Richmond Hill (TV series)

Richmond Hill
Genre	Drama Soap Opera
Created by	Reg Watson
Country of origin	Australia
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	91
Production company(s)	Reg Grundy Organisation
Release
Original network	Network Ten
Original release	27 January 1988 – 1989

Richmond Hill was an Australian television soap opera made in 1988 by the Reg Grundy Organisation for the Ten Network. It was devised by Reg Watson who also created Neighbours. It debuted on 27 January 1988 as a two-hour premiere episode on Network 10 at 7.30pm. The series was only moderately successful and was cancelled in late 1988. A total of 91 episodes were produced.

The series was set in a small fictional Australian country town and most of the scenes revolved around the local police station, a real estate agency, and the pub. The cast was made up of experienced soap actors such as Maggie Kirkpatrick, Amanda Muggleton, Paula Duncan and Gwen Plumb and young beginners like Ashley Paske and Emily Symons. Former comedy star Ross Higgins played the central role of the local police officer and family man Dan Costello.

Richmond Hill was broadcast in an evening timeslot 7.30 as two one-hour episodes each week. The programme was produced in Sydney; some location shooting took place in Mona Vale, New South Wales. The series emerged as only a lukewarm success in the Australian ratings, and was cancelled after only one year. Coincidentally, the series was axed during the very same week that it debuted on British television, having been sold to the ITV network.

The UK's ITV network decided to show Richmond Hill in a daytime Wednesday and Thursday 14.00 slot and its much publicised launch was 5 October 1988. In the wake of the success of Neighbours on BBC One, ITV decided to network an Australian soap opera for the first time (thereby each episode was shown on the same day and at the same time across the UK) and its launch also caused a small amount of controversy. British television schedules were becoming littered with Australian soaps and dramas, old and new, and the industry began to protest. In October 1988 alone, there were as many as 8 serials from Australia on Britain's two main terrestrial channels; Neighbours (BBC), The Flying Doctors (BBC), The Sullivans (ITV and Sky), Prisoner: Cell Block H (ITV), The Young Doctors (ITV), A Country Practice (ITV) and Sons and Daughters (ITV). There were even TV programmes dedicated to the subject particularly after ITV launched another Australian series, Home and Away (in February 1989), which ironically had debuted the very same week as Richmond Hill in Australia on Seven Network.

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