The Doctor Blake Mysteries
| The Doctor Blake Mysteries | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre |
Mystery Crime Period drama |
| Created by |
George Adams Tony Wright |
| Starring |
Craig McLachlan Nadine Garner Rick Donald Cate Wolfe Joel Tobeck Charlie Cousins |
| Composer(s) | Dale Cornelius |
| Country of origin | Australia |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 4 |
| No. of episodes | 36 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
Tony Wright Carole Sklan Christopher Gist |
| Producer(s) | George Adams |
| Location(s) | Australia |
| Running time | 1 hour (56–59 mins) |
| Production company(s) | December Media |
| Distributor | ABC Television |
| Release | |
| Original network | ABC |
| Picture format | 720p (HDTV) |
| Original release | 1 February 2013 – present |
| External links | |
| Website | |
The Doctor Blake Mysteries is an Australian television series that premiered on ABC on 1 February 2013 at 8:30 pm.[1] The series stars Craig McLachlan in the lead role of Doctor Lucien Blake, who returns home to Ballarat in the late 1950s to take over his late father's general medical practice after an absence of 30 years. Doctor Blake is a keeper of secrets and a solver of mysteries.[2] The series is produced by Tony Wright and George Adams.[3]
The fourth series began airing on February 5, 2016, on ABC.
Background
Doctor Lucien Blake left Australia in his 20s to study medicine in Scotland. Following a posting at a London hospital, he joined the British Army as a medical officer. During World War II, Blake's service included the Far East, where he fell in love and married a Chinese woman, with whom he had a child. However, at the fall of Singapore, he lost them both. Dr Blake also spent time in Thailand's Ban Pong POW camp. After a 33-year absence, Blake returned home to take over his late father's practice as a medical general practitioner and also becomes the Ballarat area police surgeon.
Jean Beazley is Blake's receptionist and housekeeper. Having previously served in the same capacity for his father, Jean has difficulty adjusting to Lucien's eccentric and sometimes oblivious behavior; although considered old-fashioned in her ideas about womanhood, she occasionally challenges Blake's expectation that she wait on him hand and foot. Her husband died in the war and she is aware that her living with the unattached Blake is a source of gossip. Shrewd and observant, she guards her territory zealously, missing nothing, and expertly sifts gossip for kernels of fact, which she dispenses when necessary. Her maternal tendencies are often a source of annoyance to her nephew Danny Parks, whom she treats like a son, and lodger Mattie O'Brien, whose outgoing attitude she does not understand at all.
Cast
- Craig McLachlan as Doctor Lucien Blake
- Nadine Garner as Jean Beazley
- Cate Wolfe as Matilda "Mattie" O'Brien (Series 1–4)
- Joel Tobeck as Chief Superintendent (later Chief Inspector) Matthew Lawson (Series 1–4)
- Rick Donald as Constable Daniel Parks (Series 1)
- Charlie Cousins as Constable (later Sergeant) Charlie Davis (Series 2-)
- Belinda McClory as Alice Harvey (Series 2-)
- John Wood as Patrick Tyneman
- Craig Hall as Chief Supt William Munro (Series 3)
- John Stanton as Douglas Ashby (Series 1–3)
- David Whiteley as Sergeant Bill Hobart
- Ian Rooney as Cec Drury
- Rodger Corser as Chief Supt Frank Carlyle (Series 4-)
- Anna McGahan as Rose Anderson (Series 4-)
Production
The series is set and filmed in the gold rush city of Ballarat, in Victoria, Australia.[3] It features Lydiard Street and many of the heritage buildings, including the Colonists Club, of which Lucien Blake is a member.
The Doctor Blake Mysteries is produced by Melbourne-based December Media in association with Film Victoria and ABC Television, which also broadcasts it in Australia on ABC. The international sales are handled by British ITV Studios Global Entertainment.
It premiered in the United Kingdom on 25 November 2013 on BBC One.[4] It is also shown by a number of other European TV channels and in New Zealand.[5] The series airs on selected Public Television (PBS) stations in the United States.[6]
A fifth series has been commissioned for broadcast in 2017. [7]
The series 4 ratings in the original broadcasts on ABCtv (Australia) were very respectable, ranging from 988,000 viewers to 825,000.[8] This increases the likelihood of renewal as it is ABCtv's highest rated drama and rated weekly in the top five shows on free-to-air television in Australia.
Episodes
Awards and nominations
| Year | Award | Category | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Logie Awards | Most Outstanding Actor[9] | Craig McLachlan | Nominated |
| 2015 | Most Popular Actor[10] | Nominated |
References
- ↑ "The Doctor Blake Murder Mysteries – ABC TV". Abc.net.au. 5 March 2013. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
- ↑ "Inside Film: Film and Television Industry News and Issues for Australian Content Creators". If.com.au. 8 April 2014. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
- 1 2 "Craig MacLachlan & Nadine Garner Sign On For 1959 Crime Drama TV Series ‘The Dr Blake Mysteries’". Thelowdownunder.com. 9 April 2012. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
- ↑ Sue Deeks, Head, BBC Programme Acquisition (5 July 2013). "Daytime acquires Australian crime drama The Doctor Blake Mysteries – Media centre" (Press release). BBC. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
- ↑ Knox, David (8 April 2014). "Renewed: The Doctor Blake Mysteries 2". TV Tonight. TV Tonight. Retrieved 8 April 2014.
- ↑ "The Doctor Blake Mysteries". WETA. 2015-11-30. Retrieved 2015-12-07.
- ↑ "Comments". m.facebook.com. Retrieved 2016-04-30.
- ↑ "Ratings – Page 8 – TV Tonight". www.tvtonight.com.au. Retrieved 2016-04-30.
- ↑ Knox, David (27 April 2014). "Logie Awards 2014: Winners". TV Tonight. Retrieved 18 January 2015.
- ↑ Willis, Charlotte (22 March 2015). "Here's the full List of 2015 Logies nominations". news.com.au. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
External links
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