Cash and Company/Tandarra

1 9 7 5 (Australia)
13 x 50 minute episodes
1 9 7 6 (Australia)
13 x 50 minute episodes

Cash and Company followed on the heels of the success of the Australian ABC TV show, Rush which had helped create a market for an Australian western series set in the 19th century.

Bushrangers Sam Cash (Serge Lazareff) and Joe Brady (Gus Mercurio) and helpful widow Jessica Johnson (Penne Hackforth-Jones) were a wild colonial trio on the run from the law after Cash and Brady were framed for murder by corrupt police trooper Lieutenant Keogh (Bruce Kerr), during the Victorian gold rush of the 1850s.

Other recurring characters included Jessica’s father in law (John Frawley) and her servant, Annie (Anne Scott-Pendlebury).

Channel Seven were pleased with the 1975 series and commissioned a second series.

The title of the show had to be changed to Tandarra (the name of the property owned by Widow Johnson) for the 1976 season because Serge Lazareff declined to revive his Cash character from the first series in order to take up new challenges.

His place was taken in Tandarra by Gerard Kennedy playing a former bounty hunter called Ryler.

Penne Hackforth-Jones died of lung cancer on 17 May 2013 in Melbourne. She was 63.

Sam Cash
Serge Lazareff
Jessica Johnson
Penne Hackforth-Jones
Joe Brady
Gus Mercurio
Lieutenant Keogh
Bruce Kerr
Ryler
Gerard Kennedy