The Fast Lane | |
---|---|
Genre | Comedy |
Starring | Terry Bader Richard Healy Debra Lawrance Peter Hosking |
Country of origin | Australia |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 2 |
No. of episodes | 20 |
Production | |
Producer | Noel Price |
Production company | ABC |
Original release | |
Network | ABC |
Release | 8 March 1985 – 29 December 1986 |
The Fast Lane is an Australian television show that aired between 1985 (Season 1) and 1986 (Season 2) on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). [1]
The Fast Lane was created by John Clarke and Andrew Knight and starred Terry Bader, Richard Healy, Debra Lawrance and Peter Hosking.
According to Debra Lawrance on The Conversation Hour in ABC 774 radio 15 October 2015 (at about 26 mins into the file), the ABC taped over the master Umatic tapes. [2] ABC archives however, have advised (21 September 2021) that they hold copies of the entire series.
This comedy series follows two private investigators, Bryce (Terry Bader) and Ken (Richard Healy), who run a firm known as the "Excelsior Research Foundation". They are assisted by Pat (Debra Lawrance), their receptionist.
Bryce thinks he is smart and boasts about his elite private school background, but is actually very stupid and fails to understand what is really happening around him. He dropped out of law school in the second year. Ken is the down-to-earth blue-collar member of the team, but they both usually get into deep trouble. Pat is the sensible and smart one, but the others don't recognise this. She and Detective Sergeant Blair (Peter Hosking) usually rescue them and clean up after them.
The plots are a black comedy and satire. The agency is desperate for work and usually takes on small cases involving simple detective work (e.g. domestic disputes). Bryce and Ken stumble around trying to solve it - mostly when Bryce takes the obviously wrong approach - and getting deeper into trouble. Meanwhile Pat does the real detective work and uncovers a bigger crime that is linked to the small case (e.g. corporate crime). Although Pat discovers the real criminals, they often escape prosecution because of loopholes in the law or they are too powerful to touch. In the end, the simple case is wrapped up and Bryce undeservedly takes the credit for it. But the audience and Pat realise the injustice, because the wrapup usually results in the innocent becoming the victim and the real criminals getting way with it.
Producer: Noel Price
Directors: Colin Budds, Peter Dodds, Mark Joffe, Noel Price, Mandy Smith
Written by: Andrew Knight, John Clarke (and others)
Music: Greg Sneddon
Locations: All shows were shot in Melbourne
According to John Clarke's CV, there were 19 episodes in total. [3] [4] [5]
These episodes were run on ABC Channel 2 at 8:55 pm on Thursday nights. A review in the Sydney Morning Herald mentions the episodes were to run on Fridays, but the ABC changed their mind, and ran the series on Thursdays instead. [6] Note: all episodes of Series 1 are known to exist in the form of VHS Rips available online.
No. in season | Title | Written by | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Confusion by Numbers" | John Clarke and Andrew Knight | 7 March 1985 | |
Bryce and Ken are hired to perform as security at a wedding — guarding the presents. There, an old friend hires Bryce and Ken for a lucrative accounting investigation. Pat arrives in Melbourne and finds work after the newspaper misprints Bryce and Ken's ad for a secretary under rooms for rent. | ||||
2 | "Upping the Integrity" | John Clarke and Andrew Knight | 14 March 1985 | |
The Excelsior Research Foundation is hired by an advertising agency to investigate the theft of a marketing campaign. Bryce finds his spiritual home in the advertising industry, while Ken cons a favour from Pat by getting her to enrol in a modelling course to expose the company's business practices. | ||||
3 | "A Mug's Game" | John Clarke and Andrew Knight | 21 March 1985 | |
A small town drainage authority hires Bryce and Pat to investigate clerical corruption in a regional town. A lucky gambler runs afoul of townsfolk in the local pub. Meanwhile, Ken tries to sort out a few personal problems. John Clarke is (off-camera) as the race caller. | ||||
4 | "Tertiary Sisyphus" | John Clarke and Andrew Knight | 28 March 1985 | |
A case of mistaken identity leads to Ken going undercover as an academic after he and Bryce are hired to examine the reason for the suspiciously high pass-rate in a difficult university English course. This ep. has Barry Otto as the professor | ||||
5 | "Irreconcilable Similarities" | John Clarke and Andrew Knight | 4 April 1985 | |
An analytical man hires the Excelsior Research Foundation to investigate his wife's extramarital liaisons. Pat steps in to deliver a package on behalf of Bryce and Ken getting all three involved in a dangerous drug ring | ||||
6 | "Portrait of Whistler's Underwriter" | John Clarke and Andrew Knight | 11 April 1985 | |
A friend of Bryce's father hires the Excelsior Research Foundation to investigate thefts from his private art collection. This episode has John Clarke himself playing a guest role. | ||||
7 | "The Sound of One Hand Counting" | John Clarke and Andrew Knight | 18 April 1985 | |
Pat is sent to work undercover in a factory to investigate thefts from the shop floor. Bryce and Ken are assigned to investigate the callous factory manager's wife only to find themselves participating in a New Age self-improvement course | ||||
8 | "The Below Average Samaritan" | John Clarke and Andrew Knight | 25 April 1985 | |
Bryce matches wits with a streetwise teenage entrepreneur who has half his years and twice his skills, and Ken is asked to be best man at his former wife's wedding. | ||||
9 | "All's Well That Himfella Buggerup Finish" | John Clarke and Andrew Knight | 2 May 1985 | |
Interpol, Mr Big, murder, heroin and intrigue form just another day's work for the bumbling duo at Excelsior who prove once again that when the going gets tough they are completely out of their league. |
These episodes were run on ABC Channel 2 on Tuesday nights at 9:20 pm. Note: Episodes 1, 2 and 3 are NOT known to exist as VHS rips available online, whereas the others are.
No. in season | Title | Written by | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Should Auld Acquaintances Be Given a Fairly Wide Berth" | John Clarke and Andrew Knight | 27 October 1987 | |
Bryce and Ken are recruited by the Ministry for Cultural Advancement to track down a couple of esoteric, cultural fringe-dwellers who have absconded with their grants for 'Celebrate Australia Day' | ||||
2 | "Following by Example" | Andrew Knight | 3 November 1987 | |
The coach of an amateur football club, impressed with Bryce's new ideals on personal motivation, hires him to boost the team's morale. | ||||
3 | "Charming Little Bijou Enterprise in Prime Position - Suit Magistrate" | Max Dann | 10 November 1987 | |
Keel, an unscrupulous real estate agent, has persuaded a woman and her retarded son to sell their home for far below its real price, so Keel can benefit by its resale. Keel's assistant, Portman, fed up with his boss and his crafty schemes, enlists the help of Ken and Bryce to carry out a careful plan. | ||||
4 | "Holding the Mirror Up to Itself" | John Alsop and Andrew Knight | 17 November 1987 | |
When Bryce and Ken go in search of an old man's missing greyhound, an actor (who has the role of a private detective in a TV series) goes along with them to see how real detectives work. Needing an impressive case, Bryce makes up a story about a diamond heist so they can "recover" the stolen goods. Meanwhile, Pat runs into bureaucratic roadblocks when she takes up the cause of a couple whose house is being affected by an excavation on the neighbouring council-owned property. | ||||
5 | "Murder Most Fouled" | Robyn Walton | 24 November 1987 | |
Bryce, Ken and Pat go undercover at a country guesthouse to solve a series of antique thefts. Before long, Bryce reveals his true identity to investigate a murder — a difficult task given he has no body, no clues, and no shortage of suspects. | ||||
6 | "The Gods Must Be Extremely Badly Advised" | Deborah Parsons | 1 December 1987 | |
Bryce and Ken are hired to provide market research for a confectionery company and find themselves in the middle of a union dispute | ||||
7 | "Rosencrantz & Guildernstern Aren't Very Well" | John Clarke, Richard Healy & Andrew Knight | 8 December 1987 | |
Ken and Bryce are on the hook for costly repairs after they are hired to de-bug a suburban home. The pair are then approached to make a dead drop on behalf of a popular talk radio host who is being blackmailed over his illegitimate child. When the man who picks up the money is later found dead, Ken and Bryce are arrested for murder. (Added writing credit: based on a phone call from Geoff Kelso) | ||||
8 | "All the World's Going Through a Bit of a Stage" | Robyn Walton | 15 December 1987 | |
Ken and Bryce are hired to discover the identity of a mystery playwright | ||||
9 | "My Dinner with Agnes" | Max Dann and Andrew Knight | 22 December 1987 | |
Ken and Bryce attempt to serve a summons on a marathon-running security guard. | ||||
10 | "Je Regrette Tout" | John Alsop and Andrew Knight | 29 December 1987 | |
An Irishman is sent to Melbourne on a mission involving an ecumenical conference. When the suspected terrorist misses his contact at the airport, he happens across an ad for the Excelsior Research Foundation and hires them to locate her. With Pat making plans to get married and move overseas, Ken and Bryce both make their feelings known. |
Postman Pat is a British stop motion animated children's television series first produced by Woodland Animations. The series follows the adventures of Pat Clifton, a postman who works for the Royal Mail postal service in the fictional village of Greendale.
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet is a British comedy-drama television programme about seven British construction workers who leave the United Kingdom to search for employment overseas. In the first series, the men live and work on a building site in Düsseldorf. The series was created by Franc Roddam after an idea from Mick Connell, a bricklayer from Stockton-on-Tees, and mostly written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, who also wrote The Likely Lads, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? and Porridge. It starred Tim Healy, Kevin Whately, Jimmy Nail, Timothy Spall, Christopher Fairbank, Pat Roach and Gary Holton, with Noel Clarke replacing Holton for series three and four and the two-part finale. The series were broadcast on ITV in 1983–1984 and 1986. After a sixteen-year gap, two series and a Christmas special were shown on BBC One in 2002 and 2004.
Minder is a British comedy-drama series about the London criminal underworld. Initially produced by Verity Lambert, it was made by Euston Films, a subsidiary of Thames Television, and shown on ITV for ten series between 29 October 1979 and 10 March 1994.
The Lion King's Timon & Pumbaa is an American animated buddy comedy television series created by Walt Disney Television Animation. It was based on Disney's 1994 animated feature film The Lion King, centering on Timon the meerkat and Pumbaa the warthog as they continue to live by their problem-free philosophy hakuna matata. Compared to most other The Lion King media, the tone of the series is more slapstick comedy-oriented.
Halifax f.p. is an Australian television crime series produced by Nine Network from 1994 to 2002. The series stars Rebecca Gibney as Doctor Jane Halifax, a forensic psychiatrist (f.p.) investigating cases involving the mental state of suspects or victims. The series is set in Melbourne.
The Games was an Australian mockumentary television series about the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. The series was originally broadcast on the ABC and had two seasons of 13 episodes each, the first in 1998 and the second in 2000.
Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) is a British private detective television series, starring Mike Pratt and Kenneth Cope respectively as the private detectives Jeff Randall and Marty Hopkirk. The series was created by Dennis Spooner and produced by Monty Berman, and was first broadcast in 1969 and 1970. In the United States, it was given the title My Partner the Ghost.
Debra Lawrance is an Australian actress. She is best known for her role on Home and Away, as Pippa Ross, which she played from 1990 to 1998 and in a number of subsequent return appearances, the most recent being in 2009.
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.
Bluey is an Australian television series made by Crawford Productions for the Seven Network in 1976.
Matthew Arthur Bardock was born in 1969 in Croydon. He is an English actor who is known for playing Jeff Collier in Casualty, DS Clive Barnard in A Touch of Frost, DS Davey Higgins in The Coroner, Albie in The Lakes, Mark Craig in New Blood and DS Simon Morgan in Manhunt: The Nightstalker.
The Bronx Is Burning is a television drama that debuted on ESPN on July 10, 2007, after the 2007 MLB Home Run Derby. It is an eight-episode mini-series adapted from Jonathan Mahler's best-selling book, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning. The book focuses on baseball's triumph over the turmoil and hysteria of 1977 New York City and how the New York Yankees came to embody the hopes and fears of an unforgettable summer with Billy Martin and Reggie Jackson's warfare under George Steinbrenner's leadership.
The first season of the Australian police-drama Blue Heelers premiered on the Seven Network on 10 September 1993 and aired on Tuesday nights at 7:30 PM. The 45-episode season concluded on 22 November 1994. It had an average rating of 2.5 million and going to 3.5 million at its peak.
The fifth season of the Australian police-drama Blue Heelers premiered on the Seven Network on 24 February 1998 and aired on Wednesday nights at 8:30 PM. The 41-episode season concluded 25 November 1998. The 41-episode fifth season saw the show move to Wednesday nights at 8:30 PM, making way for All Saints on Tuesdays at 8.30 PM.
I Can Jump Puddles is a 1981 Australian television mini-series based on the 1955 autobiography of the same name by author Alan Marshall. Adapted for television by screenwriters Cliff Green and Roger Simpson, the series starred Lewis Fitz-Gerald, Adam Garnett, Tony Barry, Julie Hamilton, Ann Henderson, Lesley Baker, Olivia Brown, Debra Lawrance and Darren MacDonald.
The Nancy Walker Show is an American sitcom television series that aired from September 30, 1976, to December 23, 1976. The series, produced by Norman Lear, was a starring vehicle for Nancy Walker after she gained a new-found television following as both the McMillans' housekeeper Mildred on McMillan & Wife and as Rhoda Morgenstern's mother Ida Morgenstern on Rhoda. The series was a ratings flop and was cancelled after only 12 aired episodes.
The third season of Criminal Minds premiered on CBS on September 26, 2007 and ended May 21, 2008. The third season was originally to have featured 25 episodes; however, only 13 were completed before the Writers Guild of America strike (2007–08). Seven more episodes were produced after the strike, bringing the total number of episodes to 20 for the third season. Mandy Patinkin wanted to leave the series, since he loathed the violent nature of it. He was replaced by Joe Mantegna several episodes later.
The Crezz is a British television drama produced by Thames Television and shown on the ITV network in 1976. Created by Clive Exton, The Crezz was set in a fictitious West London crescent, Carlisle Crescent. The series was 12 one-hour programmes each focused on a different household. The series was broadcast on ITV at 9pm to start with but midway through it was put back to 10.35pm because the series didn't achieve the viewing figures that were hoped for.
Public Enemies is a 1941 American comedy film directed by Albert S. Rogell and written by Edward T. Lowe Jr. and Lawrence Kimble. The film stars Wendy Barrie, Phillip Terry, Edgar Kennedy, William Frawley, Marc Lawrence and Nana Bryant. The film was released on October 30, 1941, by Republic Pictures.
American Woman is a 2018 drama film directed by Jake Scott and written by Brad Ingelsby. The film stars Sienna Miller, Christina Hendricks, Aaron Paul, Will Sasso, Pat Healy, and Amy Madigan.