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Orange Roughies

New Zealand 2006

Role: Harry Foley

Director: Chris Bailey

Company: Screenworks

Soundtrack: Don McGlashan, Opening Credits accompanied by "Long White Cross" from the Auckland band Pluto.

Episodes: Two seasons, one aired between May and July 2006 on TV One but only up to it's seventh epuisode. The rest aired a while later on TVNZ 6. Originally they should have been broadcasted next to each other, both on TV One, but due to poor rating the programme has been taken off air.

Summary: The show centres around four main characters who are members of an elite New Zealand taskforce in Auckland, intended to be a combination of police and customs officers. Despite being an elite force, they are, as their commander Ron Maddock reminds them, under-funded, under-resourced and under the hammer. Because of this, the Roughies (as they are called) have to make sure that they perform exceptionally well to avoid being canned, as they are, after all, an experiment. Their members are: Detective Sergeant Danny Wilder (Nicholas Coghlan), Senior Customs Officer Jane Durant (Zoe Naylor), Detective Constable Zach Wiki (Mark Ruka) and Noel Bullerton (Nick Kemplen). The first episode deals with child trafficking from China, and subsequently Jane decides to adopt one of the trafficked children, Tao. Their relationship kicks off and they are united. However, several episodes later, Tao is taken back to China, leaving Jane once again childless. There is also a gradual romance which develops between Danny and Jane, culminating in a kiss discovered by Maddock. Each episode contains a story of some form of significant police or customs enquiry carried out by the taskforce, often of a high-risk nature. The season finishes with Jane being taken hostage by a homosexual Greek criminal, and being shot in the stomach. It is still unsure as to whether she survived. Danny manages to track him down in Melbourne and kills him (from Wikipedia)

Info: Mark had a guest role as an Australian cop who helped a New Zealand colleague. He appeared, talked to a guy, cursed several times and then wasn't seen anymore. Mark appears in episode 8 or 9, there seem to be different ways to count: "In a move that will put him offside with the New Zealand Police, Danny breaks ranks with the Roughies to seek vengeance for Jane. The search takes Danny deep into the Melbourne underworld where he not only finds the hitman, but uncovers the truth about Chloe's involvement with the Melbourne drug squad..." // Orange Roughies, btw, are fishes.

Links: Orange Roughies at Wikipedia | Orange Roughies at IMDB | Orange Roughies at Tviv.org | Orange Roughies at TVNZ.co.nz | Extensive: Orange Roughies at Screenworks.co.nz | NZOnScreen: Orange Roughies