Cop Shop

1 9 7 7 – 1 9 8 4 (Australia)
582 x 30/60 minute episodes

Debuting in November 1977 and described as “cops and robbers with homes to go to”, Cop Shop – from Australia’s Channel 7 – followed the work and personal relationships of the police officers of Riverside Police Station in Melbourne.

Initially, it was hastily slapped together and rushed on air to meet Channel 7’s local drama content quota for the year. Cast and crew worked long hours to maintain a weekly output of two hours, but their performances suffered, and critics were quick to write off Cop Shop as another drama flop.

Once production was slowed down, and the show’s scriptwriters and actors were given the chance to more fully develop the characters, audiences started to tune in to the life and times of Riverside Police Station.

Efforts were rewarded when Cop Shop picked up the Logie Award for ‘Best New Drama’ in March 1978.

By featuring women police, Crawford Productions were moving Australian crime drama away from being an all-male dominion as it had been to date.

Riverside also provided a kind of Upstairs Downstairs world, as the police station was home to both uniformed officers and plainclothes detectives.

The upstairs detectives included Tony Bonner and George Mallaby (ex-The Box) and the memorable Detective J J Johnson, played by Peter Adams, who had previously usually played bad guys on TV.

Although Jeff Johnson was on the side of law and order, he drank, slept around and was far from pure. He eventually fell in love with Valerie, a stripper (played by Joanna Lockwood), and settled down to a life of domestic marital bliss with her until Lockwood decided to leave the series.

Sustaining female roles were played by Rowena Wallace as George Mallaby’s difficult wife, Paula Duncan as policewoman (later plainclothes detective) Danni Francis, and Lynda Stoner as PC Amanda King – a leggy and buxom bombshell in blue who spent an inordinate amount of airtime negotiating in high heels the stairs from the station’s front desk to the detectives’ room above.

Danni – who actually began life on the show as a bisexual hard case – had a revolving door love life with two detectives, a priest, and a crooked politician before marrying her policeman partner, Mike Georgiou (played by John Orcsik). The couple later married in real life, although they eventually divorced after 18 years.

When Lynda Stoner was written out of the show so she could concentrate on film work, she was replaced by Olga Tamara (from the ill-fated Holiday Island) as WPC Julie Mitchell.

Comedic content was provided by the pairing of Terry Norris as the crusty old Desk Sergeant O’Reilly and Gil Tucker as his most naive young police officer, Roy Baker.

The partnership ended when Norris left the show to stand for a seat in the Victorian Parliament. He served as a Labor MP between 1982 and 1992.

Bill Stalker, who played DC Peter Fanelli, was killed in a motorcycle accident in Toorak (Melbourne) in November 1981.

DC JJ Johnson 
Peter Adams
DC Danni Francis 
Paula Duncan
DC Mike Georgiou 
John Orcsik
DC Tom Shannon 
John McTernan
DS Glen Taylor 
George Mallaby
Mrs Taylor 
Rowena Wallace
Gaye Taylor 
Joanne Moore
Snr Sgt Eric O’Reilly 
Terry Norris
PC Roy Baker 
Gil Tucker
Claire O’Reilly/Benjamin
Louise Philip
PC Tony Benjamin 
Gregory Ross
PC Sam Phillips 
Nicholas Eadie
PC Frank Rossi 
Alan Fletcher
Snr Detective Sgt Vic Cameron
Terence Donovan
Sgt Reg Wallis 
Alwyn Kurts
PC Amanda King 
Lynda Stoner
Valerie Johnson 
Joanna Lockwood
Snr Det. Don McKenna 
Tony Bonner
DC Peter Fanelli 
Bill Stalker
DC Julie Mitchell 
Olga Tamara
Terry Lindford Jones 
John Walton
Inspector Timms 
John Lee
Lorna Close 
Moya Sullivan
Liz Cameron 
Liz Burch
Kate Ryan 
Lyn Semmler
Tracy Sutherland
Rebel Penfold-Russell