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THE GRASS IS BROWN ON BOTH SIDES OF THE FENCE

Blue Murder part 2

Blue Murder was exciting to work on and will always be known as one of the most chilling and gripping Australian television shows ever made

The moment the post production on it was finished, there was an injunction slapped on it forbidding it to be shown in NSW. But the word was out on it and everybody in NSW wanted to see it. Australia Post must have made a fortune out of it, because of the thousands of copies that were sent to Sydney after it went to air in other states. An exciting time for all involved.

I was back in Melbourne when it went to air. It was the talk of the town. I was at the golf course on a Saturday afternoon - another member there is Paul Delanis, who was a Police Commissioner in the Victorian police. I was certainly aware of who he was and he knew me from an occasion when he was on the Great Bookie Robbery set as an advisor. Not having played with him before I had no gauge on how he approached the game, but it seemed to me that his mind was elsewhere, and wherever that was, he was preoccupied with it. He played badly and after an awful round, he said to me that there are some days when it is better not to play. I thought it was a strange thing to say, and it wasn’t until I got home that I heard the news he had obviously been carrying around with him.
The night before our golf game was when two young policemen had been executed in a lane in South Yarra.

On the day after Blue Murder had been to air in Melbourne I’m on the putting green and I see Paul Delanis walking towards me. Apart from our earlier golf game together we really didn’t know each other, so I’m not sure that him walking towards me is a sign of anything, as he could have been going to walk past me. But he didn’t. He stopped in front of me, I looked at him, and he said in a friendly manner ‘Where did you guys get all that information? It was so accurate.’
I told him that I didn’t know, and I didn’t, but that the writer Ian David had been working on Blue Murder for a long time. Paul was obviously gobsmacked by the show and went on to ask who was the guy that played Rogerson, and that he knew Rogerson and the Richard Roxburgh portrayal was him to a tee. He then mentioned the horrific scene when a character had been tied to the old Kookaburra stove and then thrown in the harbour. He said if that person had listened to his advice he would be alive today. He praised the accuracy of the show and the fact that it had portrayed events as he knew them to be, and was amazed that Blue Murder had these facts at their disposal. He then walked away. A very imposing man is Paul Delanis and I felt like a rabbit looking into headlights as he talked to me. When I looked around everyone at the golf course was frozen to the spot watching us talk. And by everyone I would say fifty people. Even the bar staff were standing up at the window watching us. Slowly members started to move back to their putting practice. The speaker was again heard to steer the next players to which tee. The fact that the golf club was transfixed also meant that everyone had seen the show, otherwise what would be unusual about two members of a golf club talking together.
A classic show Blue Murder and one that will always be around.

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