Boney (TV series)

Main/regular

• James Laurenson as Detective Inspector Bonaparte (Boney) (seasons 1 and 2)
• Kate Fitzpatrick as Constable Alice McGorr (season 2 only)

Guests (partial)

Development

During 1963, British film director Michael Powell first visited Australia to preproduce his film, They're A Weird Mob. There he met actor and theatre businessman John McCallum and Bob Austin (a legal expert), who used their local knowledge to gain financing from Australian backers. The film did well.

Three years later the trio bought the film and television rights to the Bony detective novels. A script written for Paramount Pictures failed to secure a deal, and Powell moved on to other projects.

By 1970, John McCallum, Bob Austin, and veteran Australian producer Lee Robinson had set up Fauna Productions. Having made their reputation with the children's TV series Skippy the Bush Kangaroo and Barrier Reef, and the feature film Nickel Queen, they found finance to make a series titled Bonaparte. They engaged various international sources (American investors had shown enthusiasm, but pulled out when the producers refused their demand that Bony be reframed as white rather than multiracial).

The producers decided to shoot the stories in contemporary Australia. English playwright and scriptwriter Eric Paice flew there to head the writing team. Signed up to direct alternate episodes were Peter Maxwell and Eric Fullilove. The team began casting for Upfield's half-Aboriginal hero and other characters.

Casting

According to John McCallum:

"We looked all over Australia! Ideally, of course, the part should have been played by a half-Aborigine, and we saw hundreds of people, but it needed someone with very considerable acting experience and expertise. We auditioned white actors in every state, but there was no-one with the right physiognomy and characteristics for the part..."

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Aboriginal groups felt that black actors were being discriminated against, and publicly denounced Fauna.

English actor Jon Finch was eventually signed, but he pulled out two weeks before shooting began. McCallum flew to London to conduct more casting interviews. He saw more than eighty actors, and just about to phone home and postpone production, when James Laurenson, an actor from New Zealand arrived. McCallum knew he'd found Bony, although he insisted that Laurenson wear dark make-up for the part.

In 2010, notable Aboriginal actor Jack Charles recounted that, when he auditioned for the role in 1972, the producer told him they were looking for an actor with blue eyes.^[2]

Laurenson's casting was immediately criticised. He said in a 1972 interview:

"I think any actor, black or white or yellow, has the right to play any part... I can understand their grievances but the company searched long and hard for an aboriginal Boney. They felt they couldn't come up with anyone who could sustain a six days a week schedule. You do need a certain amount of experience to stay alive".^[3]

Bob Maza said, "I could have guaranteed John McCallum ten articulate, sophisticated black people to play that part. He didn't look very hard. Did he look at all?"^[3]

Upfield had told McCallum that he'd always intended to call his detective "Boney", but a printer's error had changed it to "Bony". His preferred spelling replaced "Bonaparte" as the title of the series.

The crew flew to Alice Springs during July 1971 to film the first episode, "Boney Buys A Woman". Twelve-hour six-day working weeks bonded the producers, cast and crew. As John McCallum recalled:

"It wasn't an easy series to shoot. The long lines of communication to Sydney added to our difficulties and costs. Rushes took days, sometimes weeks to get to us. The heat was appalling for most of the time and the flies worse. But we had a splendid crew who would work in the blazing sun or the pouring rain... they complained, of course, but they did it!"

After the first series was well received in Australia and internationally, a further thirteen episodes were filmed. The second series co-starred Kate Fitzpatrick as Boney's assistant, Constable Alice McGorr. The second season started filming in July 1972.^[4]

John McCallum said that "James gave an excellent performance. He looked right and he sounded right, and I think Arthur Upfield would have been very pleased with him".^[1]