Matlock Police

Matlock Police is an Australian television police drama series made by Crawford Productions for The 0-10 Network (now known as Network 10) between 1971 and 1976. The series focused on the police station and crime in the Victorian town of Matlock and the surrounding district, and the backgrounds and personal lives of the main policemen.

Background
The series was the 0-10 Network's attempt to come up with a police show to rival Homicide (shown by the 7 Network) and Division 4 (on the 9 Network). Matlock Police was different from its Melbourne-based predecessors by being set in a small country town, the fictional Matlock, Victoria (a real Matlock exists in Victoria but is much smaller than the town depicted by this series, which is loosely based on Shepparton). These programmes' introduction featured an overhead shot of a town with a divided road, thought to be of Bairnsdale in Victoria. Series writers had a reference manual giving full details of the town’s geography, amenities, social structure, etc., as well as that of the surrounding area - neighbouring towns included Wilga, Chinaman's Creek, Possum's Creek and Burrabri, and there was an offshoot of the Great Dividing Range called the Candowies. The town's colourful history included the local Aboriginal tribe (the ‘Bangerang’), the town founder (George Matlock), a gold rush, a bushranger (‘Holy’ Joe Cooper - so-called both for his theft of a shipment of holey dollars and because he was a preacher) and a town patriarchy (the Falconers). About the only landmark the Matlock district lacked for dramatic purposes was a beach.

Broadcast history
The first episode was broadcast in Melbourne on 22 February 1971. Initially filmed in black and white, the series switched to colour in episode 162, "Loggerheads". Matlock Police was canceled in 1975 after 229 episodes had been produced (while the final episode is numbered 228, an earlier episode had an A suffix, making a total of 229).

Guest cast
A notable guest star was George Lazenby who appeared in a 1974 episode "In the Name of the Queen" (inspired by the case of Ronnie Biggs and the Great Train Robbery). Other noted Australian actors who made early appearances on the series include Andrew McFarlane, Bruce Spence, Jack Thompson, Robert McDarra, Judy Morris, Diane Craig and Sigrid Thornton. After the sudden death of character actor Stewart Ginn in September 1971, Hector Crawford praised his performance in the episode titled "The Word is Progress" as one of the finest dramatic performances to come out of the Crawfords company.

Featured vehicles
Vehicles featured through the series included the HG Holden Monaro (base model), which featured until Crawford's contract with Chrysler Australia commenced, with a Holden Kingswood wagon also being featured as the station's general purpose vehicle. The Monaro and Kingswood were followed by VH and VJ Valiant Ranger models. A short wheelbase FJ40 Toyota Land-cruiser also featured. Gary Hogan rode a CB750 motorcycle for most of the series, which replaced a BMW R75 used in earlier episodes.

During the filming of a pursuit-sequence for episode 36 ("End Of The Road") in August 1971, a police vehicle driven by a principal actor struck and instantly killed a 21 year-old member of the camera crew, Colin Enor (or Ennor/Ennoh) after losing control while negotiating a gravel bend. The other crew managed to get out of the way.

DVD release
Crawford has released Matlock Police in 26-episode, 7-disc box sets; this resulted in a 9-volume collection for the full series.