Orange Roughies is a New Zealand crime drama series created by Rod Johns and Scott McJorrow and produced by ScreenWorks about the adventures of an underfunded joint police and customs inter-agency task force, tasked with policing border security.
The series originally aired in New Zealand on TV One NZ and TVNZ 6 from 25 May, 2006 to 11 February, 2008. There are 18 hour-long episodes and a 75-minute special in two seasons.
Orange Roughies premiered in South Africa on DStv's GO channel on Thursday 2 October 2008, at 20h30. It will air as one season, with all episodes in the series being broadcast without a break.
Repeats
Mondays: 14h00
Synopsis
Orange Roughies is a drama series based on a covert Police and Customs inter-agency task force working at the new policing coal-face of the 21st century - border security.
Though the Roughies are an elite unit, they're also, as Ron Maddock, their brusque Commander reminds them, under-funded, under-resourced and under the hammer because, after all, this is New Zealand.
One step removed from the usual ad hoc inter-agency groups, the Roughies are very much on trial and depend for their survival on a very Kiwi self-help, do-it-yourself attitude and have to be independent, flexible and fast on their feet.
The Roughies team operate out of an unmarked waterfront base, with a Naiad and a couple of 4 wheel drives, and there's a rough-as-guts can-do number 8 wire attitude to the main men, Detective Sergeant Danny Wilder and Detective Constable Zack Wiki, leavened by the more analytical approach of Senior Customs Officer Jane Durant.
An orange roughy, Hoplostethus Atlanticus, is a type of deep-sea fish.