Evan 'Jonesy' Jones is a fictional character from Blue Heelers, the Australian police drama television series which depicted the lives of police officers in a small town in Victoria. Jones was introduced in 2001 and remained until the show ended in 2006. He was portrayed by Ditch Davey.

Character Background

'Jonesy' was introduced into the show as a Probationary Constable who had joined the police force in his late twenties in order to avenge the death of his biological father, Sam Bridges. ^[1] Soon after joining the Mt. Thomas Station he became a prime suspect in an investigation before later being cleared of all suspicion when Les Anderson, his biological father's former business partner and suspected killer was assaulted and left for dead. ^[2] He was known to come from a strong policing family having his half brother, Senior Detective Dylan Jones and adoptive father Commander Reg Jones both in the police force. His mother was assumed to be deceased although her death is never mentioned.

Character Overview

Jones was a rebellious, headstrong character, who was often criticised for his non-team oriented ways, 'Cowboy' nature and casual approach to both life and policing.

He also constantly found himself in trouble with senior officers from the moment he arrived in town, with Senior Sergeant Tom Croydon, strongly disapproving of Jones' motives for joining the force in the first place and continually questioned his choice of staying in the job, while he also had an unceremonious working relationship with his later Sergeant Ben Stewart, who Jonesy consistently butted heads with over both policing and personal matters. His usual aggressive ‘bad cop’ role when handling, and questioning suspects and his ability to attract trouble also saw him referred to as ‘Mad Dog Jones’ by Inspector Falcon-Price.

Later in the series he makes his way up to the rank of Senior Constable and after Senior Detective P.J. Hasham's departure in Season 12 he shows promise as a detective after working closely with Detective Senior Constable Amy Fox and goes on to partner her after becoming a Detective Senior Constable following the completion of Detective training.^[3]

He is the 8th longest-running character behind Tom Croydon, Chris Riley, P.J. Hasham, Maggie Doyle, Ben Stewart, Nick Schultz and Jo Parrish.

Personal Life

Jonesy's chaotic love life is a constant source of complication for the character throughout his time in the series. After he joins the station he soon develops a highly emotional yet ambiguous relationship with his Sergeant Tess Gallagher. As Tess is his superior and had also had a recent problematic dalliance with former Probationary Constable Jack Lawson, she is reluctant to even entertain that romantic feelings form between them and instead offhand’s it as misinterpretation on Jones’ behalf. She is however eventually so overwhelmed by her colleague's affection for her and her own feelings for him that she briefly succumbs to his advances when she finally acknowledges his feelings for her and the pair share a passionate encounter in the station’s locker room, Tess however panics and immediately tries to put a stop to any future romantic relationship with Jones by eloping to Fiji with Doctor Josh Carmichael. ^[4]

After the breakdown of Tess' ultimately doomed marriage her subsequent pregnancy with Josh's child leads to Jonesy wanting to help support Tess and he asks her to marry him, but his proposal is declined as she doesn’t want to jump into another rushed marriage and wants go through with the pregnancy independently. Later complications with Tess’ pregnancy then force her to leave Mt. Thomas, leading to an emotional goodbye to Jones.^[5]

After Tess’ departure Jonesy’s relationship with Senior Constable, Susie Raynor was sprinkled with some romantic promise and included a marriage proposal when they were together for a brief time.^[6] However his hesitation in starting a romantic relationship lead to her having two fleeting relationships with fellow police members, Sergeant Ben Stewart and Senior Constable Alex Kirby, the revelation of the latter with Jonesy's best mate Kirby leads to their short lived engagement ending. It is seen in the final episode of the series that Jonesy and Susie have managed to repair part of their once close friendship with each other.

References