Jocko - Man with a Gun

In this episode of the early 80s TVNZ high country drama (penned by Pukemanu writer Julian Dickon and directed by Roger Donaldson), Jocko (Bruce Allpress) is reunited with two fellow Korean War veterans — but one is now an escaped convict and the other a police officer heading the manhunt. Stan, another escapee (a suitably manic Bruno Lawrence), stirs things up but the real drama here involves unfinished business for three former soldiers from a conflict 25 years earlier. It’s also very much a man’s world, without a single female character to be seen.

I’m a thief and he’s a cop. We’re both in the same line of business. But he can’t get rid of me and it eats into his guts like a worm into a rotten apple. Oh yeah, I‘m a thief but he’s something worse and he knows it.

– Brindle (Norm Keesing)

Key Cast & Crew

Desmond Kelly

As: China

Bruce Allpress

As: Jocko

Bruno Lawrence

As: Stan

Julian Dickon

Writer

Martyn Sanderson

As: Ham

Roger Donaldson

Director