Australian
Screen

Clip description

Claire O’Reilly (Louse Phillip) is staying with Danni Francis (Paula Duncan) for a break from her father, Senior Sergeant Eric O’Reilly (Terry Norris) and fiancé Tony Benjamin (Gregory Ross), who are constantly arguing. Meanwhile, the anxious men have been consoling themselves with a late night’s drinking. When Constable Roy Baker (Gil Tucker) wants to try out a new alcohol breath tester, it’s the last thing they need.

Curator’s notes

Terry Norris’s grey-haired boss of the uniformed police is an archetype of the police series genre, with compatriots in Sergeant Bert Kennedy (Vic Gordon) from Matlock Police (1971–75) and, to a degree, Tom Croydon (John Wood) from Blue Heelers (1994–2006).

Gil Tucker’s Roy Baker provides Cop Shop’s other characters with a comic foil. Cop Shop’s most obvious genre debts are to police drama and soap. This type of character, however, has more of a sitcom heritage – and there are perhaps shades of sitcom in Cop Shop’s more comic storylines. Tucker is in full swing as Roy attempts to test his breathalyser throughout the episode. The punchline is that none of Cop Shop’s inspectors are happy to comply – a gag about the office’s drinking culture. As if to offset this, the following episode contains a subplot about the tragic death of an alcoholic widow.

Alongside Peter Adams’s irreverent JJ, Paula Duncan’s warm and caring Danni Francis was an enduringly popular character on Cop Shop. Both stayed with the series until it ended, although Adams took a break in the middle. During this time, both won multiple Most Popular Actor Logie awards.