Wildside (TV series)

This article is about the 1990s Australian series. For the 1985 American series, see Wildside (U.S. TV series).

Wildside
Created by	Michael Jenkins Ben Gannon
Starring	Tony Martin Rachael Blake Alex Dimitriades
Theme music composer	Peter Best
Country of origin	Australia
No. of episodes	60
Production
Executive producer(s)	Ben Gannon Michael Jenkins Andy Lloyd James
Producer(s)	Steve Knapman
Running time	50 minutes
Production company(s)	Gannon Jenkins Television Pty Ltd
Release
Original network	ABC TV
Picture format	4:3
Original release	1997–99
External links
[{{#property:P856}} Website]

Wildside is an Australian police procedural television series broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from 1997 to 1999.

The show consisted of a one hour format that followed police interactions in inner Sydney. It starred Rachael Blake, Tony Martin, Richard Carter and Alex Dimitriades.

The series was filmed in Sydney. It was characterised by its use of ad lib dialogue and hand held camera work. It won several Logie Awards, including Silver Logies for outstanding work by Rachael Blake and Tony Martin for acting, as well as the Most Outstanding Miniseries Logie in 1998. It was also nominated for several Australian Film Institute Awards.

Cast and characters

Wildside featured several regular characters from the police force and an inner-city crisis centre.

The regular cast included Tony Martin, Rachael Blake, Aaron Pedersen, Jessica Napier and Alex Dimitriades. Martin starred as Detective Bill McCoy with Dimitriadis joining him a third of the way through the first series as his partner, Detective Charlie Coustos. Pedersen, Napier and Blake portrayed the staff at the crisis centre. Detectives McCoy and Coustos were often called upon to investigate clients of the centre, creating tensions with its staff. Richard Carter appeared in several episodes as a fellow officer Detective Brian Deakin critical of Coustos. Abi Tucker joined the show at the beginning of the second season, playing Kate Holbeck, a colleague of Coustos (and his girlfriend) and McCoy. Mary Coustas joined the series in a regular role late in its run, appearing in the last ten episodes; her character replacing Aaron Pedersen's as the crisis centre's resident lawyer.

The recurring cast includes:

• Tony Martin as Bill McCoy, a former detective who comes to Sydney looking for his missing son and is persuaded to rejoin the police.
• Alex Dimitriades as Detective Charlie Coustos, McCoy's partner.
• Rachael Blake as Maxine Summers, a doctor who runs a community crisis centre.
• Aaron Pedersen as Vince Cellini, a lawyer at the crisis centre.
• Jessica Napier as Gerry Davis, the receptionist at the crisis centre.
• Mary Coustas as Louise Arden, Vince Cellini's replacement in the last series.
• Abbie Cornish as Simone Summers, Maxine's daughter.

Production and broadcast

Wildside was originally produced a 2-part miniseries created by Michael Jenkins and Ben Gannon. It was broadcast on 23 and 24 November 1997.

A further 36 episodes were broadcast between February and September 1998. A second series of 20 episodes was broadcast between February and July 1999.

In repeats and syndication, the miniseries was edited into the first four episodes of the 40 episode first series.

DVD release

The series has been released by the ABC on DVD in three volumes, each containing 20 episodes across 5 discs.

Trivia

Tony Martin and Rachael Blake married during the show's run.

See also

• List of Australian television series

References

External links

• Wildside at IMDb
• Wildside at TV.com
• Australian Television: Wildside
• Wildside at the National Film and Sound Archive
• Wildside – Episode 1 at Australian Screen Online