The Blake Mysteries’ future on TV is up in the air

The Aussie crime drama, which starred Craig McLachlan as Doctor Lucien Blake was a huge ratings hit. Now it’s been revived by Seven, but its future isn’t certain yet.

NADINE Garner has been through the wringer.

In March last year, the 47-year-old actor was devastated when the ABC announced that it was axing The Doctor Blake Mysteries.

The decision made no sense. The Aussie crime drama, which starred Craig McLachlan as Doctor Lucien Blake and Garner as housekeeper Jean Beazley was a huge ratings hit.

Last October, the mood turned to elation when Channel 7 announced it was going to rescue the show — commissioning four Doctor Blake telemovies.

That plan came crashing down three months later, when McLachlan was accused of indecent assault and harassment by some of the cast of The Rocky Horror Show.

McLachlan denied all allegations, but there was no way he could continue as Blake. It looked like the project was dead.

Fast forward to April, and Seven found a way to revive the TV project — renamed The Blake Mysteries — with Garner’s Beazley taking charge.

Nadine Garner stars in Seven's telemovie, The Blake Mysteries. Picture: Greg Noakes/Seven.

“It was a rollercoaster — we were punch drunk,” Garner tells TV Guide. “By the time Seven came around and said yes to a telemovie we were seeing stars.

“From the get-go there was an accord between creator George Adams and I that our loyalty lies with what that beautiful character was that Craig created and that we didn’t want anyone else taking that role.

“There was so much invested by viewers in that relationship (between McLachlan’s Lucien and Garner’s Jean) that I didn’t think anyone would buy [a replacement for McLachlan] and I would have trouble doing it.

“Then it was a case of ‘what else can we do’? As sad as I was for Craig and his circumstances, I was always about the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

“This is a show where a couple of hundred people (cast and crew) have jobs. It keeps a lot of people employed and a lot of guest actors come through.

Long-time fans of the show were split when they heard the news Garner’s Jean was set to take centre stage.

Adams insists having Garner spearhead a new-look Blake Mysteries was the only possible way forward.

Nadine Garner stars in Seven's telemovie, The Blake Mysteries. Picture: Greg Noakes/Seven.

“In case there is any doubt in anyone’s mind, Nadine Garner is a rare gem, both as an actor and as a person,” Adams says.

“She has been and continues to be the most dazzling of silver linings. Put simply, without her the show could not have gone on.”

Adams has got around the issue by jumping the storyline forward to 1963. Two years after their wedding, Lucien disappeared while in pursuit of a killer.

Jean has found a way to battle on, in the Victorian town of Ballarat and is a newly elected member of the local council.

When a man who’d arranged a business meeting with Jean is found murdered, it starts a chain of events which involve her in the case.

“It is not jumping the shark to see her move into this role,” Garner says. “We take viewers there step by step.

“We are not saying that she is suddenly a super sleuth and has all these new skills. She knows she’s not Lucien … she’s not a doctor. She’s not a police woman.

“She is saying “maybe I can help — I’ll never be a detective but I can offer bits of information that I know”.

Nadine Garner as Jean Blake in Seven's The Blake Mysteries. Picture: Greg Noakes/Seven

When The Blake Mysteries opens, everyone is reeling from the shock news of US President John F Kennedy’s assassination.

Belinda McClory’s role has been beefed up. Doctor Alice Harvey is the new police surgeon. Joel Tobeck is Chief Superintendent Matthew Lawson; while Tom Wren (Winners and Losers) joins the cast as newspaper editor Martin Carver.

“Very cleverly George has set Jean’s grief (of missing Lucien) against a larger grief of Kennedy’s assassination,” Garner says.

“But the 1960s is a time of great optimism too, especially for women. Jean has stepped out into the world. It is the first time in her life that she is not looking after people.

“There is a sense that this is a new world and Jean embodies that.”

Adams has already plotted out another three Blake Mysteries telemovies, but Garner knows Sunday’s ratings will likely determine whether they ever make it to air.

“We have created something out of the ashes,” Garner says. “We’ve finished 90 minutes of television for Channel 7 … [and] we’re so grateful that they took a leap of faith.

“We’re fatalistic about where it goes from here. We can’t do any more than raise it to this level. It is now in the lap of the gods.”

* The Blake Mysteries, 8.30pm, Friday November 30, Seven.