Just as the Rugby World Cup attempts to put the nation into a celebratory mood, here comes a reminder of how our national game ripped the country apart during the 1981 Springbok Tour.
The final in the Sunday Theatre series of big-budget $2.8 million local telefeatures, Rage is co written by Tom Scott and his brother-in-law, police superintendent Grant O'Fee. It was inspired by the debates they had in the wake of the clashes between protesters and police.
Their story is about Carol Keriama (Maria Walker), a young Maori police-woman who goes undercover and falls in love with Des (Ryan O'Kane, last seen playing cricketer Bob Blair in Tangiwai), a charismatic student protester in the anti-tour movement.
"I was a detective-sergeant in Wellington during the tour," says O'Fee who now heads policing for the Rugby World Cup." I was an undercover agent about 10 years before then. With Tom, I would tell stories from my viewpoint, and he would tell his. Then, one day, he suggested that we could put a story together."
He says what attracted him to Rage was that he wanted to give a police perspective to it. "I think that's what we've both achieved: both the perspective of protesters and the perspectives of police are shown.
