Richmond Hill (TV series)

"Richmond Hill" was an Australian television soap opera made in 1988 by the Reg Grundy Organisation for the Ten Network. It was devised by Reg Watson who also created "Neighbours". It first aired as a two hour episode on Network 10 at 19.30 Wednesday 27 January 1988.

The series was set in a small Australian country town and most of the scenes revolved around the local police station and the pub. The cast was made up of experienced soap actors such as Maggie Kirkpatrick, Amanda Muggleton, Paula Duncan and Gwen Plumb and young beginners like Ashley Paske and Emily Symons. Former comedy star Ross Higgins played the central role of the local police officer and family man Dan Costello.

"Richmond Hill" was broadcast in an evening timeslot 7.30 as two one-hour episodes each week. The programme was produced in Sydney; some location shooting took place in Mona Vale, New South Wales. The series emerged as only a lukewarm success in the Australian ratings, and was cancelled after only one year. Coincidentally, the series was axed during the very same week that it debuted on British television, having been sold to the ITV network.

The UK's ITV networked (except Granada) the show in the Wednesday and Thursday 14.00 slot from autumn 1988. Soon after its debut, Central Television chose to break away from the network screenings. Central fell behind the rest of the network while Granada chose to screen "A Country Practice" in the Thursday slot instead. The series was dropped by Granada just after other regions had ended it. Granada eventually resumed the series on Sundays at 14.00 in mid-1991, playing it out to the end. Yorkshire Television broke away from the network for the final episode in summer 1989 and screened it on a Friday whereas all other 11 regions screened it on the following Wednesday. The majority of regions resumed "A Country Practice" as its replacement.

"Richmond Hill" was last screened in the UK in the mid-1990s on cable & satellite channel Wire TV (hosted by Femi Oke with guest presenters Richard Arnold, Darren Edwards, Chris Stacey and Darren Gray), it was screened back to back with USA soap "The Bold and the Beautiful", before Wire TV was finally axed in 1994.

Grundy also sold the soap to German television channel Pro 7, and "Richmond Hill" was dubbed into German. It was aired twice a week from 1991 to 1992.

Major Cast

*Warren Bryant - Tim Elston
*Janet Bryant - Paula Duncan
*Marty Bryant - Ashley Paske
*Dan Costello - Ross Higgins
*Anne Costello - Emily Symons
*Mum Foote - Gwen Plumb
*Ivy Hackett - Maggie Kirkpatrick
*Connie Ryan - Amanda Muggleton
*Andrew Ryan - Marc Gray
*Tim Shannon - Robert Sampson
*Susan Miller - Felicity Soper
*Jill Warner - Dina Panozzo
*Gary Turner - Dane Carson
*Mark Johnson - Warren Blondell
*Nikki Spencer - Danielle Carter
*Vince Comino - Manny Katts
*Mavis Roberts - Betty Lucas
*Frank Hackett - Robert Alexander
*Roger Lawson - Peter Kowitz
*Alice Costello - Rona Coleman
*Craig Connors - Michael Long
*Lawrie Benson - Tom Richards
*Evelyn Thomas - Jan Kingsbury
*Beatrice White - Moya O'Sullivan
*Mrs Jennings - Thelma Scott
*Jeff Wilson - Tim McCunn
*Fiona Matthews - Angela Kennedy
*Ben Brown - Dennis Grosvenor

ITV Regional Scheduling

External links

* [http://members.ozemail.com.au/~fangora/richmond.html Aussie Soap Archive: Richmond Hill]
* [http://colsearch.nfsa.afc.gov.au/nfsa/search/display/display.w3p;adv=yes;group=;groupequals=;holdingType=;page=0;parentid=;query=Number%3A269967;querytype=;rec=0;resCount=10 Richmond Hill at the National Film and Sound Archive]