Review Details

Homicide - Volume 15

Product Review (submitted on 28 February 2017):

The coloured episodes of HOMICIDE have now been reached starting with volume 15.
There are still a number of black & white episodes left to run before the colour ones start.
Mike Preston was completely miscast as Sergeant Bob Delaney.
The character’s quite dull and not much is known about him.
There are many episodes where Delaney does’nt say or do much.
Preston never fitted in with the regular cast and looks and sounds too different to be effective in the role.
There’s also confusion about Delaney’s rank, the slick states ‘Senior Detective’, which is mentioned in several episodes, however sometimes it’s ‘Sergeant’.
Preston’s departure from HOMICIDE involves being blown to bits by a home made bomb.
Alwyn Kurts is an extremely heavy smoker and is never seen without a cigarette in his mouth
or on his desk.
He smokes everywhere – in people’s homes, airports, cars, hospitals etc…the man’s a walking chimney stack !..

The best episode would have to be - “They clear them every Thursday”,
which strangely is the only one without a writer’s credit.
The funniest scene comes towards the end, when Fox states the garbos are on strike,
which explains why evidence dumped by the elderly killer is still in a rubbish bin.

Unlike Mike Preston, Gary Day’s entrance is far more effective.
He’s all ‘yes sir, no sir..three bags full sir’ and manages to stay this way for the rest of the series.
The “Assassin” episode is a standout and marks the end of Leonard Teale and Alwyn Kurt’s
tenure with the series.

Despite a tight script, here are 2 mistakes connected with the shooting of Fox.
The exit wound on Fox’s forehead is inconsistent with the height, distance and angle of the shooter’s line-of-sight, meaning the exit wound is in the wrong position.

The second error concerns the placement of Mackay’s fingers on the side of Fox’s neck,
The carotid artery is lower down and to the front of the neck.
Mackay’s Fingers were too high to check for a pulse and for a so-called shooting,
there was very little blood.

“The Kooranda Killing” marks the entrances of Charles Tingwell as Inspector Reg Lawson
and John Stanton as Detective Pat Kelly.
Tingwell is very convincing as a police inspector, with Stanton giving a typical
schizoid performance.

I’ve noticed the number of times the Doors are opened and closed in the office set.
Norman Yemm once told me they had to be closed to keep the flies out !...
The set looks solid and impressive and comes up very well in colour.
Needless to say, I’ve been waiting a long time to see the colour episodes and will now start purchasing volumes as they are released.