This article needs additional citations for verification .(August 2018) |
Special Squad | |
---|---|
Genre | Crime drama |
Starring | Alan Cassell Anthony Hawkins John Diedrich |
Country of origin | Australia |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 43 |
Production | |
Executive producers | Hector Crawford Ian Crawford Terry Stapleton |
Producers | Raymond Menmuir Ross Jennings |
Production company | Crawford Productions |
Original release | |
Network | Network Ten |
Release | 1984 |
Special Squad is an Australian television series made by Crawford Productions for Network Ten in 1984.
The series focused on an elite division of the Victoria Police, which handled crimes either too sensitive or specialist for regular squads. The Special Squad was headed by Det. Insp. Don Anderson (Alan Cassell), with his main operatives being Det. Snr. Sgt. Greg Smith (Anthony Hawkins), and Det. Sgt. Joel Davis (John Diedrich).
Special Squad was seen by some as an Australian answer to the British series The Professionals both for its focus on action and violence, and the fact that both programs were produced by Raymond Menmuir; [1] story consultant Gerry O'Hara also worked on both shows. [2] It was suggested in the press that the show was the most expensive yet made for Australian television; John Diedrich told writer/actor Barry Dickins that the show cost A$5 million. [3] The first series was sold to Paramount Pictures for international distribution. [4]
Special Squad lasted 43 episodes in total. In 2023, Crawfords produced a box set of all episodes on DVD.
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | "Trojan Horses" | TBD | TBD | |
2 | 2 | "The Expert" | Arch Nicholson | John Upton | |
3 | 3 | "Code of Silence" | TBD | Vince Moran | 1984 |
4 | 4 | "Easy Street" | TBD | TBD | |
5 | 5 | "Counterfeit Lady" | Patrick Edgeworth | Arch Nicholson | |
6 | 6 | "The Long Secret" | Unknown | Shane Brennan | 22 July 1984 |
7 | 7 | "The Second Mr Swift" | TBD | TBD | |
8 | 8 | "The Wurzburg Link" | TBD | TBD | |
9 | 9 | "Same Time Friday" | Chris Langman | David Wilks and Gerry O'Hara | |
10 | 10 | "Duel" | Arch Nicholson | Luis Bayonas | |
11 | 11 | "The Set Up" | Paul Moloney | John Upton | |
12 | 12 | "The Golden Run" | Ranald Graham | Catherine Millar | |
13 | 13 | "Jacko" | Arch Nicholson | Luis Bayonas | |
14 | 14 | "Slow Attack" | Paul Maloney | Philip Dalkin | |
15 | 15 | "Country Girl" | Arch Nicholson | Cliff Green | |
16 | 16 | "War" | Catherine Millar | Everett De Roche and Vince Moran | |
17 | 17 | "Wild Man" | Paul Moloney | Ranald Graham | |
18 | 18 | "The Chen Legacy" | Chris Langman | Shane Brennan | |
19 | 19 | "Child Of Fortune" | Tim Burstall | Ranald Graham | |
20 | 20 | "Business As Usual" | Mark Joffe | Shane Brennan and Kris Steele | |
21 | 21 | "A Wild Oat" | Brian Trenchard-Smith | Leon Saunders | |
22 | 22 | "Mates" | Rob Stewart | Luis Bayonas | |
23 | 23 | "Big Bad World" | Howard Rubie | Cliff Green | |
24 | 24 | "Early Birds" | Rob Stewart | Michael Harvey | |
25 | 25 | "The Bribe" | TBD | TBD | |
26 | 26 | "Farewell to a Comrade" | Michael Caulfield | Shane Brennan | |
27 | 27 | "In The Cause Of Justice" | TBD | TBD | |
28 | 28 | "Hot Streets" | TBD | Michael Aitkens | |
29 | 29 | "Killer" | TBD | TBD | |
30 | 30 | "The Patchwork" | TBD | David Phillips | |
31 | 31 | "Brothers" | TBD | TBD | |
32 | 32 | "Until Death" | Rod Hardy | Vince Moran | |
33 | 33 | "Ghosts" | TBD | Vince Gil | |
34 | 34 | "The Haley Inheritance" | Colin Budds | Shane Brennan | |
35 | 35 | "Suzie's War" | Dan Burstall | Luis Bayonas | |
36 | 36 | "Return Of The Cat" | John Power | John Upton | |
37 | 37 | "Pigs" | Ken Cameron | Shane Brennan | |
38 | 38 | "Mombasa" | TBD | TBD | |
39 | 39 | "The Haunting" | Tim Burstall | Luis Bayonas | |
40 | 40 | "Rotten Apple" | TBD | TBD | |
41 | 41 | "Mad Mountain Mumma" | TBD | TBD | |
42 | 42 | "Life After Teddy" | Collin Budds | Shane Brennan | |
43 | 43 | "Gone For The Doctor" | TBD | TBD |
In January 2023 Crawford Productions announced that the series would be released on DVD in March 2023.
On 31 May 2023 Crawford Productions released the complete series on DVD.
Title | Format | Ep # | Discs | Region 4 (Australia) | Special Features | Distributors |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Special Squad (Complete Series) | DVD | 43 | 09 | 31 May 2023 | None | Crawford Productions |
Nicholas Benton Alexander III was an American motion picture actor, who started out as a child actor in 1916. He is best remembered for his role as Officer Frank Smith in the Dragnet franchise.
Burke's Law is an American detective series that aired on ABC from 1963 to 1966. The show starred Gene Barry as millionaire captain of Los Angeles Police homicide division Amos Burke, who is chauffeured around to solve crimes in his 1962 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II complete with an early car phone.
Cold Squad is a Canadian police procedural television series that premiered on CTV on January 23, 1998, at 10 p.m., and ran for seven seasons. Led by Sergeant Ali McCormick, a team of homicide detectives from the Vancouver Police Department reopen long-unsolved, or "cold" cases, using present-day forensic technology and psychological profiling to help crack them. Cold Squad premiered simultaneously in French Canada on Séries+ as Brigade spéciale.
Water Rats is an Australian TV police procedural broadcast on the Nine Network from 1996 to 2001. The series was based on the work of Sydney Water Police who fight crime around Sydney Harbour and surrounding locales. The show was set on and around Goat Island in Sydney Harbour.
Cop Shop is a long-running Australian police drama television series produced by Crawford Productions that ran for seven seasons between 28 November 1977 and 23 July 1984. It comprised 582 one-hour episodes.
Skyways is an Australian television soap opera drama series made by Crawford Productions for the Seven Network.
Homicide was a landmark Australian television police procedural drama series broadcast on the Seven Network and produced by Crawford Productions. It was the television successor to Crawfords' radio series D24. The "Consummate Homicide cast" includes the four characters that are the best known: Det. Snr. Sgt. David "Mac" MacKay, Det. Sgt. Peter Barnes, Inspector Colin Fox and Sen. Det. Jim Patterson.
Bluey is an Australian television series made by Crawford Productions for the Seven Network in 1976.
The Long Arm was an Australian television police series shown from April 1970, which ran for 19 episodes.
Young Lions is an Australian TV police drama shown on the Nine Network in 2002 and in Ireland on RTÉ Two. The storyline of the series revolved around the professional and private lives of four rookie detectives, the Young Lions, of South West 101, an inner city Sydney police station.
Blood Money is a British television serial written by Arden Winch and produced by the BBC in 1981.
Mr. Novak is an American television drama television series starring James Franciscus in the title role as a high school teacher. The series aired on NBC for two seasons, from 1963 to 1965. It won a Peabody Award in 1963.
The Squad is a British television teen drama series, broadcast on ITV, that ran for just a single series of twelve episodes from 1 October to 17 December 1980. The series follows the fictional exploits of a group of Metropolitan Police police cadets as they take part in various community related projects whilst learning the ropes to become fully fledged police officers. The series specifically focused on the activities of four cadets: Alan Martin, George Booker, Jogger Cummins and Sandra Henley. Coincidentally, actor Mark Botham, who played the role of cadet Alan Martin, later went on to appear as PC Danny Sparkes in the BBC police procedural TV series Juliet Bravo.
The Detectives is an American crime drama series which ran on ABC during its first two seasons, and on NBC during its third and final season. The series, starring motion picture star Robert Taylor, was produced by Four Star Television in association with Levy-Gardner-Laven Productions.
Robert Raglan was a British actor best known for his semi-regular role in Dad's Army as Colonel Pritchard. He also starred in a number of other television series and films such as Fabian of the Yard (1954–56) and The Haunted House of Horror (1969). He also appeared in Danger Man with Patrick McGoohan, and Scotland Yard.
New Scotland Yard is a police drama series produced by London Weekend Television (LWT) for the ITV network between 1972 and 1974. It features the activities of two officers from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in the Metropolitan Police force headquarters at New Scotland Yard, as they dealt with the assorted villains of the day.
A Pinch of Snuff is a British television crime drama miniseries, consisting of three fifty-minute episodes, that broadcast on ITV network from 9 to 23 April 1994. The series, adapted from the 1978 novel of the same name by author Reginald Hill, was the first Dalziel and Pascoe adaptation for TV, arriving two years before the more widely known BBC adaptation that followed in 1996. In this miniseries, the characters of Dalziel and Pascoe were played by comedians Gareth Hale and Norman Pace, with Christopher Fairbank as loyal sidekick Edgar Wield, and Malcolm Storry as Insp. Ray Crabtree.
Robert Cawdron was a French-born British film and television actor. Often cast as police officers, he had a long-running role on Dixon of Dock Green as Detective Inspector Cherry.
The Widow of Bath is a British thriller television series which first aired on the BBC in six episodes between 1 June and 6 July 1959. Margot Bennett adapted her own 1952 novel of the same title. The show starred Guy Rolfe, Barbara Murray and John Justin. Art director Roy Oxley designed the sets. It is now considered lost.
Melissa is a 1964 British thriller television series which originally aired in six parts on BBC 2 in 1964. It was shown under the umbrella title Francis Durbridge Presents, and was one of a number of serials written by Francis Durbridge during the period.