From 1990 to 1992, Channel 10 broadcast a very clever spoof soap opera which was outlandish and over-the-top, it was a ratings blockbuster.
Let The Blood Run Free started as a stand-up show at The Last Laugh comedy club in the 80s, which came out of the minds of a comedy improv group. Performed on the Le Joke stage, the send-up of a medical hospital lampooning the soap show The Young Doctors – would involve audience participation.
Characters such as Dr Ray Good, Nurse Pam Sandwich, Nurse Effie Shunt, Dr Richard Lovechild, Matron Dorothy Conniving-Bitch, Inspector George Slabb and cleaner Warren Cronkshonk would perform their stories to the audience, and just as it hit peak storyline, the show would suddenly stop and it would give the audience a multiple choice on which direction the story would go.
So successful would the show become, writer, performer and The Comedy Company alum Ian McFadyen adapted the stage show (with performers Brian Nankervis, Jean Kittson, David Swann, Lynda Gibson and Peter Rowsthorn) to television, broadcast on Channel 10.
The result was a comedically violent and over-the-top performance of entertainment. Even the audience participation was adapted to the show, by incorporating a pay hotline at the end of each episode so the more popular storyline will be filmed and taken in that direction in the next broadcast. Recording would be on a Wednesday, screened on a Sunday, and with the phone tally in, the script was written around the result.
26 episodes were produced across two seasons, both getting DVD releases, which are long out-of-print. So enjoy the YouTube editions!
