A Country Practice


A Country Practice is a multi-Logie award-winning Australian television soap opera/serial. It ran on the Seven Network for 1,058 episodes at 7.30 pm Monday and Tuesday nights, from 18 November 1981 to 22 November 1993. It was produced at both ATN-7's production facility at Epping, New South Wales with exterior locations filmed in Pitt Town and Oakville in the outskirts of Northwest Sydney. Several of the regular cast members became highly popular celebrities through their roles in the series. It also featured a number of native Australian animals, particularly the iconic Fatso, the Wombat adding to its enduring appeal both domestically and internationally. After the series was cancelled by the Seven Network in 1993, a reworked version of the series ran briefly on Network Ten in 1994. At the time of its cancellation, A Country Practice was the longest running Australian TV drama; however, by the late 1990s was surpassed by Network Ten series Neighbours. At its height, the show attracted 8–10 million viewers weekly, when the population of the time was a mere 15 million, and was sold to 48 countries.

Founding and creator James Davern (OAM)

A Country Practice creator and Executive Producer James Davern of JNP Productions, had worked on a previous similar type rural series, as producer and director of the long-running Bellbird that screened on Australian Broadcasting Corporation and had written the pilot episode for ACP and entered a script contest put forth by the Network Ten in 1979, that were looking for a new hit soap opera after the demise 2 years prior of Number 96. Davern came third and won a merit award., although TEN turned the series down, but the rival Seven Network picked up the series, stating it liked the characters and setting. Davern contribution to the industry would be recognised when he was inducted into the Logie Hall of Fame in 1991 and be honoured as an Order of Australia. recipient in 2014.

Logie Awards

A Country Practice is the third most successful television program in the history of the Logie Awards, after Home and Away and Neighbours, having won 29 awards during its twelve years of production.
Logie Awards 1983
Logie awards 1984
Logie Awards 1985
Logie Awards 1986
Logie Awards 1987
Logie Awards 1988
Logie Awards 1989
Logie Awards 1990
Logie Awards 1991
Logie Awards 1992
Logie Awards 1993
Though sometimes considered a soap opera, the storylines of the show's two one-hour episodes screened over any one week formed a self-contained narrative block. The storylines were meant to have a primary appeal to adult and older youthful audiences, and in particular they had greater appeal to children from middle-class backgrounds. As it did not have the open ended narrative of a traditional soap opera, it was technically a series. Nevertheless, many storylines were developed as sub-plots for several episodes before becoming the focus of a particular week's narrative block. Overall, the program "so emphasized the ongoing storylines of its major characters as to make the distinction between series and serial more or less meaningless".

Setting and stories

The series followed the workings of a small hospital in the fictional New South Wales rural country town of Wandin Valley as well as its connected medical clinic, the town's veterinary surgery, RSL club/pub and local police station. The show's storylines focused on the staff, and regular patients of the hospital and general practice, their families, and other residents of the town. Through its weekly guest actors, who appeared in the series portraying differing characters, it explored various social and medical problems. The series examined such topical issues as youth unemployment, suicide, drug addiction, HIV/AIDS and terminal illness. Apart from its regular rotating cast, mainly among the younger personnel, A Country Practice also had a cast of semi-regulars who would make appearances as the storylines permitted. One of the more popular and frequent characters from its inception included the valley's corrupt town councillor Mr Alfred Muldoon. The program as well would also showcase a number of animal stars and Australian native wildlife, most famously Fatso the wombat. Fatso was played throughout the series by three separate wombats, Fatso replaced due to temperament issues with the cast, George replaced due to early signs of wombat mange, and Garth.

Highest rating episode

, as Molly Jones, an unconventional fashion designer, farmer and Green-hugging local environmentalist, became one of the series' most popular characters, and her death episode became the highest rating, and most remembered storyline. The series, the 13 week storyline arc dealt with its addressing of how a young woman, as well as her husband and local residents coped with terminal illness, after the popular character becomes diagnosed by leukaemia, and her subsequent treatment. The now iconic episode sees the character of Molly sitting in her back garden and waving while her husband, Brenden, is teaching his daughter to fly a kite. He sees Molly is fading, and calls her name. As the screen fades to black, the episode concludes in hushed tones with Bob Hatfield reading a tribute poem "Mad Molly", over the series closing credits This storyline arc, was originally written to be featured over a continuing 11 week script. A producer realised that the ratings were not being monitored during this period, so it was extended for 13 weeks, and hence 4 extra 1 hour episodes.
Iconic storylines over its lengthy 12-year run would also include the wedding of Dr. Simon Bowen, to local vet Vicki Dean in 1983, well as the later wedding of Dr. Terence Elliot to Matron Rosemary Prior amidst the series' bushfire scenes that marked the final episodes, the death of nurse Donna Manning in a car crash, the off-screen death of longtime resident Shirley Gilroy in a plane crash, and the final undoing of corrupt "Wandin Valley" town shire councillor Alf Muldoon, who had been a recurring character since the series inception.

Network Ten continuation

After its lengthy run on the Seven Network, just months after its demise, it was announced that the serial would be picked up by Network Ten with a mainly new cast and a few key cast members continuing from the Seven series.
Unlike the Seven series which was produced in Sydney, the Network Ten series was produced in Melbourne with location shooting in Emerald, Victoria. The new series debuted in April 1994, but it was not as successful as its predecessor and was abruptly cancelled in November. The series would feature Paul Gleason, Jane Hall, Vince Colosimo and Laura Armstrong, along with a select few actors from the previous Seven Network series including Joyce Jacobs and Andrew Blackman. Actress Joan Sydney who had appeared in the Seven Network series from 1983 until 1990, would also return as Maggie Morrison

Celebrity guest stars

A Country Practice became renowned for its long list of guest cameos, totalling over 1000 stars, with well known mainly Australian actors who would appear in each week's two part episode arc. Some actors became more prominent during the series runs, and were classified as semi-regulars, appearing as the storyline permitted, Famous stars included: Sir Robert Helpmann, Baz Luhrmann, Nicole Kidman, Simon Baker, Smokey Dawson, Ruth Cracknell, Henri Szeps, Pro Hart, John Meillon, Richard Wilkins, Barry Crocker, Dr John D'Arcy, Paul Kelly, Toni Collette and Delta Goodrem. At the program's height even the then Prime Minister of Australia, Bob Hawke, appeared as himself.

Main Cast (Seven Network series) 1981-1993

Network Ten cast (1994)

Note* Only 3 original cast members from the Network Seven series were retained in the Network Ten re-launch Joan Sydney, Joyce Jacobs, and Andrew Blackman.
ActorRoleEpisodes
Paul GleesonIan McIntyre30 episodes
Claudia BlackClaire Bonacci30 episodes
Vince ColosimoHarry Sabatini30 episodes
Jane HallDr. Jess Morrison30 episodes
Laura ArmstrongGeorgie Wilkes30 episodes

Broadcast

A Country Practice aired on Seven Network Monday and Tuesdays nights at 19:30–20:30). Seven also aired repeats at 09:30 weekday mornings from 1996–2002.
Foxtel's Hallmark Channel broadcast the complete series twice from 2002 to 30 June 2010. Also, a few episodes were repeated in 2014 on channel 7two at 14:00, Monday to Friday.

International broadcasts

United Kingdom and Ireland

In addition to being broadcast in Australia, the series also had a successful run on the ITV network in the United Kingdom. A Country Practice began 27 October 1982, less than a year after its debut on Seven Network in Australia.
Originally, the series was partially networked by Thames Television, the weekday contractor for the London area, to a cluster of six ITV regions; Anglia Television, Border Television, Channel Television, Tyne Tees, Yorkshire Television and TVS. These regions all aired one episode a week, on Wednesdays at 14:45–15:45, and in the original hour-long format. The remaining ITV regions – Central Independent Television, HTV, TSW, Granada Television, Scottish Television, UTV, and Grampian Television – all started later, and by the end of 1989, most of the ITV regions were now scheduling the programme at a day and time of their own choice and were at vastly different points in the storyline. In April 1990, the ITV network decided to adopt the method established by Yorkshire Television of editing each episode into two half-hour editions which allowed the series to be stripped Monday to Friday, usually before, or after, the lunchtime edition of Home and Away. This format also resulted in curtailment of the full closing credits in certain regions. Scottish Television was the only exception, and they chose various days and timeslots, but always screened A Country Practice in the original hour-long format.
Due to the content of some episodes, a substantial amount were withdrawn from transmission by some regions as the content was considered unsuitable for daytime viewing and this inevitably led to considerable chunks of the story being skipped.
Considered a daytime soap and notably several years behind Australian broadcasts, A Country Practice was popular in the UK and achieved consolidated viewing figures of between 2–3 million which is good for daytime television. Some regions moved the later episodes of the series to an early evening slot of 17.10–17.40.
ITV regional broadcasts
Satellite and Cable broadcasts
Only the first 40 episodes have ever been repeated in the UK, and that was in 1998 when ITV contractor, Anglia Television, were the only region to repeat any episodes. Unlike other Australian soaps, which became cult viewing due to multiple runs; Prisoner was broadcast twice, first on ITV, and then Channel 5; The Sullivans also had two full runs, once on ITV and repeated on UK Gold; and also Sons and Daughters, which had three runs, first on ITV, then UK Gold, and finally, Channel 5 – A Country Practice has never been repeated in the UK or achieved the cult status of other soap operas of the same era.
Aired on RTÉ Two weekdays at 18:00 or 18:30. In Autumn 1988, to make way for Home and Away, the show moved to main channel RTÉ One airing weekdays at 17:30. The final episode aired in January 1997. RTÉ stripped episodes into a 30-minute timeslot. RTÉ commenced a repeat in 1998 beginning with season 8 in a morning slot.

European screenings

France

A Country Practice was named "À Coeur Ouvert".

Germany

A Country Practice was named Das Buschkrankenhaus, and aired on Sat 1 in 1985, and then on ARD from 1989 to 1991.

Italy

A Country Practice was named "Wandin Valley".

Norway

A Country Practice was broadcast on TV2 during the 1990s

Africa

Kenya

was also transmitted on Kenyan Television during the 1980s.

Zimbabwe

broadcast on ZBC state television in the 1980s

Oceania

New Zealand

A Country Practice was first transmitted on TV2 during 1986. Whereas the series was produced as two episodes per week in Australia, it was shown once a week on Thursdays at 2.30pm before moving to twice a week on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 6.30pm by 1987. By 1988, the series went back to once a week on Sundays at around 4pm, and by 1989 an additional episode was broadcast on Saturdays in the same timeslot. By 1990, A Country Practice screened on Channel 2 on Saturdays and Sundays at 5pm until it moved to TV One during the final months of 1991, where it was shown once a week on Tuesdays at 7.30pm until the end of 1992.

North America

Canada

The entire series was broadcast, from start to finish, by CBC Television outlet CBET in Windsor, Ontario. Two episodes were broadcast daily, Monday through Friday, starting in the late 1980s, until they were caught up to contemporary episodes in the early 1990s. Its inclusion on CBET's schedule was out of necessity to fill a television schedule: because Windsor stations cannot carry programming licensed for broadcast in the United States. Most American programming that was part of the CBC schedule throughout Canada could not be broadcast by CBET and, thus, was replaced by programming imported from Britain and Australia. Many Australian soap operas, A Country Practice among them, have thus found loyal audiences in the Metro Detroit area, while they otherwise remain unknown in North America.
From 1991 to 1994, the show also aired on ASN, a cable network that served Canada's Maritimes. Four hour-long episodes aired each week, from Monday to Thursday with Monday's and Tuesday's episodes repeated on Saturday and Wednesday's and Thursday's episodes on Sunday. The station aired the show from episode 1 to somewhere in the early 700s.
ASN ceased carrying the show when specialty cable channel Showcase was launched on 1 January 1995, as they picked up A Country Practice for broadcast throughout Canada. It broadcast one episode daily, from Monday to Friday, and completed the entire series run in June 1999. It began rebroadcasting the entire series on 28 June 1999, with promises that the entire series would be broadcast for those who missed the first airing. However, a single line of text scrolling across the bottom of the screen during 21 August 2000, episode announced that the show would be removed from the Showcase lineup as of Monday, 28 August 2000. According to the station's email autoresponse at the time, the decision was based on "declining viewership and a demand by viewers for more current programming". Sometime after that, Showcase changed their format to favour a less family-oriented and more adult-oriented viewership.

Novel

Series writer Judith Colquhoun, who also wrote episodes for other Australian serials, Blue Heelers, Neighbours and Home and Away released a novel in 2015. Called New Beginnings, it is based on the early episodes of the series from 1981. This was followed up by two further novels from the same author, To Everything a Season and Silver Linings.

DVD release

In late 2005, MRA Entertainment announced they had obtained the rights to release the entire series on DVD. In 2008, Magna Pacific Pty Ltd bought out MRA Entertainment, with plans to release Series 6, however the rights were then acquired by Beyond Home Entertainment which then re-released the first 5 seasons in 2007–2008, followed by Season 6 in 2010. On 27th May 2020 Via Vision Entertainment announced they would be releasing season 11 on DVD on 26th August 2020.
EpisodesDiscsLicensed toReleased
Season 11–144MRA Entertainment3 April 2006
Season 2, Part 115–446MRA Entertainment3 April 2006
Season 2, Part 245–10612MRA Entertainment11 April 2007
Season 3, Part 1107–14812MRA Entertainment11 April 2007
Season 3, Part 2149–19012MRA Entertainment11 July 2007
Season 4, Part 1191–23612MRA Entertainment14 November 2007
Season 4, Part 2237–28012MRA Entertainment14 November 2007
Season 5, Part 1281–31812MRA Entertainment23 April 2008
Season 5, Part 2319–35612MRA Entertainment23 April 2008
Season 6, Part 1357–40011Beyond Home Entertainment7 April 2010
Season 6, Part 2401–44411Beyond Home Entertainment9 June 2010
Season 11–144Beyond Home Entertainment11 April 2007
Season 2 Part 115–446Beyond Home Entertainment11 April 2007
Season 2 Part 245–10612Beyond Home Entertainment11 April 2007
Season 3 Part 1107–14812Beyond Home Entertainment11 April 2007
Season 3 Part 2149–19012Beyond Home Entertainment11 April 2007
Season 4 Part 1191–23612Beyond Home Entertainment14 November 2007
Season 4 Part 2237–28012Beyond Home Entertainment14 November 2007
Season 5 Part 1281–31812Beyond Home Entertainment16 April 2008
Season 5 Part 2319–35612Beyond Home Entertainment16 April 2008
Season 7, Part 1445–48811Beyond Home Entertainment5 October 2011
Season 7, Part 2489–53211Beyond Home Entertainment5 October 2011
The Early Years: Seasons 1–61–401116Beyond Home Entertainment1 May 2013
Season 8, Part 1533–57611Beyond Home Entertainment2 January 2014
Season 8, Part 2577–62211Beyond Home Entertainment2 January 2014
Season 9, Part 1623–66611Beyond Home Entertainment5 March 2014
Season 9, Part 2667–70610Beyond Home Entertainment5 March 2014
Season 10, Part 1707–75011Beyond Home Entertainment28 April 2014
Season 10, Part 2751–79211Beyond Home Entertainment28 April 2014
The Middle Years: Seasons 7–10445–79287Beyond Home Entertainment28 April 2014
Season 11793–88222Via Vision Entertainment26 August 2020
Season 12883-968Via Vision Entertainment21 October 2020

7plus Streaming Services

In March 2020 Channel 7's Streaming services 7plus began releasing each season of the show. Seasons 01, 02, 03, 04, 05 & 06 are currently available and 7plus has already said all season will be released.
TitleFormatEpisodes #Release DateStreaming StatusSpecial FeaturesDistributors
A Country Practice StreamingEpisodes 1420 March 2020Currently Streaming-7plus
A Country Practice StreamingEpisodes 9320 March 2020Currently Streaming-7plus
A Country Practice StreamingEpisodes 8420 March 2020Currently Streaming-7plus
A Country Practice StreamingEpisodes 9014 May 2020Currently Streaming-7plus
A Country Practice StreamingEpisodes 7611 June 2020Currently Streaming-7plus
A Country Practice StreamingEpisodes 889 July 2020Currently Streaming-7plus
A Country Practice StreamingCOMING SOON7plus
A Country Practice StreamingCOMING SOON7plus
A Country Practice StreamingCOMING SOON7plus
A Country Practice StreamingCOMING SOON7plus
A Country Practice StreamingCOMING SOON7plus
A Country Practice StreamingCOMING SOON7plus
A Country Practice StreamingCOMING SOON7plus
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