A Country Practice
Follow the highs and lows of the townsfolk of Wandin Valley. This drama TV series revolves around the daily happenings of a "small-town" rural Australian hospital and its doctors, nurses, patients, and just about everyone else in the locale. A heartwarming Australian drama series that at times will see you laughing hysterically and at other times crying rivers. Well worth watching.
- 1981-1993
- 13 seasons
- Hallmark Channel
- Drama
Follow the highs and lows of the townsfolk of Wandin Valley. This drama TV series revolves around the daily happenings of a "small-town" rural Australian hospital and its doctors, nurses, patients, and just about everyone else in the locale. A heartwarming Australian drama series that at times will see you laughing hysterically and at other times crying rivers. Well worth watching.
Season 1 Episode Guide
14 Episodes 1981
Episode 1
In General Practice: Part 1
46 mins
A pregnant woman from out of town admits herself to Wandin Valley Hospital with signs of foetal distress. Despite his reluctance, Terence is forced to operate when another doctor is unable to reach the town in time. Delivering a baby girl, the hospital staff are surprised by Mrs Myers' disinterest and apathy toward her daughter, whom she says is "not mine". Meanwhile, Simon has to refuse local girl Jenny Secombe's request for the birth control pill. At fifteen, Jenny needs parental consent to obtain the pill, but is afraid to ask her father. Shirley finds she is receiving unwanted attention from the recently widowed Frank Gilroy, while Simon continues to pursue Vicky, despite her insistence that they remain friends.
Episode 2
In General Practice: Part 2
47 mins
Shirley consents to go on a date with Frank but vows it will be their last. Simon struggles to determine the cause of a young boy's Monday morning migraine headaches.
Episode 3
Town Tragedy: Part 1
60 mins
A very serious car accident upsets the townsfolk leaving questions unanswered. Dr. Elliott battles to save the life of a woman injured in the accident. Brendan and Molly Jones arrive in Wandin Valley.
Episode 4
Town Tragedy: Part 2
60 mins
Frank awaits Peter Gleeson's blood results to see if he was driving under the influence of alcohol when the accident that killed Elaine MacKay occurred. Gossip begins to circulate in town that Ian and Eliane were having an affair. Andy, increasingly speculative as to why Elaine was traveling in Ian's car (which was heading to Sydney), goes to see Ian in the hospital. Molly adjusts to nights alone on the farm.
Episode 5
The Itinerants: Part 1
60 mins
Dr. Elliott fights to save a child's life despite opposition from the boy's mother who is leery of doctors since her husband's death. Hoping to deter Frank, Shirley makes an attempt at preparing an exotic dinner, but Frank's culinary prowess more than compensates for Shirley's poor cooking skills. Molly barters her hand-made clothes in exchange for services. Doris eats the rose bush Frank gives to Molly as a house-warming gift. Bob brawls with fruit pickers who are in town for the harvest. Molly disturbs a prowler. Simon Bowen faces making a decision about a difficult patient whom he believes to be a drug addict. Molly tries to get Doris to mate with Jerry Percival's pig but Doris kicks the unworthy beast out of her pen. Brendan cheers up a young patient by playing super-nurse.
Episode 6
The Itinerants: Part 2
60 mins
Simon Bowen faces making a decision about a difficult patient whom he believes to be a drug addict. Molly tries to get Doris to mate with Jerry Percival's pig but Doris kicks the unworthy beast out of her pen.
Episode 7
They Shoot Cows Don't They: Part 1
60 mins
A woman who has remained tied to her home in order to look after her curmudgeon of a father seeks Terence's help to allow her to get away for a few days-Terence admits Arty Turner to hospital and leaves him in Brendan's care. Molly goes to the Sales yard to buy a dog but comes home with an old cow that already has two hoofs in the abattoire. Simon treats a woman who knew his grandfather and is visited repeatedly by a young woman looking for company.
Episode 8
They Shoot Cows Don't They: Part 2
60 mins
Arty causes a fire at the hospital with a carelessly disposed cigarette. Bill Ferguson proposes to Sandra Popovich. Vicky recommends that Molly's "no name" cow be put down. Pat Turner decides to put her father in a care home. Emily Page prepares to take her life following a final dinner with Simon, but after her leaves her house, Simon clues in to what she's planning and returns to save her. Bill and Sandra bring Molly a calf in exchange for her designing Sandra's wedding dress, Molly calls him No Name II.
Episode 9
Coming Home: Part 1
60 mins
On her rounds as district nurse, Matron Kertesz meets Lachie Hughes, a young man paralysed from the waist down as the result of a recent accident. Lachie's doting parents are a challenge for him but he makes friends with Molly and Brendan. Frank meets Jack Bates while fishing. Jack, a businessman who's returned to the valley after a forty year absence, talks Terence into performing a practical joke on Frank. Simon runs over a wombat and is forced to adopt it after Vicky finishes treating it. Marta pulls Lachie from a dam when he tries to go swimming by himself. Lachie takes a shine to Marta but she tells him she wants their relationship to remain strictly professional. Simon looks for the cause of a young girl's illness and weight loss.
Episode 10
Coming Home: Part 2
60 mins
Lachie rushes his mother to the hospital when she suffers a spontaneous pneumothorax. Sgt. Gilroy gives Simon a rough time over his keeping the wombat (given the name Fatso by Simon). Shirley Dean receives special treatment from a real man about town and the policeman about town has his nose put out of joint. Marta tells Lachie the story of how she escaped from Hungary. Marta sleeps with Lachie after first consulting Terence about the logistics. Simon and Vicky's date is sidetracked when Vicky spots a cow stuck in a mud hole and asks Simon to help her get it out. Jack Bates has a heart attack and dies. Lachie makes plans to return to Sydney after receiving a letter from his girlfriend who wants to give their relationship another go.
Episode 11
Secrets: Part 1
60 mins
When Shirley is involved in a minor car accident, Frank hounds her for a breath test but she resists on principle, insisting an erratically driven bus forced her to swerve into the other lane. Brendan Jones saves a young asthmatic's life but the boy's overprotective mother takes offence at Brendan's suggestion that she is contributing to her son's dependency. Molly gets a new dog, Fang, but a rash of animal poisonings has her worried.
Episode 12
Secrets: Part 2
60 mins
Dr. Bowen tries to get Maurie Wilson to stop driving his bus and seek medical attention for his seizures. Jan Hardy, wife of town councillor John Hardy, dies in hospital as a result of liver damage caused by her heavy drinking-which her husband encouraged her to keep secret in an effort to protect her (and more importantly his) reputation in the community. Vicky discovers the cause of the animal poisonings when a woman brings in her cat after it had gotten into the remnants of the bait she had been using on her neighbours' dogs.
Episode 13
Alternatives: Part 1
60 mins
Bianca Forbes-Hamilton, Molly's glamorous model friend, comes to visit her at the farm, driving Brendan crazy and causing Vicky some moments of jealousy after Simon is introduced to her. Concerned about her grandson's health, Mavis Carmody takes him to the see Dr. Bowen without telling the boy's mother. When Willow Carmody finds out what her mother-in-law has done, she reveals to her that Rama has had leukaemia for the past eighteen months. Mavis is shocked by the news but is dismayed to learn that the boy's mother and her boyfriend, Alan Wheeler, have been avoiding treating Rama to avoid the debilitating side effects. Stumpy Black is hospitalised when he is injured while blasting tree stumps to clear his land. In hospital, he reunites with Lily Bauer, the woman who left him at the alter thirty years earlier. Rama is hospitalised but Alan sneaks him out in the middle of the night. Simon and Bianca's date ends traumatically when they attempt to move a sheep.
Episode 14
Alternatives: Part 2
60 mins
Mavis Carmody contacts her son in Sydney to encourage him to seek custody of Rama. John Carmody arrives in town, and after learning that Terence plans to testify on behalf of Alan and Willow, confronts Terence and threatens to discredit him by dredging up his past. The next morning, Simon finds Terence in a drunken stupor in his apartment agonising over the implications of John Carmody's threat. Simon in turn threatens John with the long legal arm of his own family, who could impede John's promising law career. In the end however it is Terence who convinces Mavis not to contest the custody issue and to allow Willow and Alan to pursue alternative treatments for Rama. Bianca accidentally blows up the Jones' famous "leaning loo," breaking her ankle in the process, after Molly takes Bianca's advice to add in kerosene. "Fabulous!"