BLUE MURDER KILLER COP

Australia, 2017, 240 minutes, Colour.
Richard Roxburgh, Toni Collette, Matt Nable, Justin Smith, Emma Booth, Tony Martin, Aaron Pedersen, Dan Wyllie.
Directed by Michael Jenkins.

In the 1990s, Blue Murder was considered one of the best television series, written by Ian David and directed by Michael Jenkins. The focus was on police corruption in New South Wales (where even one of the premiers, Robin Askin, was later revealed to be corrupt). The central character was Roger Rogerson – and played by Richard Roxburgh who bought quite some physical resemblance to the policeman.

The film dramatised various cases in New South Wales and the role of Rogerson, his corruption, his contacts, the protection. One of the cases involved Neddy Smith, played by Tony Martin.

This 2017 miniseries incorporates flashbacks from the previous program enabling audiences see the younger Roger Rogerson and glimpses of Neddy Smith.

The film goes back to Rogerson and his corrupt dealings, the various contacts he had, especially in King’s Cross and with criminals and the drug world. The film fleshes out characters in various police and drugs and corruption.

Richard Roxburgh takes up his performance again, an extraordinarily strong performance, intense, Roxburgh embodying the determination, the ruthlessness and the superficial charm of Rogerson. In 2015, Rogerson and an accomplice were charged with the murder of a Chinese student connected with drug deals. There were found guilty and imprisoned.

This gives this series the opportunity to go back to the old days, Rogerson’s imprisonment, his experience of jail, his getting out, his marriage (his wife played by Toni Collette), and his independence and gradually, with supreme self-confidence, getting back into the drug world.

Part of the dynamic of this series is the pursuit by a squad of internal investigators of the police, led by Matt Nable as Mark Standen, some strong confrontation sequences, but Standen himself with a gambling problem gradually getting deeper into debt and crossing the line concerning money and finance.

In a sense, this series has to be seen to be believed, seeming more like a contrived fiction rather than the fact and facts that it was.


1. True story? The original television series and its contemporary impact? The 1980s? The next 20 to 30 years? A perspective from 2017?

2. Audience knowledge of Roger Rogerson, New South Wales police, corruption? The other personalities? Situations and events?

3. The performance of Richard Roxburgh, his likeness to Roger Rogerson, the excerpts from the the past, in the presence series, and the make up and his ageing?

4. The television series, its realism, the impact of the 90s? Rogerson’s career and corruption? His imprisonment, the next 20 years? The incorporation of flashbacks?

5. The strong cast, police, criminals, Rogerson’s wife?

6. This series presupposing the earlier series? Information about the New South Wales police force? The experience of corruption, the dramatising of corruption? Police enquiries, confrontations?

7. 2015, Rogerson and his associates, the murder of the Chinese drug dealer? Court case? Found guilty? Prison?

8. Rogerson, supreme confidence, the episode with Neddy Smith and its being visualised? Testament against him? Mark Standen, internal affairs investigations, the establishment of the squad? Rogerson and his clique? Michael Hurley, friendship, clubs? His later illness? Confidantes?

9. Standen, his character, intensity, relationships, confrontations with Rogerson, guns and possibilities? His gambling, covering, illegal behaviour, descent into gambling, money needs, those trying to help him? dismissal and disgrace?

10. Rogerson’s wife, the meeting in the street, her knowing about him, the attraction, her accepting him? Marriage, daily life? His going to prison, her visits in support? The years? Her humanising Rogerson?

11. The prison sequences, the range of prisoners, life in the prison, the variety of types, clashes, power struggles, the guards?

12. Rogerson out of prison, not in the force, the changing times, his getting older? The connections, drugs, his greater involvement?

13. His accomplice, as a police officer, the issue of the cash, his becoming dirty? Against Rogerson? His subsequent career, working privately, collections, and collaborating with Rogerson?

14. The risk, the drug dealer, Rogerson and his confidence, the murder and disposal of the body?

15. Rogerson, in jail – an episode in New South Wales history, police history? And Rogerson as an icon of this kind of corruption?