Boney (TV series)

Boney
Genre	Crime Mystery Detective
Starring	James Laurenson Nick Tate Kate Fitzpatrick
Country of origin	Australia
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	26
Production
Running time	40 minutes
Production company(s)	Fauna Television
Release
Original release	1971 – 1972

Boney is an Australian television series produced by Fauna Productions during 1971 and 1972, featuring James Laurenson in the title role of Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte. Two series, each of thirteen episodes were filmed.

The series is centred on Bonaparte, a half-Australian Aboriginal character, created by Arthur Upfield, who wrote twenty nine novels about him from 1929 until his death in 1964.

Australian TV audiences were introduced to Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte in 1972. "Boney" (spelled "Bony" in the books) was a half-Aboriginal detective who tracked murderers by spotting an overturned twig or a crushed ant on the sand. A loner who never failed to crack a case, he was impatient with authority, charming, arrogant and an expert burglar, moving in a world of sunbaked claypans and the most distant reaches of the Outback where only the Aborigines could survive.

Arthur Upfield's books told of a baby found in the bush near the body of his Aboriginal mother (killed for her forbidden relationship with a white man). He was taken to a mission station where he was given the name Napoleon Bonaparte and grew up to be a detective specializing in murder cases.

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 find finance from Australian backers. The film did well, and 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, and 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 from various international sources (American investors had shown enthusiasm, but had pulled out when their demand that Bony be completely white was refused).

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