An oddity of Australian TV that is best left in merciful obscurity. Released on Ch-7 in 1992, this was a pale shadow of the BBC's superb Black-Adder series, a show that Bligh was desperately trying to emulate by choosing a historical setting, in this case Colonial New South Wales in the early 1800s.
25 episodes were filmed (if the rumours are true) but only 13 went to air. Even one of the main cast, Michael Veitch, has recently admitted that he knew the show was a stinker even whilst working on it. In his book 'Flak', Veitch remembered being hurriedly dispatched by Ch-7 on a promotion tour of Australia's state capitals, desperately trying to flog the show before word-of-mouth spread of its awfulness (keep in mind this was back in 1992 in the pre-internet era).
The show was a disaster- a poorly written, over-acted mess with crass jokes and all the subtlety of a primary school Christmas play. Director Ted Emery has had a varied career (to put it politely) and a very prolific one. As some-one wrote recently, 'if you ever wondered why some much of Australian TV looks the same, its because most of it is directed and produced again and again by the same dozen people'.
He has scored some hits- Kath & Kim, The Micallef Program etc. But has had lots of misses. 'Let Loose Live'- his stinker from 2005 which was axed after only 2 episodes went to air- is the first to come to mind.
Trivia note- One episode of Bligh was written by Steve Vizard.
