Plainclothes

The first Kiwi cop show to be built around a female character, Plainclothes debuted in March 1995. Rhondda Findleton stars as Detective Sergeant 'George' Samuels, who heads a team of plain clothes cops based in central Auckland. While getting on with the job Samuels faces leadership threats from both her boss (played by Alan Dale) and a sexist detective (Sean Duffy, who'd previously played a policeman in Mortimer's Patch). Made by company South Pacific Pictures, the show ran for one season of 26 episodes. Also playing cops were Erik Thomson, Pete Smith (The Quiet Earth) and Gilllian Baxter; Dave Dobbyn composed the music.