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Cameras set to roll on Dr. Blake Mysteries

Craig McLachlan and Nadine Garner star in ABC's next period crime series, set in Ballarat.

ABC has revealed further details on its new 10 part crime series The Dr. Blake Mysteries.

As revealed by TV Tonight in February, the series is set in the Victorian country town of Ballarat in 1959, with Craig McLachlan in the lead role.

McLachlan will feature as Dr Lucien Blake, who is not only the local GP, but is also the town’s police surgeon, often finding himself investigating deaths – both natural and unnatural.

Nadine Garner plays his housekeeper / receptionist Jean.

Also starring Joel Tobeck (Sons of Anarchy, Tangle), Cate Wolfe (Australia on Trial) and Rick Donald (Blood Brothers, Underbelly).

An ABC press release notes, “Dr Blake is a former army medical officer and POW, who returns home after decades away to take over his recently deceased father’s medical practice. Outwardly, Dr Blake is the community’s moral compass in an age of change. Privately, he is a man cursed with firsthand knowledge of man’s inhumanity to man. Only a few understand his sly humour and see through his ever-present psychological suit of armour.

“Everyone trusts the doctor. They tell him everything. And he has a damned good nose for things left unsaid. Dr Lucien Blake is sharp as a tack and sly as a fox.”

The series will be produced by Tony Wright and series creator George Adams of December Media.

“George Adams and I are both lifelong aficionados of the murder mystery genre in all its forms. It’s beyond exciting to be producing our own for the ABC!”, says Wright.

Carole Sklan, ABC TV Head of Fiction, says, “December Media have created the brilliant, irreverent Dr Blake, and assembled an outstanding cast and creative team. Through the eyes of the maverick doctor, the series captures 1959 Australia on the cusp of change.”

Shooting starts in Melbourne on April 16 and runs until August.

It will screen on ABC1 in 2013.

7 Responses

  1. Set in Ballarat? Well, eventually something has to be, I suppose.

    This actually looks pretty good. May I suggest our next period drama take after Game of Thrones (I’m sure we all remember “Roar”). I volunteer to write it.

  2. What is going on inside the ABC drama and comedy departments. Where are the intelligent, cutting edge, contemporary series? Another period murder mystery? In Ballarat. In the 50s? Really?

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