Cash and Company

Last updated

Cash and Company
Starring Serge Lazareff
Gus Mercurio
Penne Hackforth-Jones
Bruce Kerr
Anne Scott-Pendlebury
John Frawley
Gerard Kennedy
Country of originAustralia
Original languageEnglish
No. of episodes13
Production
Running time50 minutes
Original release
Network Seven Network
Release1975 (1975)
Related

Cash and Company is an Australian television period adventure series, set during the Victorian gold rush of the 1850s. It screened on the Seven Network in Australia in 1976 and on ITV (including the London Weekend Television and Anglia regions) in the UK.

Contents

Background

The original series consisted of 13 one-hour episodes, and was created by Russell Hagg and Patrick Edgeworth who met working at Crawford Productions. They said they were $5,000 short when making the show - the balance was provided by Ron Casey. [1]

Production began in July 1974 and the series premiered on the Seven Network in Brisbane on 17 April 1975, Sydney on 26 May and Melbourne on 29 May. The series was also shown at Sunday lunchtime in the United Kingdom by the London Weekend Television (LWT) Network, in advance of its airing in Australia. It was also screened at the Cannes Film Festival and sold to Sweden, the Netherlands, Yugoslavia, Ireland, Norway, Rhodesia and Nigeria. It was produced by Homestead Films, a TV production company set up by Patrick Edgeworth and Russell Hagg, who had worked together at Crawford Productions on Matlock Police . Edgeworth's brother is the musician Ron Edgeworth, who was married to Judith Durham of The Seekers.

The episodes dealt with the adventures of bushrangers Sam Cash (Serge Lazareff) and his partner Joe Brady (Gus Mercurio) and a helpful widow, Jessica Johnson (Penne Hackforth-Jones). Cash and Brady were fugitives, constantly absconding from the authorities, led by the corrupt police trooper Lieutenant Keogh (Bruce Kerr).

Lazareff decided to leave at the end of the first series, when a second series was still in the planning stages. His character was replaced by Ryler, a former bounty hunter, played by Gerard Kennedy, a former cast member of Division 4 . After Kennedy's character of Ryler had appeared in one episode, he was recruited to replace Lazareff after Seven told the Homestead Films that they would not buy a second series unless the popular Logie-winning actor was cast in the new series. Patrick Edgeworth and Russell Hagg however, dispute this account. Rather, being so impressed with Gerard Kennedy's work on the last episode of Cash, they claim they told the Seven Network he was their choice to replace Lazareff, upon which Seven agreed.

The series was renamed Tandarra as the character of Sam Cash was no longer featured, and the fugitives from justice story line was removed. The character of Keogh was also dropped, and the character of Annie (Jessica's maid, played by Anne Scott-Pendlebury) only appeared in one episode. The character of Sam Cash was not mentioned at all in Tandarra , and all flashback sequences from the first series removed any reference to him.

Although the series title is taken from history, the story, events and timeline are of no relation to real life Australian bushranger, Martin Cash, whose gang went by the name of Cash and Co.

Cast

Filming locations

The series was shot almost entirely on location in Emu Bottom Plains, Victoria. This was located near the crew lodgings location at Emu Bottom Station on the outskirts of Sunbury, Victoria, Victoria, the same area where Mad Max (1979) was filmed. [2]

DVD release

Umbrella Entertainment released the series on DVD Region Free on 2 April 2014.

Related Research Articles

Punishment is an Australian television soap opera made by the Reg Grundy Organisation for Network Ten in 1981.

Matlock Police is an Australian television police drama series made by Crawford Productions for The 0-10 Network between 1971 and 1976. The series focused on the police station and crime in the Victorian town of Matlock and the surrounding district, and the backgrounds and personal lives of the main policemen.

<i>Murder Call</i> 1997-2000 Australian television series

Murder Call is an Australian television series, created by Hal McElroy for the Southern Star Entertainment and broadcast on the Nine Network between 1997 and 2000. The series was inspired by the Tessa Vance novels by Jennifer Rowe, both of which were adapted as episodes, while Rowe also developed story treatments for 38 episodes throughout the series.

Augustino Eugenio Mercurio better known as Gus Mercurio, was an American-born Australian character actor who appeared in radio, television, and film. He was also a professional boxer, boxing referee and judge.

Gerard Kennedy is an Australian double Gold Logie award-winning former actor, best known for his roles in early television series, in particular the espionage series including Hunter and the police procedural Division 4. Kennedy also appeared in film roles during a career that spanned 50 years in the industry.

<i>headLand</i> Australian television series

headLand is an Australian drama television series produced by the Seven Network which ran from 15 November 2005 to 21 January 2006. The Seven Network filmed 52 episodes in the first series. Production on the second series had begun before any episodes were aired.

Hampton Court is a 1991 Australian situation comedy series, produced by Gary Reilly Productions for the Seven Network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penne Hackforth-Jones</span> Australian actress (1949–2013)

Penne Hackforth-Jones was an American-born Australian actress and biographer.

Tandarra is an Australian television series which screened on the Seven Network in Australia in 1976 and on ITV in the UK. It was a follow-up series to Cash and Company which screened in 1975, and it consisted of 13 one-hour episodes. Tandarra and Cash and Company were set during the Victorian gold rush period of the 1850s.

The Penguin Award was an annual award given for excellence in broadcasting by the Television Society of Australia. It was founded in 1954. The award trophy depicts an ear listening to a television tube, but strongly resembles a penguin, hence the name. The award was designed by Des White, an artist and designer at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Chandon Pictures is an Australian comedy television series that premiered on Movie Extra on 10 November 2007 and ended on 7 May 2009.

Bony is an Australian television series made in 1992. The series of 13 episodes followed on from a telemovie made in 1990. The series was criticised for casting a white man as the title character Detective David John "Bony" Bonaparte, under the tutelage of "Uncle Albert", an elderly Aboriginal person played by Burnum Burnum. Bony was supposed to be a descendant of the Bony character created by Arthur Upfield in dozens of novels from the late 1920s until his death in 1964.

<i>The Brush-Off</i> Book by Shane Maloney

The Brush-Off is a 1996 Australian crime thriller novel, written by Shane Maloney. It is the second novel in a series of crime thrillers following the character of Murray Whelan, as he investigates crimes in the Melbourne area in the course of trying to keep his job with the Australian Labor Party.

Baby Boom is an American television sitcom based on the 1987 film of the same name, created by Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer, and starring Kate Jackson. The pilot premiered on NBC on September 10, 1988, and the series aired from November 2, 1988, to July 13, 1989.

Patrick John Edgeworth was an English stage and screenwriter.

Conspiracy 365 is a 12-part Australian television miniseries based on the novels written by Gabrielle Lord. Produced by Circa Media for Family Movie Channel, the series screened from January 2012. It also began screening on ABC3 in January 2014.

<i>Raw Deal</i> (1977 film) 1977 film

Raw Deal is a 1977 Australian meat pie western film directed by Russell Hagg made by the company responsible for the TV series Cash and Company and Tandarra.

The Old Curiosity Shop is a 1984 Australian animated film based on the 1841 novel by Charles Dickens about a young girl (Nell) who lives with her grandfather in a shop, and what happens after they are evicted from the shop by Quilp, a moneylender. It was made by Burbank Films who produced a number of animated films based on classic novels. Their slate cost an estimated $11 million. The Dickens films sold to 20th Century Fox in the US and to the Seven Network in Australia.

Contrabandits is a 1967 Australian TV series about the work of the customs department.

<i>The Cousin from Fiji</i> Book by Norman Lindsay

The Cousin from Fiji (1945) is a novel by Australian writer and artist Norman Lindsay.

References

  1. Film Buff's Forecast (27 October 2017). "10 - Universal's Australian Chief and An Englishman Abroad" (Podcast).
  2. Albert Moran, Moran's Guide to Australian TV Series, AFTRS 1993 p 103