Format

Though sometimes considered a soap opera, the storylines of the show's two 45 minute 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.^[4] As it did not have the open ended narrative of a traditional soap opera, it was technically a "series".^[5] 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".^[5]

Cancellation and continuation

After the end of its run on the Seven Network, 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 was not as successful and was abruptly cancelled in November. The series featured actors including Paul Gleason, Jane Hall, Vince Colosimo, Claudia Black and Laura Armstrong.

Main cast (Seven Network series) 1981-1993

NOTE: Actors highlighted in pink were original cast members. Note: Actors highlighted in yellow were retained in the series when switching from Seven Network to Network Ten.

Guests (Seven Network series) 1981-1993

Primary & recurring cast (Network Ten) 1994)

Only four of the original cast members from the Network Seven series were retained in the Network Ten re-launch: Joan Sydney, Joyce Jacobs, and Andrew Blackman, and Michelle Pettigrove.

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, 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, A Country Practice also had a cast of semi-regulars who made appearances as the storylines permitted. The program also showcased a number of animal stars and Australian native wildlife, most famously Fatso the wombat. Fatso was played throughout the series by three separate wombats, the original actually named Fatso (1981–1986) was replaced due to temperament issues with the cast, a wombat George (1986–1990), he himself replaced due to early signs of wombat mange (a marsupial viral disease), and Garth (1990 through series end).

Highest rating episode

Anne Tenney played Molly Jones, who became one of the most popular characters, particularly in the series' early years. Molly, was an unconventional fashion designer, farmer and Green-hugging local environmentalist, and after Tenney decided to leave the series, her character's death episode became the highest rating, and most remembered storyline. The series 13 week storyline arc dealt with how a young woman, as well as her husband and local residents, coped with terminal illness, after the character was diagnosed with leukaemia. The final episode sees the character of Molly sitting in her back garden and waving while her husband, Brendan, is teaching his daughter to fly a kite. He sees Molly is fading, and calls her name as the screen fades to black.^[7] 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.

Other iconic storylines over its 12-year run include the wedding of Dr. Simon Bowen (Grant Dodwell) to local vet Vicki Dean (Penny Cook) in 1983, the death of nurse Donna Manning in a car crash in 1987, and the off-screen death of longtime resident Shirley Gilroy, played by original Lorrae Desmond in a plane crash in 1992.

United Kingdom

The series also had a successful run on the ITV network in the United Kingdom. A Country Practice began on Wednesday, 27 October 1982 - less than a year after its debut on Seven Network in Australia.

Originally, the series was partially networked (similar in theory to syndication) by Thames Television, the weekday contractor for the London area, to a cluster of five ITV regions; Anglia Television, Border Television, Tyne Tees, Yorkshire Television and TVS. These regions all aired one weekly episode on Wednesdays at 14:45–15:45, and in the original, hour-long format. The remaining ITV contractors: Central Independent Television, Channel Television, HTV, TSW, Granada Television, Scottish Television, UTV, and Grampian Television – all started later, with UTV being the last to start in late 1989.

Of the broadcast years covering 1982 through to 1989, all of the ITV regions began scheduling the program on a day and at a time of their own choice, but most generally continued with the weekly hour-long format. The slower pace of one weekly episode all year round (as opposed to two in Australia for ten months, Feb-Nov) meant that UK broadcasts quickly fell behind Australia, and the regions were all at vastly different points in the storyline by 1988 when the serial was put on hiatus in a handful of areas for a new Australian series, Richmond Hill, which took the Wednesday and Thursday afternoon 14:00 slot from October. When that series ended in August the following year, A Country Practice was resumed as its replacement (although some regions, such as Thames, TSW, TVS, and Granada, had continued to show it).

By around May 1990 (regions do vary), the ITV network decided to change how it broadcast episodes of A Country Practice. Each franchise adopted the method 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 half-hour format of airing the series had already been established by Yorkshire Television from October 1984, TVS from 1987, Thames from 1988, and due to the backlog of episodes now available, stripped half-hour editions could air uninterupted (except on bank holidays etc) and at an increased output of up to two and a half episodes each week. This format did however result in the 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.

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, A Country Practice was popular in the UK and achieved consolidated viewing figures of between 2–3 million. Some regions (HTV, Border, Grampian, TSW and Granada) moved the later episodes of the series to an early evening slot of 17.10–17.40.

ITV regional broadcasts

• Originally starting in 1982, Yorkshire Television were the first region to break away from the networked transmissions in October 1984 and began editing each episode into two half-hour episodes, screening on Mondays and Tuesdays at 15:30. This led to continuity problems as whenever a public holiday occurred (on Monday), the 15:30 slot would be unavailable. The series was moved back to an early afternoon hour-long format in 1988 when Sons and Daughters was aired five afternoons a week at 15:30. A Country Practice then replaced Sons and Daughters when that series ended in March 1989, again split into half-hour episodes and shown five afternoons a week for the first time. In 1990, it was then moved to earlier afternoon, 13:50-14:00, and eventually, hour-long episodes were reinstated. The series concluded in March 1998 and the Network Ten series was not shown. When Tyne Tees Television merged with Yorkshire, a number of episodes were skipped. This was to allow an alignment of schedules for the two regions.
• After initially airing weekly hour-long episodes (usually on Wednesdays) from 1982, both TVS and Thames Television followed Yorkshire's example of showing half-hour episodes each week. TVS initially used 14:00-14:30 from 1987 before following Thames with the 12:30-13:00, Monday to Wednesday, slot, from 1988. In 1990, both of these regions adopted the 13:50-14:20 time, on various days and frequency.
• Central Television originally began A Country Practice in July 1983, airing weekly on Tuesday mornings, 11:10–12:00, during the summer of 1983, but by September, the series had been shelved. Several years later in the spring of 1990 - while all the other ITV regions were well into their respective runs - Central re-launched the series, and followed Thames, Yorkshire, and TVS with half-hour episodes, starting with the first episode of the 1983 season. In May, it appeared in an early-afternoon slot, 14:00-14:30, Monday to Friday, and in September 1990, this changed slightly to 13:50-14:20. From January 1993, moves to 13:15-13:45, and then briefly switches to mid-afternoon in September 1993, and then 15:00-15:30 until the end of that year. Returns to 14:50-15:20 until March 1994, after which, it is moved back to lunchtimes at 13:55–14:25. By 1997, Central was airing A Country Practice at 12:55-13:25, and in 1998, the network concluded the original series in April in the 13:00–13:30 slot, and then immediately commenced the short-lived Network Ten version, finally completing all the episodes on Friday, 31 July 1998.
• Scottish Television started broadcasting the series in 1983 and always aired A Country Practice as hour-long episodes. Throughout the 1980s the program moved about in time and day but was generally broadcast once a week in an afternoon slot. In January 1994, after (episode #486), it was dropped from the schedules for about 4 months until June. From episode 491 screened every weekday morning at 10:55 for the duration of the summer school holidays (around 6 weeks) until 2 September. It reverted to its old weekly Tuesday slot the following week. It was the dropped completely after episode #588, during 1996. Although the company took over Grampian Television, the series continued until the end, doing so by airing daily episodes during the summer of 1998.
• HTV started the series on Wednesday, 26 October 1983, broadcasting 1 hour episodes [most] Wednesdays, 14:00-14:55, until 1990, when the series moved to 15:25 Wed-Fri as replacement for Sons and Daughters in half-hour format for the first time on HTV. This briefly increased to Monday-Friday, but from September 1993, it's moved to earlier time, 13:50-14:20, and only twice weekly. In March 1994, it began airing in the early evening, 17:10–17:40. By the end of 1998, the series had been reduced again to being shown on Thursdays and Fridays only. From January to March 1999, the series was shown on Tuesday through to Friday until Friday 5 March 1999 when the final Channel Seven episode was reached. HTV were the last ITV region to complete the series (and did not show the short lived Channel 10 series).
• Carlton Television superseded Thames Television in January 1993, and they continued to air the series using the 13:50-14:20 timeslot. In January 1995, Carlton launched a new Australian series, Blue Heelers, and it took the 14:50-15:20 slot, Monday to Wednesday, and a new series from New Zealand Shortland Street in the 13:55 slot on Monday, Wednesday and Friday with A Country Practice on Tuesday and Thursday, and this pattern continued until they became the first region to reach the last episode, in April 1996. Anglia Television was next to finish in 1997, and they then began a short repeat of the first 40 episodes.
• Granada Television originally began with a regular weekly episode on Thursdays, 14:00-15:00, from January 1984. This continued until mid-1990, when Granada decided to follow the majority of ITV regions with the half-hourly stripped format, broadcast at lunchtime, Monday to Friday, 13:50-14:20. During 1994 until the autumn of 1996, the series was moved to the early-evening 17:10–17:40 timeslot, Monday to Thursday - in September 1996, however, it returned to 13:50-14:20, and now airing Tuesday to Friday. By January 1998, hour-long episodes had been reinstated, and these aired on Mondays and Fridays, 13:55-14:45, and this continued until the end of the series in April 1998. Border Television had, by now, aligned with Granada's run of the series and followed their broadcast schedule.
• TSW and Channel Television did not begin until 1984, and initially aired A Country Practice weekly on Tuesdays at 14:00–15:00. In August 1989, TSW added an additional hour long episode on Thursdays (replacing Richmond Hill). In 1990, TSW followed the rest of the English ITV regions and aired five, half-hour episodes, Monday to Friday, at lunchtimes. In January 1993, Westcountry Television took over the regional franchise, and they moved the series to 17:10-17:40, until they concluded the series in 1997. Due to changes in their networking arrangements, Channel Television aligned with TVS broadcasts rather than TSW broadcasts from January 1986, meaning some episodes were skipped in the Channel Islands.
• TVS was replaced by Meridian Television on 1 January 1993 and the company continued to air A Country Practice. The original 7 Network series concluded in April 1997, and then Meridian immediately commenced the Network Ten series, with half-hour episodes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 12:55-13:25, until the last episode aired in September 1997.
• UTV dropped A Country Practice in early September 1998. At that particular point, UTV had been airing episodes only once a week - on Mondays - at 2:45pm, in a 30-minute slot. UTV had reached episodes from early 1993, season 13.

Satellite and Cable broadcasts

• In the mid-1980s, A Country Practice was a prime-time series on pan-European satellite channel, "Sky Channel", airing twice a week at 20:00 from April 1984, on Tuesday and Thursday. By August 1985, the series was screened at 19:20 and 20:10 on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and by 1986, it was screened at 20:00 again. When the Sky Channel was re-launched on the new Astra 1A satellite in January 1989, it became a UK-only service and was renamed Sky One, and A Country Practice disappeared from the schedule. For a brief period, later episodes were shown in 1997 on the cable channel Carlton Select.

Only the first 40 episodes have ever been repeated in the UK, in 1997, 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 vintage.

European screenings

Africa

Oceania

North America