Post by Dirty Epic on Apr 13, 2016 14:57:19 GMT
A couple of years ago I got hold of this rather good 3 part mini-series from 1986. Although set in 1985 it loosely depicts the 1976 Great Bookie Robbery in Melbourne, albeit it with fictitious characters.
{Spoiler Alert - Click Here To Reveal}
It’s main character is Mike Power (John Bach) who is coming to the end of a prison sentence at the Isle of Wight in England. Power is based upon Ray Chuck Bennett a notorious Melbourne criminal who came up through the ranks of Melbourne’s Painters and Dockers union on the docks and had graduated to armed robberies in Australia, the UK and Europe. Power (like Bennett) has found a way to pull off an audacious armed robbery at Melbourne’s ‘Victoria Club’ that will be awash will multi-millions of Dollars after the Easter race meetings. To achieve this he not only needs to recruit a well drilled gang of men but finish off a nearly over prison sentence in the England. Whilst on home leave he, his common law wife Carol (Catherine Wilkin) and young son David head to London where he meets an associate Tony Loft (Andy Anderson). Loft will eventually be one of Power’s right hand men and may (may not) be based on Laurie Prendergast who is believed to have been involved in the real robbery with Bennett. Power needs to get Melbourne to assemble his gang to do the job. Loft arranges for Power to travel on a false passport to do this and get back to the UK before the authorities in Australia and the UK and rival Melbourne criminals know of his plans. Whilst in Melbourne he contacts ‘Robbo’ Robbins (Scott Burgess) a knockabout but experienced criminal who’s on the run from authorities for a parole violation and ‘Jaffa’ Davis (George Spartels) a hustler and small time drug dealer. Jaffa and Robbo are on the lower rungs of the ladder and things aren’t helped when an Robbo befriends a undercover cop ‘Chicka’ White (Gary Sweet) who inadvertently helps Robbo after he gets into an altercation at a Melbourne bar. At the other end of the scale Power’s plan interests Colin Reynolds (Gary Day) a well connected individual and semi legitimate businessman. He is perhaps very loosely based upon real-life Melbourne criminal Norman ‘Normie’ Lee. This enables Power to recruit Irish ex-pat Russ Lockheart (Denis Moore) and Power is ready to put his plans into reality. However before he returns to the UK word has spread amongst Melbourne’s criminal fraternity he’s in town and ready to do a major robbery. Brain and brawn brothers Merv and Bob Temple (Paul Sonkkila and Ray Meagher) want in on Power’s plan and if they can’t be a part of the robbery they will ‘stand over’ Power and his gang for a cut of the proceeds. The Temple brothers are pretty much brothers Brian and Les Kane who were serious criminals in Melbourne and a leading force in the Painters and Dockers union and a lose group of criminals which a few years later would become the ‘Carlton Crew’. Assuming Robbo and Jaffa are part of the gang the Temple’s use force to try and get information on the robbery from them. This fails but they know something is on and will bide their time before confronting Power head on. They also have a relationship with Melbourne CIB detective Edwards (Dennis Miller) and have let slip Power is back in Melbourne. A chance encounter see’s Power engage Edwards in a foot chase through Melbourne’s CDB. He loses Edwards in Queen Victoria Market but knows he must get back to the UK ASAP. Edwards contacts UK authorities but due to the time difference and technological deficiencies of the period Power gets back to London undetected and on the face of things did not leave the country and complied with his leave conditions. Edwards knows the truth and that Power is up to something and when he’s released from Prison he catches up with Power and grills him about his Melbourne sighting and conspiracy plans. There’s nothing Edwards can make stick though and Power is free to continue with his plans albeit with heavy surveillance. Power has realised he needs another experienced hand on the robbery and sounds out ‘Cracka’ Park (Bruno Lawrence) who is on the run from the police for various offences. Cracka Park is a thinly veiled reference to notorious Australian armed robber Russell ‘Mad Dog’ Cox a trigger happy blagger who terrorised Australia throughout the 1970’s up to the 1980’s. Prior to meeting with Power Cracka was in a recent armed robbery with Robbo and Jaffa and his trademark of firing his pump action shotgun has alerted the Melbourne CIB to him being in the city. Because of this and his volatile reputation Power and in particular Loft and Reynolds are vary to include Park in the gang but they need him due to his experience so Power agrees to hide him out in a deserted farmhouse in rural Victoria. Whilst there Cracka strikes up a relationship with Carol’s sister Sonya Reynolds (Candy Raymond) who initially shocked and scared becomes attracted to him and his outlaw lifestyle. Meanwhile Power is putting his plans in place and is nearly ready to go. However a chance encounter with the Temple’s at a Melbourne social club ends in violence and the Temple’s promise retribution on Power for not cutting them in on the robbery. The robbery goes off successfully without even a shot fired and the major figures in the gang (Power, Loft and Reynolds) relocate to the Gold Coast and have ideas to invest the proceeds in property and legitimate business. However back in Melbourne the Temple’s lure them back to town. Bob launches a timebomb at the garage/business premises of one of their associates and shoot dead Russ Lockheart. They also set up Robbo who is also under surveillance by ‘Chicka’ White who is really a undercover CIB detective. The Temple’s ‘dog’ (grass) on Robbo who is arrested and returned to jail along with Power who is questioned/leaned on by Edwards over the Bookie Robbery. Without evidence Edwards reluctantly lets Power go but Power is furious intent on extracting revenge on the Temple brothers. Power and Loft gun down Bob Temple in front of his wife in a car park and then close in Merv. However before they can get him Power is arrested by Edwards on a trumped up unrelated charge. Whilst on bail Power marries Carol and is taken for trial at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court. Whilst being taken down Power see’s Merv who pulls out a pistol and shoots Power who dies slowly in the lobby way. Merv escapes but not for long whilst we see Power’s funeral Loft and Cracka find Merv in a pub and shoot him dead. Carol’s sister says Loft and Cracka have got Merv to which she says ‘she doesn’t care anymore!’ and many of these events loosely mirror the real life murders of Les and Brian Kane, Ray Chuck Bennett, Normie Lee and others in Melbourne’s underworld at the time of the Great Bookie Robbery.
Like things like Blue Murder which focuses on Sydney’s underworld and the more recent Underbelly series The Great Bookie Robbery is very good and after seeing real crime documentaries like Australia’s Families of Crime and Tough Nuts the fact many of these events are true are what raises the bar with this and the other series. It was produced by Ian Bradley of Prisoner fame and it’s mentioned on the commentary that he was a big fan of gritty British police drama’s like The Sweeney and in many ways there are some aspects of this here. The cast also play there roles well particularly John Bach (Power), Bruno Lawrence (Cracka), Andy Anderson (Loft) and particularly Ray Meagher (Bob Temple) who is nothing like his Home and Away self and is very convincing as a knucklehead Melbourne crim/gangster. Overall I’d recommend it to you guys on the forum but it is hard to find but if you like gritty crime/thriller/armed robbery capers you love this. Shame I never got this a few years earlier as I may have been able to have some location pics of Melbourne too…arraggh!
I’ll be doing a review at the Underbelly series at some point soon too but this is miles above that and like I say its quality Aussie crime drama!
It’s main character is Mike Power (John Bach) who is coming to the end of a prison sentence at the Isle of Wight in England. Power is based upon Ray Chuck Bennett a notorious Melbourne criminal who came up through the ranks of Melbourne’s Painters and Dockers union on the docks and had graduated to armed robberies in Australia, the UK and Europe. Power (like Bennett) has found a way to pull off an audacious armed robbery at Melbourne’s ‘Victoria Club’ that will be awash will multi-millions of Dollars after the Easter race meetings. To achieve this he not only needs to recruit a well drilled gang of men but finish off a nearly over prison sentence in the England. Whilst on home leave he, his common law wife Carol (Catherine Wilkin) and young son David head to London where he meets an associate Tony Loft (Andy Anderson). Loft will eventually be one of Power’s right hand men and may (may not) be based on Laurie Prendergast who is believed to have been involved in the real robbery with Bennett. Power needs to get Melbourne to assemble his gang to do the job. Loft arranges for Power to travel on a false passport to do this and get back to the UK before the authorities in Australia and the UK and rival Melbourne criminals know of his plans. Whilst in Melbourne he contacts ‘Robbo’ Robbins (Scott Burgess) a knockabout but experienced criminal who’s on the run from authorities for a parole violation and ‘Jaffa’ Davis (George Spartels) a hustler and small time drug dealer. Jaffa and Robbo are on the lower rungs of the ladder and things aren’t helped when an Robbo befriends a undercover cop ‘Chicka’ White (Gary Sweet) who inadvertently helps Robbo after he gets into an altercation at a Melbourne bar. At the other end of the scale Power’s plan interests Colin Reynolds (Gary Day) a well connected individual and semi legitimate businessman. He is perhaps very loosely based upon real-life Melbourne criminal Norman ‘Normie’ Lee. This enables Power to recruit Irish ex-pat Russ Lockheart (Denis Moore) and Power is ready to put his plans into reality. However before he returns to the UK word has spread amongst Melbourne’s criminal fraternity he’s in town and ready to do a major robbery. Brain and brawn brothers Merv and Bob Temple (Paul Sonkkila and Ray Meagher) want in on Power’s plan and if they can’t be a part of the robbery they will ‘stand over’ Power and his gang for a cut of the proceeds. The Temple brothers are pretty much brothers Brian and Les Kane who were serious criminals in Melbourne and a leading force in the Painters and Dockers union and a lose group of criminals which a few years later would become the ‘Carlton Crew’. Assuming Robbo and Jaffa are part of the gang the Temple’s use force to try and get information on the robbery from them. This fails but they know something is on and will bide their time before confronting Power head on. They also have a relationship with Melbourne CIB detective Edwards (Dennis Miller) and have let slip Power is back in Melbourne. A chance encounter see’s Power engage Edwards in a foot chase through Melbourne’s CDB. He loses Edwards in Queen Victoria Market but knows he must get back to the UK ASAP. Edwards contacts UK authorities but due to the time difference and technological deficiencies of the period Power gets back to London undetected and on the face of things did not leave the country and complied with his leave conditions. Edwards knows the truth and that Power is up to something and when he’s released from Prison he catches up with Power and grills him about his Melbourne sighting and conspiracy plans. There’s nothing Edwards can make stick though and Power is free to continue with his plans albeit with heavy surveillance. Power has realised he needs another experienced hand on the robbery and sounds out ‘Cracka’ Park (Bruno Lawrence) who is on the run from the police for various offences. Cracka Park is a thinly veiled reference to notorious Australian armed robber Russell ‘Mad Dog’ Cox a trigger happy blagger who terrorised Australia throughout the 1970’s up to the 1980’s. Prior to meeting with Power Cracka was in a recent armed robbery with Robbo and Jaffa and his trademark of firing his pump action shotgun has alerted the Melbourne CIB to him being in the city. Because of this and his volatile reputation Power and in particular Loft and Reynolds are vary to include Park in the gang but they need him due to his experience so Power agrees to hide him out in a deserted farmhouse in rural Victoria. Whilst there Cracka strikes up a relationship with Carol’s sister Sonya Reynolds (Candy Raymond) who initially shocked and scared becomes attracted to him and his outlaw lifestyle. Meanwhile Power is putting his plans in place and is nearly ready to go. However a chance encounter with the Temple’s at a Melbourne social club ends in violence and the Temple’s promise retribution on Power for not cutting them in on the robbery. The robbery goes off successfully without even a shot fired and the major figures in the gang (Power, Loft and Reynolds) relocate to the Gold Coast and have ideas to invest the proceeds in property and legitimate business. However back in Melbourne the Temple’s lure them back to town. Bob launches a timebomb at the garage/business premises of one of their associates and shoot dead Russ Lockheart. They also set up Robbo who is also under surveillance by ‘Chicka’ White who is really a undercover CIB detective. The Temple’s ‘dog’ (grass) on Robbo who is arrested and returned to jail along with Power who is questioned/leaned on by Edwards over the Bookie Robbery. Without evidence Edwards reluctantly lets Power go but Power is furious intent on extracting revenge on the Temple brothers. Power and Loft gun down Bob Temple in front of his wife in a car park and then close in Merv. However before they can get him Power is arrested by Edwards on a trumped up unrelated charge. Whilst on bail Power marries Carol and is taken for trial at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court. Whilst being taken down Power see’s Merv who pulls out a pistol and shoots Power who dies slowly in the lobby way. Merv escapes but not for long whilst we see Power’s funeral Loft and Cracka find Merv in a pub and shoot him dead. Carol’s sister says Loft and Cracka have got Merv to which she says ‘she doesn’t care anymore!’ and many of these events loosely mirror the real life murders of Les and Brian Kane, Ray Chuck Bennett, Normie Lee and others in Melbourne’s underworld at the time of the Great Bookie Robbery.
Like things like Blue Murder which focuses on Sydney’s underworld and the more recent Underbelly series The Great Bookie Robbery is very good and after seeing real crime documentaries like Australia’s Families of Crime and Tough Nuts the fact many of these events are true are what raises the bar with this and the other series. It was produced by Ian Bradley of Prisoner fame and it’s mentioned on the commentary that he was a big fan of gritty British police drama’s like The Sweeney and in many ways there are some aspects of this here. The cast also play there roles well particularly John Bach (Power), Bruno Lawrence (Cracka), Andy Anderson (Loft) and particularly Ray Meagher (Bob Temple) who is nothing like his Home and Away self and is very convincing as a knucklehead Melbourne crim/gangster. Overall I’d recommend it to you guys on the forum but it is hard to find but if you like gritty crime/thriller/armed robbery capers you love this. Shame I never got this a few years earlier as I may have been able to have some location pics of Melbourne too…arraggh!
I’ll be doing a review at the Underbelly series at some point soon too but this is miles above that and like I say its quality Aussie crime drama!