A Country Practice
1 9 8 1 - 1 9 9 3 (Australia)
1057 x 60 minute episodes
Australian drama series revolving around the
activities of a medical clinic, hospital and veterinary practice
in Wandin Valley, a small (fictitious) country town in New South
Wales.
Initially there was much emphasis on the younger
members of the cast such as Grant Dodwell as Simon and Penny Cook
who played Vicky the vet. Over its first two years on air though,
the series built up a group of regular older characters.
These,
together with Shane Porteous as Dr Terence Elliott, helped the
program to weather not only the departure of key younger
characters in 1985, but the succession of other departures over
succeeding years.
 The series screened twice weekly with two
episodes forming one story and was hugely successful in weaving
together ongoing narrative interest in the regular characters with
one-off stories revolving around medical and social problems.
ACP also featured some fine comedy (particularly
from Syd Heylen, Gordon Piper and Joyce Jacobs).
Such was the
impact of ACP that events such as weddings and deaths were covered
in the daily newspapers and women's magazines with the same
enthusiasm usually reserved for real-life.
When Shirley
Gilroy died in an air crash, actor Lorrae Desmond (pictured below)
who played the
role made a request that the disaster not be shown on the
television screen. She thought her screen death would be too hard
on viewers.
And so it was that her TV policeman husband, Frank
(Brian Wenzel), was seen receiving a telephone call with the
tragic news. The impact on viewers was barely dulled.
Seven
years earlier, when Molly Jones (Anne Tenney) died, it is not
overly dramatic to say there were tears in homes throughout
Australia. Sack loads of mail arrived at the TV station in the
following weeks.
A Country Practice had that effect on its
viewers. When Vicky and Simon married, the nation cheered . . .
and watched: the most popular episode ever.
 In its 12
years, ACP had become an institution across the country - a
program not afraid to tug on the heart-strings. Nor did it shy
away from tackling the social issues of the day.
It is no
coincidence that Bob Hawke, when Prime Minister, was happy to
appear in the series. Quite simply, ACP was a series for the
family audience and was always populated with characters we
welcomed into the lounge room.
The show was the longest
running program on Australian television. In its record-breaking
production run ACP won numerous awards including 29 Logies and the
United Nations Association of Australian Media Peace Award.
On a completely irrelevant note, I once bumped into Joan
Sydney in a chicken shop in the Sydney suburb of Balmain. She
speaks beautifully (even when ordering chicken!).
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