Country G.P. (1984-85)

A series based around a country medical practice in post-war New Zealand. 

Launch of $2M doctor series

The Press, 20 February 1984

By K BRAD TATTERSFIELD

Little expense has been spared to make a success of Country GP, Television New Zealand's post Close to Home production extravaganza, which begins this evening on One. Tonight's is the first of 70 episodes planned to screen weekly over the next 18 months. The overall budget is said to be more than $2 million, including $300,000 to build a studio town 12 kilometres from Avalon.

The town, Mason's Valley, is intended to be somewhere in the central South Island. It has a population of 100, and the institutions and characters in it are representative of those to be found anywhere in smalltown New Zealand.

Country GP is set in the immediate post-World War 11 period, and production staff have gone to considerable lengths to accurately recreate the period. The village consists of a post office, hotel, school, community hall, church, general store, garage, creamery and two houses, all constructed in authentic period style.

The village was built in 12 weeks, and the track leading to the bush-enclosed site had to be upgraded and a Bailey bridge installed. Most of the buildings are shells, although the hall is complete and is used for interior sequences as well as dressing rooms for the cast and crew. The school also is complete, and contains authentic teaching aids of the era such as textbooks, blackboard easels and world maps dominated by the pink bits of the British Empire. The shop is also used for some interior shots, its shelves piled high with genuine and replica grocery items of the. time.

Although the studio town contains only 10 buildings, camera tricks have been used to make it look larger. One house has two fronts, so it can be used as two when necessary by viewing it from different angles. Props staff at Avalon have been scouring the country acquiring period bits and pieces to fill out the Country GP set. Their acquisitions include a 1941 Studebaker bus from Invercargill, a 1939 Ford de luxe for the doctor's car, and a series E Morris delivery van for the grocer. Advertising signs, shop fittings and a doctor's medical bag were also unearthed in their search.

Christchurch viewers may remember an appeal on the Mainland Touch last year for some items required for the show. A 1930 s Frigidaire refrigerator from Waimate was one of the prized items which resulted from this.

Despite all this expense, the producer, Stephen McElrea, insists that the series is a bargain. At $39,000 an hour, he said it was extremely cheap for period drama, considering that similar B.B.C. productions cost $104,000 an hour. What about the inevitable comparisons with Close to Home? Mr McElrea, whose first job as a producer was on that show, said that although Country GP takes up Close to Home's studio time put aside by the drama department, it is quite unlike it.

It is not a serial. Each week has a self-contained story, he said. Close to Home was tired and did not have a sustainable format, but Country GP was a new and fresh approach for New Zealand television. The 1945 era has not been fully explored on television. It was a time of great hope and optimism, and will be an appealing period for people to immerse themselves in once a week, said Mr McElrea. He said New Zealand was just getting back on its feet after the war, and it was a time of rebuilding, new opportunities and a new way of life.

People did have their dreams come true then, he said.

The scope of Country GP has expanded considerably since T.V.N.Z.'s head of drama, John McRae, saw the pilot episode a year ago. He asked Stephen McElrea to make 70 episodes, and to achieve that in 18 months, the production crew will be working at a hectic pace. One full 50-minute episode is made each week, and two are in production at any one time. This is extremely fast by international standards, but nevertheless Mr McElrea said production was going extraordinarily well.

At any one time as many as eight scripts are in various stages of development. A pool of writers is used, including the noted authors Maurice Gee and Fiona Kidman, and the originating series writer Jane Galletly.

Mr McElrea admits to some concern at the number of writers available, although he says he has an excellent relationship with them. I don't have sufficient writers to be able to be relaxed about, he said. It is planned to have 40 per cent of the programme content shot outside, to get a good balance of exterior colour with interior studio scenes. Most of the interior scenes will be filmed at Avalon.

Mr McElrea is naturally concerned that the show will be a popular success, although he says he will not be taking much notice of the ratings until about week five or six. I think it will take that long for it to find its place in the audience, he said. The story has been structured to make 70 episodes, but it could be extended if it becomes a national institution.

Mr McElrea is concerned that the show should not be confused with an Australian programme with a similar title. If I had been able to come up with a different title I would have, purely to avoid that confusion, he said.

Efforts are being made to sell the show overseas. We would be thrilled if we got overseas sales, said Mr McElrea. It's the sort of show the British might buy for afternoon viewing.

What sort of show is it? The long-term story involves an isolated rural medical practice, and in the first episode Dr David Miller, played by an Auckland actor, Larney Tupu, takes over after the death of the area's long-serving G.P. Dr Miller is young, inexperienced (this is his first locum) and very thorough, as he is concerned about his professional

Each episode will be a self-contained story with a strong medical element, and will explore the attitudes, values and lifestyle of postwar New Zealand. The series will cover five years, up to 1950, and include historical events such as Ballantyne's fire, the eruption of Mount Ngauruhoe, and the 1949 election.

Early episodes deal with the immediate post-war period and the boysreturn home. One explores the ostracism a man encounters when he returns to Mason's Valley after being imprisoned as a conscientious objector.

Dr Miller is one of the five core characters in the series. He boards with another, Mrs Evelyn Dalgleish (played by Glenis Levestam), the widow of the original doctor. She is the matriarch of the valley and is involved in many organisations and in most people's affairs. Her son, Richard, is the golden boy of the valley and successful at anything he touches. After a few episodes he returns home from being a bomber pilot, but he has apprehensions about settling back into the mundane existence of Mason's Valley. He is played by Bruce Phillips. His sister, Fiona, is played by a Christchurch actress, Sarah Davison. She is the baby of the family, a cheerful, untidy, enthusiastic and somewhat dreamy 16-year-old schoolgirl in love with Frank Sinatra records. The other central character is Brenda Duffield, the nurse, played by May Lloyd.

Another Christchurch actor, David Copeland (who has been on television recently in Over the Wall and Out, a poetic cabaret on Sunday evenings) plays George Brooks, the local policeman. Other important characters include Bert Pratley, the store-cum-garage owner and authority on everything (played by Michael Haigh), and the Reverend Charles Elwood, the local Anglican vicar (played by Patrick Smyth).

Every week a new character appears, to add to the drama. Almost all the actors have had at least some involvement in television, although the lead, 27-year-old Larney Tupu, has been exclusively a stage actor. Mr Tupu, the only actor contracted for the length of the series, says the best thing about it is having work when many actors have none. He enjoys the character too, and says the job leaves him little spare time as he has to learn two scripts per week.

Mr McElrea was delighted to be able to find a man to suit the character qualities of Dr Miller in New Zealand. Larney has some Polynesian background and we'll be making use of that in the scripts without making a big issue of it, he said.

In fact all the actors are New Zealanders, and Mr McElrea said there was plenty of talent available to cope with the needs of the show.

T.V.N.Z. has high hopes for the success of the programme, and Mr McElrea said the format of it would be tampered with if it does not achieve expectations. The next few weeks will be a nail-biting time at Avalon for the large production crew who have a vested interest in the show's success.