shifting Sands (1988); and Full House - No Vacancies (1989), produced in a Melbourne boarding house. In 1982 he also turned Storming Mont Albert by Tram into a short story for The Journal/The Age Short Story Competition. The following year he did the same treatment for Breaking Up in Baldwyn. Both stories were subsequently published in The Journal. Davies was also nominated for AWGIE awards in 1988 for Storming St Kilda by Tram and On Shifting Sandshoes.

Davies' credits during the 1980s additionally include the feature films Exits (1980, which was nominated for a Greater Union Award at the 1980 Sydney Film Festival), Niel Lynne (1985) and the ABC telemovie Traps (1986). Since the early 1990s, Davies has worked on several major Australian drama series, notably Blue Heelers (1997-1998), Stingers (1998-2003), Something in the Air (2000-2001), and Headland (2005-2006).

During his career Davies maintained an association with tertiary education, while also contributing articles and papers to various academic and industry journals. During the early 1980s he worked as a part time lecturer in film at the Melbourne State College (1980), and in scriptwriting for the Holmesglen TAFE (1982). In 1987 he also contributed the essay 'Location Theatre and Some Early Community Encounters of the Third Kind,' an overview of the early location theatre movement, for Community Theatre in Australia. For two years beginning 1993 he lectured and convened courses for the Southern Cross University (Lismore) in script writing and video production (1993-94), returning there in 2002 to again lecture in script writing.

Since 2000 davies has published more than a dozen articles on industry-related issues in a variety of journals, notably Metro Magazine (published by Australian Teachers of Media). These include 'Negotiating the Story on Australian Television' (2000); 'Writing Kids TV' (2001); 'Writing for Television' (2001, an interview with Neighbours scriptwriter Elizabeth Huntley); 'Looking for the Story Engine' (2003, an interview with producer Roger Simpson); 'Between Fact and Fiction' (2003, an interview with filmmaker John Hughes); and 'Killing Homicide' (2006, an analysis of the sudden demise of Australia's first successful TV series). Other journals and magazines to have published his work are Cinema Papers and Cantrills' Filmnotes.

Between 2000 and 2009 he was also a consultant and script workshop supervisor for QPIX (Brisbane). In 2009 Davies returned to the University of Queensland to begin a Ph D in Drama.

Most Referenced Works

Notes

  • Filmography: (as writer and/or editor)

    • Homicide (1974-75) TV series [SE: 29 episodes ; SW: 2 episodes]
    • The Box (1975-76) TV series [SE: 16 episodes ; SW: 24 episodes]
    • The Sullivans (1976-78) TV series [SE: 43 episodes ; SW: 39 episodes]
    • Against the Wind (1978) TV mini-series [SW: 1 episode]
    • Skyways (1979) TV series [SW: 8 episodes]
    • Exits (1980) Short feature film co-written with Pat Laughren and Caz Howard
    • Traps (1984) Telemovie co-written with John Hughes
    • Neil Lynn (1984) Feature film co-written with David Baker
    • Rafferty's Rules (1985) TV series [SW: 1 episode]
    • All That is Solid (1985) Documentary
    • In Between (1986) TV Series
    • One Way Street (1991) Documentary co-written with John Hughes
    • Red Ted (1992) Documentary co-written with Pat Laughren
    • Pacific Drive (1996) SW: 9 episodes
    • Blue Heelers (1997) SW: 2 episdoes
    • Stingers (1998-1999) SW 3 episodes
    • Holy Rollers (2001) documentary co-written with Rosie Jones
    • Something in the Air (2002-03) SW: 14 episodes
    • Headland (2005) SW: 3 episodes

    SE = script editor ; SW = script writer

Personal Awards

2000 Winner AWGIE Awards Best TV Serial For 'Return of the Prodigal' (Something in the Air)

Awards for Works

form y separately published work icon Stingers ( dir. Julian McSwiney et. al. )agent Australia : Beyond Simpson Le Mesurier Nine Network , 1998-2004 6031565 1998 series - publisher film/TV crime detective

'Inspired by true events, Stingers reveals the shadowy and ambiguous world of undercover cops — people with covert lives and constantly changing identities. They are police who defeat crime from within the criminal world — always without a badge and frequently without protection. The series follows the lives of the operatives as they befriend and betray those on the other side of the law. For these select few, it is a deadly way of life.The undercover cops of Stingers are a unique breed. They must juggle their own lives — love, laughter, family and humanity — with the tension of the criminal personas they adopt in their passion for justice.'

Source: Australian Television Information Archive. (Sighted: 7/6/2013)

2001 nominated Logie Awards Most Outstanding Drama Series
2005 nominated Logie Awards Most Outstanding Drama Series
2003 nominated AFI Awards Australian Film Institute Awards Best Television Drama Series
2004 won AFI Awards Australian Film Institute Awards Best Television Drama Series
form y separately published work icon 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
form y separately published work icon Against the Wind ( dir. George T. Miller et. al. )agent Melbourne Australia : Pegasus Productions Seven Network , 1978 Z1679808 1978 series - publisher film/TV historical fiction

In 1798, young Irish girl Mary Mulvane is convicted of stealing by the British court and sentenced to transportation to Australia. During the journey, she falls for fellow convict Jonathan Garrett, and the pair attempt to start a new life in the brutal penal colony.

1979 won Logie Awards Best New Drama
Last amended 2 Nov 2010 09:57:40
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