Duggan stars John Bach as brooding Detective Inspector Duggan, attempting to solve murders
amid the tranquility of the Marlborough Sounds. New Zealand's answer to Inspector Morse, the
show was conceived by Marion McLeod and scripted by Donna Malane and Ken Duncum. The
turquoise waters of the Sounds make for an evocative setting in this sharp, classy Kiwi whodunit.
Excerpt:
| Michael and Jennifer play newly-married couple Michael and Joanne Taylor. Michael has son Reuben from a previous relationship, and Joanne has daughter Sophie with ex-husband Bill. |
| CAST |
|
CREW |
John Duggan |
|
John Bach |
|
Director |
|
Yvonne Mackay |
Constable Peach |
|
Pete Smith |
|
Writer |
|
Donna Malane |
Michael Taylor |
|
Michael Hurst |
|
Cinematographer |
|
Leon Narbey |
Joanne Taylor |
|
Jennifer Ward-Lealand |
|
Composer |
|
Gareth Farr |
Fraser |
|
Andy Anderson |
|
Producer |
|
Dave Gibson |
Reuben |
|
Henry Blake |
|
Producer |
|
Jan Haynes |
Sophie |
|
Florence Mulheron |
|
|
|
|
PART 1, Ep 1.3
Celebrating the wedding of Michael and Joanne Taylor.
Joanne introduces her new husband Michael to her friend Inspector Duggan.
Sophie's had all kinds of fun at the party, but now it's time for mum to put her to bed.
But come morning, Sophie is nowhere to be found. They do find a note: "We got her tell the cops and she's dead".
Michael's son Reuben wishes he'd awakened his father when Sophie came into his room
during
the night,
but Michael assures him that "This isn't your fault. She'll turn up".
Joanne asks Duggan, "What are you doing to find my little girl? ... This is just a job to you, isn't it?"
Duggan questions Michael after he responds to a ransom note - and ends up killing the kidnapper!
"Why didn't you tell me they sent you another note?"
"Because you didn't seem to be taking it seriously. You kept talking about 'if' there was a kidnapper, like I was imagining it!".
"Do you realize how much trouble you're in?"
"I only wish I had Sophie back".
But it wasn't the kidnapper that Michael shot, it was Joanne's ex-husband, Sophie's father Bill.
"Bill was there for the same reason that Michael was, he was waiting for the kidnappers. ...
You and Bill were
both
sent ransom notes setting out different times. Somebody was hoping to collect two separate ransom payments".
"Oh, God, Michael went an hour early".
PART 2, Ep 1.4
Instinctively, Joanne knows that Duggan has come to tell them that Sophie is dead.
Michael watches Joanne confront Duggan, while Reuben hides from the news.
Seeing cops at Fraser's place, Michael asks what's going on, and learns that Fraser
is being investigated because he was once accused of molesting a school girl.
Michael and Joanne confront Fraser. Michael finds it hard to believe the accusation was false:
"Girls always drop the charge because they don't want to go through a court case".
Joanne wants to know why she wasn't told about Fraser's past.
Her faith in Fraser shattered, Joanne no longer knows who she can trust:
"I look around and I think that anybody could have done it ...".
(to Michael) " ... even you".
Duggan tells Joanne that Sophie died of injuries from falling over the cliff.
"We're all disintegrating. It's like we're all falling down that cliff face, all of us".
Desperate, Michael attacks Fraser: "Someone has to pay! He's gonna get away with it".
But Joanne talks him down: "Michael, please. Michael!"
As Michael is taken away in a patrol car: "It's hard to believe that a week ago,
we were a family. Now look at us. Wiped out like we've been hit by a tsunami".
Michael under interrogation. Why hadn't he told Duggan that Sophie had gone to
Reuben's room the night she disappeared? "Look, my boy's been through enough, allright?
He'd been
blaming himself. He was feeling guilty for not having told us she'd woken him."
Finally Reuben tells the whole story, how he was trying to be a good big brother, taking Sophie out in the
night to teach her not be afraid of the dark. But "she took off, running round and round, dancing and stuff.
Then
she
just disappeared. Like, one second she was there, and the next, she was gone. She must have slipped".
Later: "How are you coping? How's Joanne?"
"Reuben's desperate
for her to forgive him. But I don't think that's something any of us can ask of her".
But moments later ...