australian television information archive

Series 1

The honourable Penelope Townes is a 13-year-old aristocrat. She lives with her widowed mother, Lady Diana, and their housekeeper, Miss Mossop, at Townes Hall, a stately but crumbling mansion in Wiltshire, England. When Penelope discovers an Australian genie called Bruce and his son Baz, a junior genie, who offers to make all her wishes come true, she naturally expects her family fortunes to improve. They do… sort of.

Bruce is the Genie of the Black Opal which Sir Claude, Penelope’s great, great, great grandfather, brought back to England from Australia last century. And Bruce and Baz have languished inside the opal, at the bottom of a trunk at the back of the attic, for 131 years. Penelope is the last of a long line of masters who have given Bruce and Baz a hard time over the centuries. Masters deserve to be tricked and foiled at every opportunity.

Penelope and Bruce are personality opposites. Bruce is as laid back as Penelope is proper. Penelope has the power and Bruce has the magic. Bruce must grant her wishes, but he can interpret their intent to his own advantage. And Junior Genie Baz is always keen to help out his dad with a wish. So when Penelope wants to be rich, Bruce promptly transports her ’Down Under’ where she has inherited Townes Downs, 800 square kilometres of Australian outback. Penelope hates Australia and is constantly trying to get back to England. Bruce and Baz, of course, think Townes Downs is heaven on Earth. Nearby there’s a special place where the opal was found, over a 1,000 years ago. If Bruce can get back there, with the opal in his hand, he can set himself and his son free. In 1853, Sir Claude won the opal from one Hans von Meister. Sir Claude became rich and von Meister became resentful. That resentment has been inherited by Otto von Meister and his 16-year-old nephew Conrad. They believe the Black Opal is rightfully theirs. They run "Crocodile Otto’s Outback Experience"—a tour business that covers a lot of Townes Downs. When Penelope returns to reclaim the station, Conrad and Otto see the opal and realise that they have a chance to regain their lost treasure and their family pride.

The Genie From Down Under pits master against slave in a comedy about a battle of wits and wills and a clash of cultures. Bruce and Baz can’t be free but Penelope can’t quite control either of them.

Wishing and Hoping

When upper class English girl Penelope Townes finds a magic opal which contains two Australian genies, Bruce and his son Baz, she thinks all her problems are over, and that she can have anything she wants. Bruce, however, has other ideas.

It’s My Opal… (and I’ll cry if I want to)

Tour operator, Otto von Meister, and his nephew, Conrad, arrive at Townes Downs with a load of tourists. When he learns about the opal Otto recalls that it belonged to their family years before and he and Conrad are desperate to get it back.

Where it’s at

Bruce wants to become human but to do this he must take the opal to the cave where it was mined over a hundred years before. He sets out to trick Penelope into visiting the cave.

Good Cop, Bad Genie

Penelope is desperate to win the Cross Country and she does—without any help from the genies. Penelope wishes that Conrad could see her success. He does—but not quite how Penelope would have liked

Customs

Penelope, Lady Diana and Mossie are arrested by a Customs Officer when they return to England with 20 million pounds provided by the genies. That exact amount has just gone missing from the Royal Mint.

Larceny

Bruce helps Otto and Conrad get the opal because he thinks they will help him return to Australia. Instead, the von Meisters sell it for 25,000 pounds. It’s now up to the genies to sort the mess out.

The Eternal Quadrangle

Penelope is furious when Lady Diana’s wish for a holiday in Australia is granted and they are once again at Townes Downs. To punish Lady Diana and Bruce, Penelope wishes her mother and Otto would fall madly in love.

Nobody’s Perfect

In an effort to stop Bruce continually misinterpreting her wishes, Penelope writes down her perfect wish. All goes well—Penelope is perfect, Lady Diana is rich and Marcia is ugly. However, the genies have the last laugh.

The Triple Agent

Conrad is convinced that there is something strange about Bruce and tries to catch him out. In the meantime everyone else becomes convinced that Conrad is the strange one.

A Tale of Two Cities

Conrad realises that Bruce and Baz are genies and decides to work on Baz by taking him to an amusement park. When Conrad steals the opal, Baz helps Penelope to get it back. Her first wish is for Conrad to forget the whole incident.

School Daze

Penelope wishes herself back in England to attend Marcia’s party but she finds that she has to sit a ’catch-up’ exam. Nonetheless, she heads off to Marcia’s party convinced that, with the help of the magic opal, she will pass her exam the next day.

Triple Treat

Identical twins give Otto and Conrad the idea to make a copy of the opal and swap it with Penelope’s opal. With a real opal and two replicas, there is a lot opal rubbing, but not much magic.

It’s still Magic

Bruce gets the opal back to the cave and is about to free himself and Baz but Penelope convinces him not to leave his human friends in the lurch. Later, when Bruce and Diana kiss, it’s some other form of magic entirely.

Series 2

Those irrepressible Genies, Bruce and Baz are back in a new series of that rollicking farce, The Genie from Down Under. The 13-part comedy drama series for children stars Sandy Winton as Bruce the Genie and Alexandra Milman as Penelope, the haughty upper-class English girl who controls the Genies, or thinks she does. Her every wish is the Genies’ command.

Returning for this second series of magic and mirth are Anna Galvin as Penelope’s mother, Lady Diana Townes, Glenn Meldrum as Baz, Mark Mitchell as Otto von Meister, Monica Maughan as Mossop, Ian McFadyen as Bubbles and Fletcher Humphrys as Otto’s nephew Conrad. Joining the cast is Bobbie Henry who plays Darlene, Otto’s assistant.

Bruce longs for freedom for himself and his son, Baz. But to be free from the confines of the opal and the wishes of whoever has it Bruce must win the heart and hand of Lady Diana Townes, Penelope’s mother. The course of true love never runs smooth, especially when a teenage girl is trying to thwart your every move, even if you are a Genie.

It’s madness when Bruce and Baz answer the wishes of the humans, whisking Penelope, Lady Diana, Bubbles and Mossop from England to outback Australia and back again. Otto von Meister, the tour guide to be avoided at all costs, believes the opal is rightfully his and isn’t prepared to let Penelope have it without a fight. His forefather stole the opal from the Australian aborigines and then lost it in a card game to Penelope’s great, great, great-grandfather. The battle for ownership sees Otto become King of England and Bubbles lead a band of merry-men, trying to restore law and order.

I do, You do! Who do?

Bruce is trying to get the courage to ask Diana to marry him, but first he must tell her he is a genie. Diana has been wearing the opal and believes it is her good luck charm, especially when Bruce gets around to popping the question. But, when she wishes the moment would last forever she is put into a trance. Eventually freed from the trance, Diana can’t remember a thing—including Bruce’s proposal.

The Photo Opportunity

Despite forgetting Bruce’s proposal, love blooms between Lady Diana and the genie. Penelope doesn’t believe the attraction is genuine and is sure Bruce is using his magic on Diana. She wishes he was human for a day—with amazing consequences. While Bruce battles with life as a human, Penelope uses Baz as her genie and wishes for dinner with Prince Umberto.

The Cold Shoulder

Mossop advises Diana to ’seize the day’. She must learn to talk about her feelings, particularly how she feels about Bruce. Conrad decides it is time to show Otto that he isn’t stupid and he trains a parrot to grab the opal. Successful, he suddenly finds himself as the one with the opal’s powers. Conrad wants brains as well as good looks so he turns to Bubbles for advice. Penelope, desperate to get her power back, agrees to allow Bruce half an hour alone with Diana if he helps her get back the opal.

Chase the Sun

When Penelope gets a bad examination result, she wishes for the school to be destroyed that night, without realising Diana has a meeting there. Before she has a chance to change her wish the genies disappear and arrive back with Murray, the ’Master from the Past’. Bruce meets Diana and likes what he sees, but she is confused when he doesn’t recognise her. She doesn’t realise they haven’t actually met yet. Trying to change her wish and save the school, Penelope and the ’Master from the Past’ must chase the sun to make sure they don’t change the past and affect the future!

Peace In Our Time

Diana is heartbroken. She believes Bruce has been kissing her friends, because of something that Penelope said. Penelope wishes that everyone would be honest with each other and gets more than she bargained for. When she tells Diana that Bruce hasn’t been kissing her friends, Diana takes the opal and gives it to Bubbles. Bubbles believes he has to spread the message of honesty far and wide and becomes Baba Bubbles—the guru with followers across the world. When he wishes for the world to lose all their possessions, everyone loses their clothes as well. Amid all the chaos, Penelope gets the opal back.

Lord Of The Nail Files

Penelope’s school is on excursion to the Australian outback and in an attempt to impress her teacher Miss Chatterley, Penelope wishes to always look her best. This sees Penelope maintaining her composure and her grooming while those around her become more and more dishevelled. Frightened off by Miss Chatterley, Otto flees, leaving the group without food and water. School friend Marcia manages to get the opal so Penelope can’t help the starving school girls. Marcia’s father, Nigel tries to impress Lady Diana by claiming to be an experienced bushman but he fails to help. Before long, the trappings of civilisation begin to fall away and the normally well groomed, well behaved school girls become a wild mob fighting for survival. Will Penelope and the genies be able to save the them, without the opal?

Baby Talk

Safely back home in England, Lady Diana accepts Nigel’s marriage proposal. Penelope is unable to help with the wedding plans after a wish backfires and she becomes a baby again. She still has the opal but no-one can understand her wishes. Mossop helps Bruce thwart Nigel’s plans to elope, but have they succeeded in calling off the wedding?

My Better Half

Lady Diana and Nigel go ahead with their marriage plans and Penelope is delighted because her mother isn’t marrying the genie. To keep up with her school work and have time to help with the wedding plans, Penelope wishes for a double, causing great confusion for everyone. When Bruce discovers that Nigel is just after Lady Diana’s money he has to prove to Penelope that the marriage must be stopped.

Stocks and Bondings

Penelope wants a boyfriend and she wants Marcia and Sophie to know she has one. She sets her sights on Montgomery St Ives and is determined to win him without the genies help. Mossop leaves to ’find’ herself, becoming a leather clad bikie, Mad Moss, the tourists’ friend. Penelope has to turn to Bruce for help when she discovers that Montgomery is a cad. Working together for a change, Marcia, Sophie and Penelope learn that revenge can be sweet.

The Opal is a Boomerang

Mr Repo turns up at an exhibition of the Towne’s private collection of artifacts, which has been collected over the centuries. He has a warrant to seize the opal, claiming it belongs to the indigenous Yapinchdit people and not Penelope Townes. Mr Repo claims Sir Claude stole the opal and everything else on display. Otto wants the opal in the name of his ancestor, and his Aboriginal tour leader Darlene says it originally belonged to her people. A wish to sort the whole mess out sees the case of the opal’s ownership before Judge Smythe, Bubbles’ father. It is the nations of the world versus Penelope Townes. The outcome is not what anyone wants.

The Heart of Country and Western

Penelope is overcome with stage fright when Diana enters the family in the Townesville Country and Western Music Festival. Penelope fears she will faint on the spot. Otto and Conrad see this as a great opportunity to finally get the opal. Mossop finds the opal and makes wishes without realising its power. To avoid embarrassment on stage at the festival, Penelope must get the opal back and make a wish.

Otto Rules OK

Diana becomes an environmentalist and accepts an invitation to join Otto, who claims he is now a greenie. But it is just a plot to get the opal, and it works. Overwhelmed with his new power Otto makes himself King of England and throws Mossop, Diana and Darlene into the dungeons. Bubbles forms the ’Merry Chaps in Green’ in the Forest to end King Otto’s reign and Penelope goes undercover to try and save the situation.

The Last Wish

Bruce and Diana are pining for each other. Penelope realises that she can’t stop true love, even if it does mean losing her genies. To ensure her mother’s happiness, she hands the opal to her mother, allowing Bruce to reveal his true identity to Diana. He proposes and Diana and Bruce can finally plan to be married. But how can Diana have a husband who is a slave? Diana must free the genies. Penelope must work out a way to have the best of both worlds—Diana and Bruce as husband and wife and Bruce as her genie.