Australian TV audiences were introduced to Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte in 1972. "Boney" (spelled "Bony" in the books) had an Aboriginal mother and a white father. He tracked murderers by spotting an overturned twig or a crushed ant on the sand. A loner who never failed to crack a case, he was impatient with authority, charming, arrogant and an expert burglar, moving in a world of sunbaked claypans and the most distant reaches of the
Outback, where only the Aboriginal people could survive.
Arthur Upfield described his character as having been found as a baby near the body of his Aboriginal mother. (She was killed because of her forbidden relationship with a white man). The infant boy orphan was taken to a mission station. He was named Napoleon Bonaparte (nicknamed Boney, or Bony as it was later spelled). He was educated and grew up to become a police detective specializing in murder cases.
Development During 1963,
British film director
Michael Powell first visited Australia to preproduce his film,
''They're A Weird Mob''. There he met actor and theatre businessman
John McCallum and Bob Austin (a legal expert), who used their local knowledge to gain financing from Australian backers. The film did well. Three years later the trio bought the film and television rights to the
Bony detective novels. A script written for
Paramount Pictures failed to secure a deal, and Powell moved on to other projects. By 1970, John McCallum, Bob Austin, and veteran Australian producer Lee Robinson had set up
Fauna Productions. Having made their reputation with the children's TV series
Skippy the Bush Kangaroo and
Barrier Reef, and the feature film
Nickel Queen, they found finance to make a series titled
Bonaparte. They engaged various international sources (American investors had shown enthusiasm, but pulled out when the producers refused their demand that Bony be reframed as white rather than multiracial). The producers decided to shoot the stories in contemporary Australia. English playwright and scriptwriter
Eric Paice flew there to head the writing team. Signed up to direct alternate episodes were
Peter Maxwell and Eric Fullilove. The team began casting for Upfield's half-Aboriginal hero and other characters.
Casting According to John McCallum: "We looked all over Australia! Ideally, of course, the part should have been played by a half-Aborigine, and we saw hundreds of people, but it needed someone with very considerable acting experience and expertise. We auditioned white actors in every
state, but there was no-one with the right physiognomy and characteristics for the part..." Aboriginal groups felt that black actors were being discriminated against, and publicly denounced Fauna. English actor
Jon Finch was eventually signed, but he pulled out two weeks before shooting began. McCallum flew to London to conduct more casting interviews. He saw more than eighty actors, and just about to phone home and postpone production, when James Laurenson, an actor from
New Zealand arrived. McCallum knew he'd found Bony, although he insisted that Laurenson wear dark make-up for the part. In 2010, notable Aboriginal actor
Jack Charles recounted that, when he auditioned for the role in 1972, the producer told him they were looking for an actor with blue eyes. Laurenson's casting was immediately criticised. He said in a 1972 interview: "I think any actor, black or white or yellow, has the right to play any part... I can understand their grievances but the company searched long and hard for an aboriginal Boney. They felt they couldn't come up with anyone who could sustain a six days a week schedule. You do need a certain amount of experience to stay alive".
Bob Maza said, "I could have guaranteed John McCallum ten articulate, sophisticated black people to play that part. He didn't look very hard. Did he look at all?" John McCallum said that "James gave an excellent performance. He looked right and he sounded right, and I think Arthur Upfield would have been very pleased with him". ==Reception==