Over five seasons throughout the 1990s, action-packed Australian drama series Police Rescue captivated audiences with daredevil underwater car rescues, petrol tankers exploding in neighbourhoods, and midnight searches in swamps for missing children.

Starring Aussie heart-throb Gary Sweet and Sonia Todd, the series – which ran from 1989 to 1996 – was based on the New South Wales Police Rescue Squad, as it was then known, in Sydney.

Before he won an Academy Award for best actor as Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 film Gladiator, Russell Crowe briefly joined the squad as Senior Constable Tom ‘Bomber’ Young.

And two-time Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett (The Aviator, Blue Jasmine) made her first TV appearance in the show playing Mrs Haines, the mother of a boy who went missing after picking up a tin containing radiation.

Gary Sweet played a handsome Sergeant Steve ‘Mickey’ McClintock alongside Todd’s Sergeant Georgia Rattray. Photo: Twitter

Sweet, who played Sergeant Steve ‘Mickey’ McClintock, went on to win several TV awards for his action-packed starring role, including an AFI award (ACCTA) for best actor in a TV drama in 1991 and 1992.

Now 65, at the time he was seen as a sex symbol for his hero rescues, his gritty on-camera performances and his belief in his colleagues.

He became a household name.

“While the storylines were fictionalised, many of the rescue scenes were inspired by real events … the show raised the unit’s profile, not only in Australia, but around the world,” wrote the NSW Police Force on its official Facebook page during the 80th anniversary celebrations of the unit in August last year.

The unit, now called Rescue and Bomb Disposal, NSW Police, had a behind-the-scenes role back then, providing only technical advice: “The show’s main actors were given the opportunity to participate in ‘ride-alongs’ and rescue training programs.”

Fast forward 27 years, and the real-life heroes take centre stage in Nine’s Police Rescue Australia, which premieres on May 29.

Keeping it real

The series takes on a similar formula to other behind-the-scenes reality TV series including RBT – about the police force’s Random Breath Testing squad – and RPA, which follows doctors and nurses as they treat patients at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney.

Narrated by multi-award-winning Australian actor, writer and director, Brendan Cowell (Avatar: Way of the Water, Game of Thrones, Love My Way), the show follows the police rescue units in the Sydney and Blue Mountains areas.

In the first episode, police rescue squad members trek through rugged terrain in the Blue Mountains to rescue a female bushwalker with serious leg injuries.

Being found is one thing, being winched off a cliff at sunset in high winds as fellow rescuers watch from the edge gives viewers an all-access look at the dangers these police face every time they’re called out.

Senior Constable Michael Craig, Senior Constable Alison Rice, and Leading Senior Constable Andrew Mayfield. Photo: Nine

Next up is their mission to find an elderly man with Alzheimer’s, who has gone missing in thick bushland on Sydney’s upper northern suburb of Wahroonga.

With more than 100 emergency personnel and volunteers involved, the police rescue team mounts and co-ordinates a search, which stretches across three days.

We get inside the room where Senior Constable Craig is checking maps and GPS co-ordinates, family is involved and discussions are made about potential adverse outcomes.

Every year across the country, 38,000 people are reported missing and it’s up to the police rescue team leaders to inform the family to prepare “for some bad news”.

Then suddenly, some great news.

The 79-year-old man is found stuck under a tree after more than 70 hours in the bush. It makes the news. It makes the NSW Police Force’s social media sites, including Facebook, where details of the intricate rescue operation were revealed.

The camera respectfully delivers real emotion and real relief from the police rescue team. No acting required.

Some viewers may mistake Senior Constable Rhys Varley for Gary Sweet in this upcoming series. Photo: Nine

International appeal

Following in the footsteps of Police Rescue’s international appeal in countries including the UK, France (where it was called Sydney Police) and South Africa, Nine’s reality drama has also been snapped up by overseas distributors.

According to If Magazine, Hat Trick International (HTI) negotiated pre-sales for the series with broadcasters in the UK and New Zealand.

HTI director of sales Sarah Tong described the series as “one of those rare shows that has it all”, showcasing “spectacular feats of courage against the backdrop of spectacular scenery to real-life stories about real-life people, told with compassion and humour”.

The six-episode series also highlights the intense training required to join the unit, how to use specialist emergency equipment, we see sieges unfolding, bomb disposals and abseiling down the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Move aside Mickey

Sweet once told The Sydney Morning Herald he believed Police Rescue “was the first time I actually thought I had the requisite skills to deliver a leading man performance” after playing Don Bradman in the 1984 Bodyline series.

He continued acting with a regular role on another police drama, Stingers, and also appeared in Blue Heelers, Mystery Road: Origins and more recently, Jack Irish with Guy Pearce.

Sweet is currently starring in Disney+ miniseries, The Clearing.

“Nothing quite sums up success – or infamy – than being the subject of a TV cop show,” NSW police said last year in its FB post.

Move aside Sergeant Mickey McClintock, it’s their turn in the spotlight.

Police Rescue Australia premieres on Nine and 9Now on Monday, May 29 at 9pm