Bad call, ABC, as Dr. Blake is dumped off iview.

The ABC has taken the drastic move to drop The Doctor Blake Mysteries from iview following allegations levelled against actor Craig McLachlan.

It has also dumped plans to rerun the telemovie finale on January 25.

It said in a statement:

Following allegations against The Doctor Blake Mysteries principal cast member Craig McLachlan and a related police investigation, the ABC has made the decision to withdraw from iview series five of the program and the telemovie length final episode, both broadcast in 2017.

A repeat broadcast of The Doctor Blake telemovie scheduled for 25 January has also been withdrawn.

Yesterday it confirmed there were no complaints against McLachlan in relation to its 5 produced seasons:

The Doctor Blake Mysteries was produced by an independent production company, December Media, in association with Film Victoria and ABC Television and broadcast between 2013 and 2017. There have been no complaints made to the ABC involving any members of the Dr Blake cast, who are employed by December Media.

December Media also said it “is confident that throughout the production of The Doctor Blake Mysteries there have been no incidents involving any member of cast or crew, acting in any way inappropriately towards other cast and crew.”

As of today the allegations -and they are still allegations- are in relation to a 2014 stage production of Rocky Horror only.

McLachlan has denied them all, and while the women deserve a right to have them investigated, Victoria Police are currently doing just that for 2 of them. Media reports say another 2 people have since contacted them.

Whilst it makes sense for December Media to halt production while investigations proceed, it makes no sense for ABC to try and erase history, given 7:30 itself indicated the production did not form part of the workplace allegations.

It is grossly unfair to other cast and production crew and to the show’s loyal audience.

As of now I can watch 5 full seasons of House of Cards on Netflix, even after Kevin Spacey has apologised for his behaviour. Those circumstances extend far beyond those associated here.

Since Jimmy Saville, Rolf Harris and Harvey Weinstein media are all grappling with how to deal with history. And while every aspect of it requires a unique assessment, attempts to erase or rewrite it fail to illustrate how we learn from it.

ABC has made a knee-jerk and bad call in disassociating itself by dropping the show from iview -TEN has not dropped The Wrong Girl from tenplay.

But then as creator George Adams recently noted, “Channel Seven have shown more respect in the last few months than we’ve had in the last 7 years with the ABC.”

Updated: ABC has also dropped a repeat of Ripponlea doco The Dream Factory in which Craig McLachlan sings a closing tribute.