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Clip description
Detective Sergeant Bronson (Terry McDermott), Detective Fraser (Lex Mitchell) and Inspector Connolly (John Fegan) have three suspects for the murder of escaped prisoner Edgar Thompson. All were also suspects in an old unsolved robbery case, along with Thompson. A large sum of money from that robbery still remains hidden and the homicide detectives suspect this is the motive for the killing.
At headquarters, they interview two of their suspects, George Lister (Owen Weingott) and Teddy Harding (Ronald Quinn), with little success. Undeterred, Inspector Connolly develops a new theory. After leaving the police station, Lister follows Harding.
Curator’s notes
Here scriptwriters David Baker and Sonia Borg draw on elements of the police procedural genre and the clue-puzzle mystery tradition. Detective Connolly’s explanation of his theory invites the audience to start forming their own theories about which of the group of suspects is the murderer.
This sequence shows a transition from an interior studio-based scene, shot on video with dialogue recording, to an external location-based scene, shot on film with a voice-over. There are contrasts in both the use of sound and the tonal qualities of the footage. These differences were standard at the time. Where the studio sequence uses a static camera and is a little theatrical in feel, the location shooting is more dynamic and cinematic. Ian Jones, the director of the film sequences, makes use of a moving camera and creates a noir-ish look with light and shadow. This sequence is built around repetitions as each location is shown first with one character, then the other, passing through it. Repetition, camera motion and music create a dynamic rhythmic quality.
As with the film sequence in clip one, a narrator explains the events in voice-over, in part a reflection of the limitations of sound technology at the time. In this case, the action seems quite self-explanatory without the voice-over: this practice of explaining action on screen that was already reasonably clear was not unusual in early episodes. The tone seems a bit of a throwback to radio drama or newsreels and may in part reflect the producer’s transition from radio to TV, as well as an audience still familiar with these conventions. Crawfords produced radio drama before the advent of television, their output including a police radio drama, D24 (1951–60).
