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 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!).