The Great Bookie Robbery

DVD Review: The Great Bookie Robbery (1986)

If you do one thing well enough to be an authority, they call you an expert. Spend decades doing it, and they shower you with awards. Bring the world’s attention to one particular place, and they call you a genius. Consider this for a moment. If I were to tell you I was referring to Australian TV, you’d probably shake your head in disdain.

   

Yes, there’s Neighbours. Yeah, yeah, there’s Home and Away. Sons and Daughters, The Flying Doctors, and who could forget the mighty Prisoner Cell Block H? But I’m not a comedian trying to formulate a bit of stand-up, or an apologist who’s going to try and tell you Blue Heelers was as gritty as CSI in its day. I’m simply trying to convey that despite the fact their televisual output is fairly or unfairly maligned, the Australian contribution to entertainment may be due a re-appraisal.

   

As far as I’m concerned, it starts right this month, with the DVD release of The Great Bookie Robbery. A mini-series originally broadcast in 1986, it’s been knocking about in the archives for over two decades just waiting for the day it was safe enough to pop its head out the door. Much like the characters in the story on which it’s based, in fact.

   

A quick check on the true history of the Great Bookie Robbery reveals that in 1976, armed raiders broke into the Victoria Sports Club, Melbourne, haunt of the city’s bookies, held it up and made off with between $6-12 million. Their master stroke was to hide the money in the building next to the club and stage a fake getaway. Over the next two decades, the gang were either incarcerated or bumped off, but it was one of Australian law enforcement’s most mysterious crimes – all we have is the story of one alleged member, who bit the big one in 1992.

   

Because all accounts are lost in the ether, there was scope for the writers of The Great Bookie Robbery to fudge the facts a little. What we get is essentially the tale with an independent blag grafted onto it, but it’s no worse off for it. After all, in the proper story, all we have is the gang hiding the cash and getting away with it. Where’s the entertainment in that?

   

Career criminal Mike Power (John Bach) walks out of chokey in England (the Isle of Wight looking suspiciously like a Melbourne back street) determined to set up one last job that will see him clear of thievery. His cell-mate set him onto the possibilities of Melbourne’s Victoria Sports Club, so Mike recruits several shady characters from the local toe-rags to help him plan and pull it off. In the months leading up to the job, they have to avoid attention from a rival crew, the Temples (one of which is played by Australian institution Ray Meagher, better known as Home and Away’s Alf Stewart), and of course, the filth.

   

It wouldn’t be called The Great Bookie Robbery if they didn’t pull it off. But we also see the aftermath: the recriminations, the guilt, what to do with the cash when you’ve got cabin fever waiting for that day the police storm the place. Roughly, each episode consists of ninety minutes and they each deal with a different aspect of the story – build-up, robbery, and endgame. It’s a masterclass in dramatic storytelling.

   

Although a definite ensemble piece, obvious attention is lavished on lead Bach as Mike Power. Rigid and full of purpose, he finds a great line between menace and cold logic, and manages to play the roles of both family man and armed robber with equal excellence. His put-upon partner Carol (Catherine Wilkin) is also worthy of special mention; the woman behind the man, she gives human padding to what was always going to be a role played out largely in the shadows. Her grounded touch, compared to her impulsive sister Sonya (Candy Raymond) is one of those necessary conflicts that turns a bog-standard crime caper into a true drama.

   

It’s difficult to criticise the release for anything. It’s dated, sure, but what hasn’t in twenty years (apart from maybe excuses for England’s sporting failures)? The main thing to say is that good writing never goes out of fashion, regardless of setting or genre. The beauty of DVD is that long-forgotten gems get re-released every month, and this is a worthy addition to anyone’s collection.

   

Anybody expecting Goodfellas will be disappointed. Superior drama series though it is, at best The Great Bookie Robbery is merely the story of one robbery and its aftermath, not a focus on the lives of Melbourne’s gangster community. It’s been told a thousand times before, in greater or lesser detail and variations on the same theme will continue to be so. But for a two-disc set of a quite excellent drama series, it’s worth twenty-odd quid of anyone’s cash, no matter how they acquired it.

Extras: All three episodes come with a commentary, supplied by directors Mark Joffe and Marcus Cole, plus contributions from one of the actors, the superbly-named Andy Anderson.

Chris Stanley