Share
Clip description
Superintendent Tilley (Nigel Lovell) is shaken after discovering that a drunken troublemaker he saw at the golf club and the detective he has nominated for an award are apparently the same person. That evening, he has a peculiar dream featuring Inspector Fox (Alwyn Kurts), Detective Sergeant Mackay (Leonard Teale), Senior Detective Barnes (George Mallaby) and the apparent main offender – Senior Detective Patterson (Norman Yemm).
Curator’s notes
This extended dream sequence is an unexpected gem, wonderfully weird and very out of character for the series. The production team and actors alike go to town on the sequence’s over-the-top surreal qualities.
It’s interesting to see some different time manipulation techniques used to create dreamlike qualities. At the beginning of the dream, there is a fabulous moment of performed slow motion by Lovell and Yemm. Then in the following scenes, time is sped up and slowed down on film, rather than by the actors. The transition from video stock used in studio scenes to the film stock used in location scenes is noticeable here.
Patterson’s monster costume appears to be a reference to the story of the ‘Oomtah Bird’ that Tilley sees him telling at the golf club on two occasions (see clip three).
