The Flying Doctors

N/ARated
6.6Rating
1986Year
9Seasons

The Flying Doctors is an Australian drama series produced by Crawford Productions that revolved around the everyday lifesaving efforts of the real Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia. It was initially a 1985 mini-series based in the fictional outback town of Cooper's Crossing starring Andrew McFarlane as the newly arrived Dr. Tom Callaghan. The success of the mini series led to its return the following year as an on-going series with McFarlane being joined by a new doctor, Chris Randall, played by Liz Burch. McFarlane left during the first season and actor Robert Grubb came in as new doctor Geoff Standish. The series' episodes were mostly self-contained but also featured ongoing storylines, such as Dr. Standish's romance with Sister Kate Wellings. Other major characters included pilot Sam Patterson, mechanic Emma Plimpton, local policeman Sgt. Jack Carruthers and Vic and Nancy Buckley, who ran the local pub/hotel, The Majestic. Andrew McFarlane also later returned to the series, resuming his role as Dr. Callaghan. The popular series ran for nine seasons and was successfully screened internationally.

Full Plot

This series chronicles the events surrounding the activities of the Royal Flying Doctors Service, which operates its own aircraft -in this case from the base at Coopers Crossing, an otherwise hardly notable town- to fly its medical staff throughout the Australian outback, where roads are too scarce and distances too immense to reach patients for medical care or get them to hospital by car in time. Doctors, nurses, pilots and base staff change throughout the seasons, often coming from the city and finding it difficult to adapt to life in the godforsaken countryside and be accepted by the isolated local community; there are of course the usual colleague stories. In most episodes they make one or more flights for routine medical examination sessions and/or emergency help, sometimes continued on board and/or in the hospital. Furthermore there are various sidelines, mainly concerning the local characters such as bar-owners Vic and Nancy, who also provide the only rooms, and some of their regulars, including local shopkeeper and busybody Violet Carnegie and arrogant richest businessman George Baxter who are very influential in the indispensable fund-raising.