Boys from the Bush | |
---|---|
Genre | Comedy drama |
Created by | Douglas Livingstone |
Written by | Douglas Livingstone |
Directed by |
Shirley Barrett & Robert Marchand |
Starring |
Tim Healy Chris Haywood Mark Haddigan Nadine Garner Pat Thomson Kirsty Child Kris McQuade Rob Steele Noah Taylor |
Theme music composer | Brian Lang |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of series | 2 |
No. of episodes | 20 |
Production | |
Executive producer | Peter Beilby |
Producer | Verity Lambert |
Cinematography | Martin McGrath |
Running time | 50 mins |
Original release | |
Network | BBC1 |
Release | 25 January 1991 14 July 1992 | –
Boys From The Bush is a British television series produced by the BBC. It was created and written by Douglas Livingstone. Two series, each of ten 50-minute episodes, were made between 1991 and 1992. Although never achieving mainstream success, the series has since gathered a dedicated cult following.
The series dealt with the life of Reg Toomer ( Tim Healy), an Englishman from Shepherd's Bush living in Australia and running Melbourne Confidential, a failing private detective agency with his shifty business partner Dennis Tontine ( Chris Haywood). His estranged young cousin Leslie ( Mark Haddigan), also from Shepherd's Bush, hence one sense of the punning title, arrives in Melbourne from the UK after a painful divorce. He has been promised fun and excitement in the new world, instead finds himself used as a drudge for Melbourne Confidential.
Each episode focused on a particular job undertaken by Melbourne Confidential, each one more elaborate and of more dubious legality than the last. Subplots involve Reg's lovelorn wife Doris ( Pat Thomson), assertive daughter Arlene ( Nadine Garner), Dennis' ex-wife Corrie ( Kirsty Child) and kindly madam Delilah ( Kris McQuade).
Produced by Verity Productions and Seven Network, the first series (only) was screened in Australia in late 1993. [1]
Douglas Livingstone (1934–2021) also wrote the screenplay for The Day of the Triffids (1981), the BBC adaptation of the John Wyndham novel, and wrote or co-wrote screenplays for several in the BBC 1985–1998 series Screen Two: Run for the Lifeboat, [2] The Impossible Spy, [3] and Return to Blood River. He adapted several short stories (" Maigret Sets a Trap", " Maigret and the Night Club Dancer", and "Maigret and the Maid") by George Simenon for the 12-episode 1992 BBC series Maigret starring Michael Gambon. He wrote the 1996 TV comedy Heavy Weather for the BBC and WGBH-TV, Boston, based on the P. G. Wodehouse novel. He wrote the original six-episode drama series The Cazalets (2001) for BBC-TV, and three full-length comedies in the series The Quest (2002–2004) for Yorkshire Television.