Blue Heelers S04E09

Charity Begins At Home

Episode 4.09 (137)
April 08, 1997
Written by Annie Beach
Directed by Richard Sarell

Nick and Adam are surprised when their call to a domestic dispute turns out to be at a Salvation Army women's meeting. They discover a young mother, Joanne Mason, has accused her husband Andrew of deliberately pushing her out of their car. He claims it was an accident but Joanne announces she's going to leave him anyway.

Captain Ingrid Perry, the Salvation Army officer, finds the wife accommodation at a women's shelter, but the Heelers are called out again when the husband finds out where she is and turns up to talk to her. In fact it turns out that Joanne had rung him herself and invited him round, then changed her mind. She is obviously very confused about the big life decision she has just made.

Meanwhile, Dash is moving into Maggie's flat. Despite the fact that they are running late for work, Dash talks Maggie into taking a detour so she can dump a bag full of unwanted clothes into the St. Steven's charity bin. Unbeknown to either of them, she accidentally throws out Maggie's favourite jumper. When she realises her mistake, Dash asks St. Steve's new priest, Father Brian Hergarty, for permission to look for the jumper in the bin — and thus discovers that it has been broken into and the contents stolen. Nobody appears to be more surprised than Captain Ingrid Perry when the stolen good are discovered in her store room. She claims she got the clothes from her own Salvation Army bin. During PJ's investigation, she tells him she sold Maggie's jumper to a second hand dealer. PJ and Maggie then discover money and other items donated to St. Steven's are also in her possession.

Maggie and Dash find themselves in the thick of the Mason's marriage problems when Dash cheerfully invites Joanne to stay at their place after she realises she'll have to move from the refuge because Andrew now knows were it is. Andrew follows Dash home from the hotel one night, and pleads on the doorstep for another chance to salvage his marriage. The hidden Joanne is actually swayed by his protestations of love and remorse. Will she go back to him, in spite of the escalating violence? And who is really stealing from St. Steven's? Would Ingrid Perry really put her whole reputation on the line for the sake of a few extra bucks? Or is it the slightly shonky second hand dealer? In the end the attempted murder of Ingid while she is conducting an outdoors prayer meeting gives the Heelers the real culprit.

Guest Starring: Caroline Huf as Joanne Mason, Tom Healey as Andrew Mason, Michelle Offen as Cpt. Ingrid Perry, Calleb Cluff as Leon, Merfyn Owen as Fr Brian Hegarty, Audrey Pearce as Briony Mason, Axl Taylor as Marman Len, Chris Peters as Salvo Band Member, Theresa Blake as Salvo Band Member, Phil Reilley as Baker

(encoded with Handbrake - Blue Heelers - from Complete Fourth Season DVD - the early years)

Duration: approximately 45 minutes
Aspect ratio: 4:3 standard
Audio: linear hi-fi/stereo
Size: 427MB
Video format: MPEG-4 (MP4)

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