The seventh season of the Australian police-drama Blue Heelers

Blue Heelers

Blue Heelers is an Australian police drama series which depicted the lives of police officers stationed at the fictional Mount Thomas police station in a small town in Victoria.- Overview :...

 premiered on the Seven Network

Seven Network

The Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...

 on 9 February 2000 and aired on Wednesday nights at 8:30 pm. The 41-episode season concluded 22 November 2000.

Casting

Main cast for this season consisted of:

• John Wood
  John Wood (Australian actor)
  John Wood is a Gold Logie Award-winning Australian actor, best known for his role as Senior Sergeant Tom Croydon in the Seven Network's long running police drama Blue Heelers.-TV career:...
  
   as Senior Sergeant Tom Croydon
  Tom Croydon
  Thomas Arthur Croydon is a fictional character in the long running Australian television police drama Blue Heelers. He is one of two characters to appear in all thirteen seasons, 1994 to 2006, and is an original character...
  
   [full season]
• Julie Nihill
  Julie Nihill
  Julie Nihill is an Australian actress.-Biography:After early roles in 1980s soap operas such as The Young Doctors, Prisoner and Sons and Daughters and the miniseries Bodyline .Nihill was cast in the role for which she became a household face: as bartender and local councilor Chris...
  
   as Christine 'Chris' Riley
  Chris Riley (Blue Heelers character)
  Councillor Christine Bridget "Chris" Riley is a fictional character in the long running police show Blue Heelers played by Julie Nihill. She is one of only two characters who were in the show from 1994 to 2006. She is good friends with Tom Croydon and his late wife Nell....
  
   [full season]
• Martin Sacks
  Martin Sacks
  Martin Colin Sacks is an award-winning Australian actor, chiefly known for his 12-year role on Blue Heelers from 1993–2005.-Career:...
  
   as Detective
  Detective
  A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...
  
   Senior Constable Patrick Joseph 'P.J.' Hasham
  Patrick Joseph 'P.J.' Hasham
  P.J. was a fictional character in Australia's police series Blue Heelers.He was an original character in 1994 and left in 2005.He was portrayed by Martin Sacks....
  
   [full season]
• Lisa McCune
  Lisa McCune
  Lisa McCune , is a four-time Gold Logie Award winning Australian actress, best known for her role as Senior Constable Maggie Doyle in Blue Heelers, and as Lt...
  
   as Senior Constable Margaret 'Maggie' Doyle [ episode 254-255]
• Paul Bishop
  Paul Bishop
  Paul Bishop is an author and a detective in the Los Angeles Police Department with the current rank of Detective III. He is also a writer with numerous published novels and produced episodes of episodic television and feature film scripts...
  
   as Senior Constable Benjamin 'Ben' Stewart
  Benjamin 'Ben' Stewart
  Benjamin 'dog' Stewart was a fictional character in the long running police series Blue Heelers. He was portrayed by Paul Bishop.He came into the series in the middle of season 5 as a guest before coming back to the series as a full time cast member of the show and stayed from season 5-season 11...
  
   [full season]
• Rupert Reid
  Rupert Reid
  Rupert Reid is an Australian actor. He is best known for his roles as Declan on the Australian TV show Heartbreak High and later, Constable Jack Lawson on the Australian TV show Blue Heelers from 1999 to 2001.- Filmography :...
  
   as Probationary Constable Jack Lawson [full season]
• Jane Allsop
  Jane Allsop
  Jane Claire Allsop is an Australian actress, best known for her role as Jo Parrish on Blue Heelers.-Personal life:...
  
   as Constable Jo Parrish
  Jo Parrish
  Joanna "Jo" Parrish was a fictional character on the Australian police series Blue Heelers. She arrived in 1999 and left in 2004 when she was killed in an explosion.She was portrayed by Jane Allsop....
  
   [full season]
• Caroline Craig
  Caroline Craig
  Caroline Craig is an Australian television and stage actress, and television director, based in Sydney Australia...
  
   as Sergeant Tess Gallagher
  Teresa 'Tess' Gallagher
  Tess Gallagher was a Blue Heelers character that lasted from 2000 to 2003. She arrived after Maggie Doyle's death.She arrived as the new Sergeant at Mount Thomas, taking Ben Stewart's assumed position. This and her emotionally withdrawn and critical character initially fuelled animosity between...
  
   [from episode 270]

Notable guest actors for this season included Paul Dawber

Paul Dawber

Paul Dawber is an Australian television actor and is probably most known for his 1987 stint on Sons and Daughters. He has also appeared on popular Australian police dramas such as Blue Heelers, Stingers and, more recently, City Homicide and Satisfaction ...

, Alan Hopgood

Alan Hopgood

Alan Hopgood is an Australian actor and writer.He is a graduate of the University of Melbourne. Hopgood's first very successful play was And the Big Men Fly in 1963. It was adapted for TV by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1973...

, Olivia Hamnett

Olivia Hamnett

Olivia Hamnett was a Manchester-born actress who found success after emigrating to Australia in the early 1970s. In the UK Hamnett had guest roles in such television programs as Department S and Randall and Hopkirk in 1969.She continued to act after moving to Australia, appearing in films and in...

, Kate Hood

Kate Hood

Kate Hood is an Australian actress, best known to international audiences for her role in the cult television drama Prisoner as the misunderstood mercy killer Kath Maxwell during the final year of the series....

, Ian Rawlings

Ian Rawlings

Ian Rawlings is an Australian actor. He had two long-running roles in Australian soap operas.-Television Work:He started out playing the role of the spiteful and scheming Wayne Hamilton in Sons and Daughters...

, Andy Anderson

Andy Anderson (actor)

Andy Anderson is an actor best known for his roles on both Australian and New Zealand television.-Career:...

, Dennis Coard, Roger Oakley

Roger Oakley

Roger Oakley is a New-Zealand-born character-actor noted for his performances on Australian television., but more recently active as a Theatre Performer....

, Betty Lucas

Betty Lucas

Betty Lucas is an Australian actress, best known for her roles on television. She played prominent roles in Prisoner as Clara Goddard in 1979, Taurus Rising as Faith Drysdale in 1982, and Richmond Hill as Mavis Roberts in 1988....

, James Condon

James Condon

James Condon is an Australian actor.He has made many appearances on television, including The Story Of Peter Grey, Homicide, Matlock Police, Number 96 , Bellamy, The Young Doctors, Carson's Law, Sons and Daughters, Prisoner, The Flying...

, Alex Papps

Alex Papps

Alex Papps is an Australian actor and television host, who is best known for his role on soap opera Home and Away and as a host of The Factory...

, Mary Ward

Mary Ward

Mary Ward may refer to:* Mary Ward , 1585 - 1645, foundress of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, an order of Roman Catholic nuns...

, Tommy Dysart

Tommy Dysart

Tommy Dysart is a Scottish-born actor, currently resident in Australia. Dysart has been a regular fixture on Australian television for several decades, frequently appearing in guest-starring roles in drama series and comedies, and in character roles in films and miniseries.High-profile early roles...

, Maggie Kirkpatrick

Maggie Kirkpatrick

Maggie Kirkpatrick is an Australian actress, who is best known for her portrayal of the iconic character Joan Ferguson, a sadistic and corrupt lesbian prison officer known to the prisoners as "The Freak" in the popular Australian television soap opera, Prisoner...

, Joy Westmore

Joy Westmore

Joy Westmore is an Australian actress, best known to television viewers for her long-running role in Prisoner as friendly but highly ineffectual officer Joyce Barry....

, Alyce Platt

Alyce Platt

Alyce Platt is an Australian actress known for her roles in television soap operas, and as a television presenter.Her acting roles include Amanda Morrell in Sons and Daughters from 1983–1985, a guest role in the short-lived serial Family and Friends in 1990, and the on-going part of Jen Handley in...

, Jeremy Angerson, Sean Scully

Sean Scully (actor)

Sean Scully Sean Scully Sean Scully (born 28 September 1947 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia is an actor.-Career:Scully began his acting career at the age of 12, going on 13, in the 1960 Children’s Film Foundation film Hunted in Holland, which won the Diploma of Honour at the Cannes Film...

, Zoe Bertram

Zoe Bertram

Zoe Bertram is an Australian actress, whose first major role was in the teen-oriented television soap opera The Restless Years as Olivia Baxter from 1977 to 1981.Bertam has guested in numerous television series and appeared in movies, as well on stage...

, Wendy Strehlow

Wendy Strehlow

Wendy Strehlow is an Australian actress, probably best known for her role as Sister Judy Loveday in the television soap opera A Country Practice...

 and Nicki Paull

Nicki Paull

Nicola Paull is an Australian actress. Though predominantly known for her work on television, she has also appeared in films and on stage, as well as performing as a voice-over artist and narrator....

.

Plot

Maggie, aided by PJ and her brother Mick, arrived at the point of cracking the drug ring she had been pursuing for a year and realised that she would have to go into witness protection. To do so, she staged a breakup with PJ and then awaited her escort nervously. PJ, however, realised that she was being tricked and arrived just seconds too late, to see Maggie shot down by a mysterious assailant. The episodes that followed, the "Who Killed Maggie Doyle?" arc, were the most-watched episodes ever. Arrested for Maggie's murder, PJ looked desperately to prove that he was being framed. Ultimately, in episode 263 "Out of the Shadows", he discovered the truth - it was her brother Mick.

Other storylines included:

• The remaining cops dealing with Maggie's death,
• Sergeant Tess Gallagher arriving in town to take Maggie's position, which hurts a depressed Ben (Especially as he had unwittingly given her hints on impressing the panel that unanimously won her the job),
• Tess being drawn into the plight of three young neglected children, the oldest — Hayley (Emily Browning) — particularly drawing her sympathy,
• The new doctor in town, Mel Carter (Suzi Dougherty) quickly learning to fit in,
• and Jack's attempts to woo a local girl ending in tragedy with him being shot and left for dead. In the final episodes of the season, a paralysed Jack started a downward spiral which was only saved by a revolutionary procedure that was to be tested on him, and ultimately saved him.

Reception

This season marked the start of the show's downfall in the public consciousness.

Awards

Episodes

DVD Season #	Episode #	Title	Director(s)	Writer(s)	Original airdate (Aust.)

DVD release

Due to contractual negotiations, the release of this season, as well as any proceeding seasons, was postponed. These negotiations have concluded and the "Complete Seventh Season" DVD set (parts one and two) was released for sale in Australia (Region 4) on 31 July 2008. The seventh season was released, as its predecessors were, in two parts. However, this season was simply released in a standard DVD package, not a boxed set with slipcase packaging like its predecessors. It is expected to be released as a complete package sometime in the future.

The Complete Seventh Season: Part 1
	Set Details			Special Features
	22 Episodes (974 Mins.) Episodes 224 - 253 6-Disc Set Full Frame English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)			Photo Gallery
	Release Dates
	31 July 2008

The Complete Seventh Season: Part 2
	Set Details			Special Features
	20 Episodes (881 Mins.) Episodes 254 - 265 5-Disc Set Full Frame English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)			Photo Gallery
	Release Dates
	31 July 2008