Fast Lane, The

1 9 8 5 (Australia)
9 x 50 minute episodes
1 9 8 7 (Australia)
10 x 50 minute episodes

This comedy-drama series from ABC TV (Australia) featured two inept private investigators, Bryce (Terry Bader) and Ken (Richard Healy) – the owners of a floundering Melbourne-based private detective agency called the Excelsior Research Foundation, where they were assisted by their secretary, Pat (Debra Lawrance), a quiet country girl who philosophised on the action in asides which only the viewing audience heard.

Bryce thought he was smart and boasted about his elite private school background, but was actually very stupid and failed to understand what was really happening around him. He had dropped out of law school in the second year.

Ken was the down-to-earth blue-collar member of the team, but they both usually got into deep trouble and had to be rescued by Pat and Detective Sergeant Blair (Peter Hosking).

The series was written by John Clarke (famed as Fred Dagg) and Andrew Knight, and the scripts were well-paced, intelligent, comic, and narratively elegant.

Unfortunately, the first series was played in a late-night slot where it all but disappeared without a trace.

Bryce
Terry Bader
Ken
Richard Healy
Pat
Debra Lawrance
Detective Sergeant Blair
Peter Hosking

Episodes

Confusion by Numbers | Upping the Integrity | A Mug’s Game | Tertiary Sisyphus | Irreconcilable Similarities | Portrait of Whistler’s Underwriter | The Sound of One Hand Counting | The Below Average Samaritan | All’s Well That Himfella Buggerup Finish || Should Auld Acquaintances Be Given a Fairly Wide Berth | Following by Example | Charming Little Bijou Enterprise in Prime Position – Suit Magistrate | Holding the Mirror Up to Itself | Murder Most Fouled | The Gods Must Be Extremely Badly Advised | Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Aren’t Very Well | All the World’s Going Through a Bit of a Stage | My Dinner with Agnes | Je Regrette Tout