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Charles E. Stamp Charles E. Stamp i(A51261 works by)
Born: Established: ca. 1930-1939
c
England,
c
c
United Kingdom (UK),
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Western Europe, Europe,
; Died: Ceased: ca. 1986-1989 Melbourne, Victoria,
Gender: Male
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BiographyHistory

Charles Stamp was a policeman in London before coming to Australia where he became a scriptwriter. He wrote for Crawford Productions' Australian television series Division 4 and Homicide; for ABC TV's A Touch of Reverence (1974), Home Sweet Home (1980); and the BBC/ABC's story of an English family moving to Australia, The Emigrants (1976). He also wrote scripts for films such as The Fluteman (1982) and Platypus Cove (1986).

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

form y separately published work icon The Sullivans 1976 Melbourne Australia : Crawford Productions Nine Network , 1976-1983 Z1632899 1976 series - publisher film/TV historical fiction war literature

Set in the Melbourne suburb of Camberwell during World War Two, The Sullivans follows the lives of Dave and Grace Sullivan and their children John, Tom, Dave, and Kitty. However, the storylines reach beyond the immediate Sullivan family, allowing viewers to see their extended family, friends, and neighbours also struggle through everyday war-time life.

The series also featured war-action sequences involving various characters. Arguably the most dramatic moment, and the event that effectively became a turning point in the series, was the death of Grace Sullivan in a London air raid. The series finished after a seven-year run, by which point most of the original cast had left the series and the remaining characters had settled into a new life in the post-war era.

1981 winner Logie Awards Special Logie for Sustained Excellence
1980 winner Logie Awards Most Popular Drama Series
1979 winner Logie Awards Most Popular Drama Series
1978 winner Logie Awards Most Popular Drama Series
1977 winner Logie Awards Best New Drama
form y separately published work icon Division 4 ( dir. Gary Conway et. al. )agent Melbourne : Crawford Productions , 1969 Z1814717 1969 series - publisher film/TV detective crime

Division 4, which Don Storey notes in Classic Australian Television was 'the only drama series on Australian television to rival the popularity of Homicide', was created as a vehicle for Gerard Kennedy, who had risen to popularity playing the complicated enemy agent Kragg in spy-show Hunter, after Tony Ward's departure left Hunter's future in doubt.

According to Moran, in his Guide to Australian Television Series:

The series differed from Homicide in being more oriented to the situation and milieu of a suburban police station staffed by a mixture of plainclothes detectives and uniformed policemen. This kind of situation allowed Division 4 to concentrate on a range of crimes, from major ones such as murder to minor ones such as larceny.

Though set in the fictional Melbourne suburb of Yarra Central, 'Sets were constructed that were replicas of the actual St Kilda police station charge counter and CIB room, with an attention to detail that extended to having the same picture hanging on the wall', according to Storey.

Division 4 ended in 1976. Storey adds:

Division 4's axing was a dark day for Australian television, as within months the other two Crawford cop shows on rival networks, Matlock Police and Homicide, were also axed. It was widely believed, and still is, that the cancellation of the three programs was an attempt by the three commercial networks--acting in collusion--to wipe out Crawford Productions, and consequently cripple the local production industry.

1972 winner Logie Awards Best Australian Drama
1970 winner Logie Awards Best Australian Drama
form y separately published work icon Homicide ( dir. Bruce Ross-Smith et. al. )agent Melbourne : Crawford Productions , 1964-1975 Z1813076 1964 series - publisher film/TV crime detective

Running for twelve years and a total of 510 episodes, Homicide was a seminal Australian police-procedural program, set in the homicide squad of the Victoria Police. According to Don Storey in his Classic Australian Television, it represented a turning point for Australian television, prompting the development of local productions over the purchase of relatively inexpensive American dramas. Indeed, Storey quotes Hector Crawford as saying that his production company intended three outcomes from Homicide: demonstrating that it was possible to make a high-quality local drama series, counteracting criticism of local performers, and showing that Australian audiences would watch Australian-made dramas.

As Moran notes in his Guide to Australian TV Series, the program adopted a narrative structure focusing on crime, detection, and capture, rather than on character studies of the lead detectives. The early episodes were produced by a small crew (Storey notes that the crew was frequently limited to four people: cameraman, grip, director, and assistant director), requiring some degree of ingenuity to achieve a polished result (including, in some cases, the actors performing their own stunts). However, the program received extensive support from the Victoria Police (who recognised, in its positive portrayal of police officers, a valuable public-relations exercise) and, as its popularity grew, from the public.

The program's cast changed extensively over its twelve years on the air, though it remained focused on a small group of male detectives, with the inclusion of irregular characters such as Policewoman Helen Hopgood (played by Derani Scarr), written on an as-required basis to reflect the involvement of women in the police force. In Moran's words, 'The other star of Homicide was the location film work. These ordinary, everyday familiar urban locations were what gave the series a gritty realism and familiarised audiences with the shock of recognition at seeing themselves and their milieus on air'.

1973 winner Logie Awards Best Australian Drama
1970 winner Logie Awards Best Australian Drama
1969 winner Logie Awards Best Drama
1968 winner Logie Awards Best Drama
1967 winner Logie Awards Best Drama
1966 winner Logie Awards Best Drama
1965 winner Logie Awards Best Australian TV Drama Series
Last amended 10 Oct 2012 15:31:32
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