Underbelly’s Third Act

Season Three of Underbelly finally launches this Sunday after months of teasing us with promotions as far back as January.

What we know of the series so far is its setting (King’s Cross, the Wood Royal Commission, Sydney 1989-2005), its central characters John Ibrahim (Firass Dirani), George Freeman (Peter O’Brien), Kim Hollingsworth (Emma Booth), Insp. Gerry Lloyd (Sigrid Thornton), and Det. Sgt. Haken (Dieter Brummer) and its positive reviews for the first two hours.

Screentime Executive Producer and Writer Greg Haddrick tells TV Tonight the series will return to an ensemble, similar to that in Season One.

“The beginning, middle and end of Three follows a paradigm shift in society, in a way, whereas Series Two was largely following Terry Clark and Bob Trimbole. That was following a particular partnership and the chase to break that partnership up. But this is a bigger canvas in Series Three,” he says.

“It’s following a particular culture in the police early on, and how crime works within that culture, how crime is undone, and how crime works post that culture.”

Haddrick says while Season One was an ensemble piece, it had a central feud that Three doesn’t have.

“But that’s why all three series are different from each other, and I think over time we’ve come to know that that’s one of the unique things about the series compared to other TV. Each one is 90% different characters, time and story.”

Linking the series to last year’s tale are Peter O’Brien’s character and a couple of the NSW Police characters. The shooting style is also intrinsically Underbelly, with several montages combining slow-mo scenes, driving music and narration by Caroline Craig.

“In a story of this size you have to cover a lot of story points very quickly, because it’s not one simple narrative. It’s a huge canvas, a kaleidoscope, so the montage for us is a shorthand storytelling device,” says Haddrick.

“We use different form than we did in the other two. (Director) Tony Tilse uses a stills camera, so the montage has a different style to it. So we evolve the technique, we don’t stay the same.”

With a history of courtcases, ACMA complaints, bans, pirate DVDs, and its content of murder, drugs, sex and violence, Underbelly always brings with it its own headlines. Filming of key scenes in Lane Cove attracted considerable media coverage last year as well as its own onlookers.

“The shoot was very draining because we were shooting very fast on big locations, turning Longueville Road into King’s Cross,” says Haddrick. “For a show of this comparatively small size it was a big change. But everyone pulled together to make it a visual treat.

“We were dealing in lot of night shoots, which is unusual for Australian drama. A lot of characters, a lot of action, and everyone did a fantastic job. Particularly the two directors.

“The public are a little more aware of it. The people in Lane Cove knew when we were shutting down Longueville Rd, and there were a few other locations where it was known Underbelly was there. It does have a certain reputation now, but it doesn’t get in our way.”

This year the show has been in the headlines with talk of Defamation before it even goes to air. It has resulted in Screentime saying very little about the writing process of the third season.

“At the moment we’re still awaiting a judgement from the Supreme Court so I can’t say anything until that happens,” says Haddrick.

All he would concede was: “It’s a dramatisation based on the public record.”

Meanwhile he has already turned his attention to the company’s next project, the adaptation of Cloudstreet for Showtime.

And as for Season 4 of Underbelly?

“We’ll be thinking about it when we finish the third series.”

Underbelly: The Golden Mile premieres 8:30pm Sunday on Nine.