Perhaps the most successful Australian cop show since Homicide, it paved the way for Water Rats, Blue Heelers and others.
Produced for the ABC by John Edwards and Sandra Levy, it starred Gary Sweet, Sonia Todd, Steve Bastoni, Steve Bisley and Tammy MacIntosh.
It began in 1989 as a telemovie made in-house at the ABC with money that the then head of drama Sandra Levy was able to scrape together from savings on other projects. The idea was to produce a pilot to attract overseas interest for a series.
The idea worked and when Sandra Levy moved to Southern Star, the first series of Police Rescue was made with the ABC, Southern Star and the BBC as co-production partners.
The series sold very successfully around the world and at the height of its popularity, in 1993, a feature film was made, just before the fifth (and last) series.
