The Link Men

The Link Men was a short lived Australian television series shown in 1970 that was axed after 12 weeks.

The Link Men
Created by	Glyn Davies
Starring	Bruce Montague Tristan Rogers Kevin Miles Max Meldrum
Country of origin	Australia
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13
Production
Producer	George Spenton-Foster
Production company	Nine Network
Original release
Release	14 January (1970-01-14) – 7 April 1970 (1970-04-07)

Synopsis

The series was the first drama series made in-house by the Nine Network as part of an attempt to rival the cop shows produced by Crawford Productions such as Homicide and Division 4. The Link Men starred Kevin Miles, Bruce Montague and Tristan Rogers as three detectives working in the city of Sydney.

The series was devised and produced by Glyn Davies who had created The Rat Catchers for ITV (Associated-Rediffusion Television). The director (for the pilot episode and for many of the rest of the series) was Australian film director Jonathan Dawson.

Cast

Main/recurring

• Bruce Montague as Detective Sergeant Harry Sutton
• Tristan Rogers as Detective Constable Ray Gamble
• Kevin Miles as Detective Sergeant John Randall
• Max Meldrum as Detective Russell
• John Meillon as Bert Whitman
• Frankie Davidson as Frank
• Peter Whitford as Seaman
• Diana Perryman
• Lionel Long

Guests

• Jeanie Drynan aa Margherita Costello (1 episode)
• Max Cullen as Mario Costello (1 episode)
• Carmen Duncan as Carol Crane (1 episode)
• Peter Sumner (1 episode)
• Sandy Gore as Dale (1 episode)
• Pat Bishop (1 episode)
• John Fegan (1 episode)
• James Condon (1 episode)
• Lois Ramsey as Mother (2 episodes)
• Maggie Dence as Edi Whitman (1 episode)
• Lorraine Bayly (1 episode)
• Alastair Duncan
• Elke Neidhardt
• Enid Lorimer

Production

The show, produced by British import George Spenton-Foster, lasted for thirteen episodes. The title sequence focussing on a speeding car's wheel closely followed the template of the British Rat Catchers opening, which inspired Link Men.

The aforementioned Tristan Rogers would go on to greater fame on the American daytime serial General Hospital, where he has appeared as Robert Scorpio off and on since 1980.

Packer-Fegan fight incident

John Fegan's guest starring role in an episode would have been a brief footnote in a short-lived series, but for an incident on set. Two young actors were performing or rehearsing a fight scene when Frank Packer, the owner of the Nine Network, came in. Packer, who had been a boxer in his younger days but who at the time was in his mid-sixties, declared that they were doing it wrong and demonstrated the correct technique by putting the actor playing the police officer in a headlock. Fegan, also in his sixties, had been watching from behind the camera and suggested that, since the young actor was the one who was supposed to be performing the headlock then perhaps Packer should demonstrate on him (Fegan) so the young actor could watch. Packer got Fegan in the same headlock but Fegan, who had also been a boxer in his younger days and did his own stunts, got the better of him and Packer ended up on the ground.

According to an article about the event in the Sydney Morning Herald, Packer's hearing aid came flying out and Fegan lashed out and crushed it with his foot. Packer insisted that Fegan be fired on the spot. Upon being advised that Fegan was performing a single episode guest role only, Packer's response was reportedly "Well, sack him when he's finished".

External links

• The Link Men at IMDb
• The Link Men episode guide at Memorable TV
• The Link Men at Classic Australian Television
• The Link Men at the National Film and Sound Archive