Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

The Removalists (1975)

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clip Lessons in policing

Original classification rating: M. This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

Sergeant Simmonds (Peter Cummins) and Constable Ross (John Hargreaves) wait for their lunch in a café booth. The sergeant taunts the new recruit with his lack of knowledge about real police work. When the hamburgers are ready, the older policeman stops the young man from paying.

Curator’s notes

A good example of the broad satirical approach of Williamson’s writing at this stage of his career. Sergeant Simmonds is full of slogans about police integrity and the importance of experience, but he’s too unimaginative to notice his own contradictions. Both men are shown as of fairly limited intelligence. Constable Ross has no clear idea of why he wanted to become a policeman, and the Sergeant probably can’t remember either.