Waterloo Station
1 9 8 2 - 1 9 8 3 (Australia)
30 x 60 minute episodes
This early 80s Australian soap was about policemen and their
problems. Crime and criminals barely got a look-in.
Set partly in a suburban police station, partly in a guest house
run by the mountainous but motherly Rosie Wallace, and partly in the
homes of two middle-aged policemen, Jack Edwards (a uniformed
sergeant) and Detective Sergeant George Logan. Their wives (who were
sisters) soothed their problems and gave them new ones.
There was also (of course) a cast of pretty young characters
appearing regularly in shorts or swimsuits, drifters, kids from
'good homes' with identity crises, romantic troubles and economic
problems.
The conflict at the start of the series involved the Edwards
family.
Plucky blonde Sally wanted to join the police force but her
conservative dad was convinced it was no job for a woman. This
brought a clash of loyalties for her deeply decent mother Liz,
played by award winning news presenter Pam Western.
Sally's serious minded boyfriend David Keller (a young cop at
Waterloo Station) supported her but gallantly worried about her
safety after a woman colleague was killed in the opening episode.
Meanwhile in the Logan household, dedicated handsome George had
reluctantly parted from his frustrated childless wife Ann and become
lumbered with lonely teenager Trevor Brown who would go bad if not
helped.
After a few episodes Jane, a beautiful woman detective, was
hoping George would investigate her. But their nights together on
duty, though packed with romantic tension, were hardly arresting
(boom boom!).
The most entertaining scenes involved big, blousy Rosie. She held
court at her guest house in Bondi, a far from luxurious
establishment around which ancient, failed club comic Harry McDowell
was always bustling in a flowery pinafore.
One of Rosie's lodgers was Rick Thompson, a truck driver turned
police constable. Rick liked girls a lot (hell, he used to be Melvin,
Son of Alvin!). He yearned for Sally but got Stacey who was No
Good - but looked great in short shorts.
Big Rosie would look down, through layers of makeup, over her
billowing bust and give it to them straight. She could have been Top
Dog in Prisoner, she was that tough.
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