The Flying Doctors

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The Flying Doctors
Format Drama
Starring Andrew McFarlane
Liz Burch
Lenore Smith
Robert Grubb
see cast table below for complete cast
Country of origin Australia
No. of episodes 3 (miniseries)
221 (regular series)
Production
Running time approx. 0:55
Broadcast
Original channel Nine Network
Original run 1986 – 1993
External links
IMDb profile

The Flying Doctors is an Australian drama series produced by Crawford Productions that revolved around the everyday lifesaving efforts of the real Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia.

It was initially a 1985 mini-series based in the fictional outback town of Cooper's Crossing starring Andrew McFarlane as the newly arrived Dr. Tom Callaghan. The success of the mini series led it its return the following year as an on-going series with McFarlane being joined by a new doctor, Chris Randall, played by Liz Burch. McFarlane left after the first season and actor Robert Grubb came in as new doctor Geoff Standish.

The series' episodes were mostly self-contained but also featured ongoing storylines, such as Dr. Standish's romance with nurse Kate Wellings (Lenore Smith). Other major characters included pilot Sam Patterson (Peter O'Brien), mechanic Emma Plimpton (Rebecca Gibney), local policeman Sgt. Jack Carruthers (Terry Gill) and Vic and Nancy Buckley (Maurie Fields and Val Jellay), who ran the local pub/hotel, the Majestic. Andrew McFarlane also later returned to the series, resuming his role as Dr. Callaghan. The popular series ran for many seasons and was successfully screened internationally.

Contents

[edit] Cast and characters

[edit] Doctors

  • Andrew McFarlane played Tom Callaghan, a young doctor who takes over the R.F.D.S base in Coopers Crossing after proving himself to the original boss of the base, Harry Sinclair. He brings along Chris Randall, who is also a doctor, as his assistant. In episode sixteen Tom leaves the base, volunteering for World Vision in Africa, but he returns for a while in episode 113 until episode 156 in which he leaves again. Tom makes a final appearance in episode 201 when there is a town celebration in Coopers Crossing.
  • Liz Burch played Chris Randall, a female doctor who comes along with Tom Callaghan to run the R.F.D.S base in Cooper Crossing. When Tom leaves for Africa she decides to stay in Coopers Crossing, until episode 146, when she moves to Melbourne to take care of her sick father. She comes back in episode 201 for the town celebration in Coopers Crossing, and falls in love with Tom Callaghan again. She decides to join Tom in Africa.
  • Robert Grubb played Geoff Standish, who makes his first appearance in episode 17 when he takes over the R.F.D.S base from Tom Callaghan. Geoff is one of the longest-running characters in the series, and stayed until the end. He is considered to be one of the most important characters of the series[citation needed], and his relationship with Nurse Kate Wellings has been a big focus of the show.
  • Sarah Chadwick played Rosie 'Rowie' Lang. She makes her first appearance in "Swinging on the Rope", when she returns to Cooper's Crossing for the first time, since leaving as a teenager to attend Medical School at the University of Sydney. Dr. Lang is the replacement for Dr. Radcliffe. She is a headstrong, determined woman, applying for a position with the RFDS to comfront childhood bullies, and show them that "being a Lang doesn't mean being a loser", after having grown up as the youngest of 6 children (and the only girl), to alcoholic, neglectful parents. Despite her late arrival, Sarah is given a rich character-profile, the series featuring episodes inwhich both her older brother Frank and her Father Alf appear.

Within a few weeks of her arrival (in fact interested from the very start), Captain Johnno Johnson makes his interest more than obvious (from crashing into Rowie and entangling his watch on her dress - thereby ripping her dress in an attempt to free himself, and later that evening accidentally throwing a glass of orange juice in her lap), and after much soul-searching and hesitance, Rowie eventually accept his proposal. Her doubts increase as the day of the wedding draw closer, and when realising that she is marrying Johnno to make up for the far less than ideal marriage her mother experienced (who died of alcoholism when Rowie was still a teenager), the assertive and honest, Dr. Lang calls off the wedding as the RFDS cars are proceeding to the airstrip where all the guests are waiting for the service.

Although crushed by this change of heart, Johnno loves her enough to respect that he wants Rowie to be happy, whether that is with him, or not. Unfortunately, frequent clashes between Rowie and Guy, are source of further tears and troubles, until Geoff steps in and puts a stop to Guy's continual bullying. The series ends, with Rowie confessing to Geoff that she needs to leave the crossing and see more of the world, although she denies Guy being the reason behind this.

Two episodes following the would-be wedding, Rowie features a hair change, her natural golden curls being replaced by a slightly overdone auburn, this change coming at the request of Executive Producers, as 4 of the 5 female leads were all blonde at the time (Sarah, Val, Sophie, and Nikki). This colour change fits in perfectly with the series, appearing as a fresh start after the wedding cancellation - and Rowie's true attempt to put her unhappy childhood behind her and attain "the one thing [her] Mother never had" - happiness.

[edit] Call signs

An RFDS Beechcraft Super King Air on a remote airstrip in Queensland, Australia.
An RFDS Beechcraft Super King Air on a remote airstrip in Queensland, Australia.

One prominent feature in the show is the communication between the aircraft and the base station in Cooper's Crossing. Their designations are spelled out using the NATO phonetic alphabet.

  • MSF, or Mike Sierra Foxtot, is the aircraft. It's a GAF Nomad.
  • VCC, or Victor Charlie Charlie, is the airport in Cooper's Crossing.


[edit] R.F.D.S.

By 1993, the ratings were in decline and few original characters remained in the much-changed cast. To revamp the show the setting was changed to Broken Hill, the name changed to R.F.D.S., and of the cast only original cast members Fields and Jellay were retained in the show. The storyline had their characters, formerly publicans at the Cooper's Crossing pub, moving to Broken Hill. The show lasted just one season in this new incarnation.

Most recently the Australian Pay-TV channel FOX Classics has secured the rights to the program from July 3, 2006. The Flying Doctors have returned for a Re run Free To Air channel Win Television from August 17, 2007 Time 12pm-1.00pm Weekdays only .

[edit] Filming locations

The series was filmed at[1]:

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Flying Doctors. Crawford Productions Pty Ltd. Retrieved on 2006-11-13.

[edit] External links