Penny Cook Movies
- 1989
In keeping with its title, the Australian sci-fier The Dreaming has all the earmarks of an extended hallucination. A young doctor experiments in mind-expanding drugs. While doing so, he accidentally discovers an additional dimension where dreams are reality and vice versa. Will he ever escape -- or better still, does he want to? The Dreaming was directed by Mario Andreacchio. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arthur Dignam, Penny Cook, (more)
- 1989
Debuting in May 1989, the Australian TV soap opera E Street was designed as a "hip," youth-oriented variation of the long-running continuing drama A Country Practice, featuring one of the stars of the earlier series, Penny Cook. Set in the inner-city community of Westside, the daily 50-minute series cast Cook as dedicated general practitioner Dr. Ellie Fielding. Other regulars included beat cop George Sullivan (Les Dayman); George's rebellious teenaged daughter Alice (Marianne Howard); feisty legal-aid lawyer Sarah McKillop (Katrina Sedgwick), who was abruptly killed off six months into the series; Sarah's rather sexier replacement, Jennifer St. James (Virginia Hey); social worker Martha O'Dare (Cecily Polson); pub keeper Ernie Patchett (Vic Rooney) and his hotheaded son Chris (Paul Kelman), who was forced via an unwanted pregnancy to wed snooty socialite Megan Bromley (Lisabeth Kennaly); and the series' most popular character, "cool" Reverend Bob Brown (Tony Martin), who like most of the adults on the program was saddled with a contentious offspring, namely his son Harley (Malcolm Kennard). Whenever the ratings flagged -- as they did when Ellie Fielding was written off the series -- the producers hauled in another Country Practice alumnus, notably Kate Raison as rich-bitch dowager Sheridan Sturges and Joan Sydney as Ernie Patchett's sister Mary. The series also indulged in the time-honored practice of sweeping the boards clean by having several characters killed off at once in a single tragedy (an explosion, an auto accident, etc.) so that a whole new flock of younger, prettier regulars could be introduced. By the time the series entered the home stretch, most of the stories focused on a crippled rock singer named Wheels (Marcus Graham) and his entourage. Created by Forrest Redlich, E Street chalked up 404 episodes before its cancellation in 1993. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1988
When a girl is pushed to her death from a university tower, her fellow student (Penny Cook) remains unconcerned until her ex-husband (Patrick Frost) is accused of the murder. She then begins to investigate the crime, and unravels a mysterious conspiracy involving university keys. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- 1987
A group of college coeds are targeted for murder by an unknown assailant in this Australian thriller. A woman is hospitalized after she is attacked and thrown from a window. The mystery murderer finishes the job while she is confined to her bed. In a take-off of Psycho, a female detective is murdered on a stairway, while a scissor-stabbing death recalls the notorious scene from Dial M For Murder. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Penny Cook, Anna-Maria Winchester, (more)
