Underbelly New Zealand premieres
New Zealand's local version of Underbelly looks at the real 'Mr. Asia,' Marty Johnstone.
- Published by David Knox
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New Zealand’s local version of Underbelly went to air on TV3 last week.
Underbelly: Land of the Long Green Cloud is set in the 1970s and sees Kiwi actor Dan Musgrove playing Mr Asia, Marty Johnstone, who worked in a menswear store but moonlighted as burglars before dealing drugs.
Terry Clark, depicted by Matthew Newton in Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities, was one of Johnstone’s cronies. It’s often thought Clark was Mr Asia, but Underbelly NZ makes it clear early on that Johnstone was the “real Mr Asia”.
Executive producer Philly De Lacey from Screentime NZ said, “They told the Australian Mr Asia story, and when we were looking to do Underbelly we felt there was a whole other part of that story to be told. The real Mr Asia prequel story.”
Borrowing the style and tone of the Australian Underbelly, the NZ series is said to add more humour, with dashes of Outrageous Fortune-style moments. Sets depicting Singapore and London were re-created in Auckland. Jamie Irvine as Detective Constable Ben Brierson, narrates the series.
But the TV3 series was asked to avoid a clash with another local drama, TVNZ’s comedy-drama Nothing Trivial. It eventually moved Underbelly back to a 9.30pm slot on Wednesday and delayed its debut by a week.
UB NZ pulled 308,220 at 9:30pm while Nothing Trivial had 391,760 viewers am hour earlier.
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- Tagged with Nothing Trivial, Outrageous Fortune, Underbelly
11 Responses
Moved to Aus 2mths ago – It was my Fairlane that was used in the drive by shooting – sold it just before moving here. Anyone know how I can watch the episodes??? Trying to find it but am having trouble ….
Is Australia’s Matthew Newton appear in this Kiwi version and play as Terry Clark again?
No.
im from uk and u can get bout 24 hours after there shown in NZ or OZ online . Def better than razor ( 4 me seems the worse oz 1 so far ) carnt c why people ante liking it.
@ Darren….. Its not that bad.. I think your been alittle harsh mate!
It may not be great but it’s better than Razor!
Probably won’t be shown in Oz but what does that matter, we can watch anything from anywhere these days… 🙂
are you going to get to see this in Oz David?
Schedulers from opposing stations politely changing time slots so local dramas don’t clash and split the audience – TV executives interested in health of the local industry rather than overnight figures. Naive kiwis.
Any news if Australian viewers will see this?
Looking at that picture i thought it was taken from a sketch show doing a take off of underbelly. Talk about abysmal production value.
Seen it. It’s terrible. The two Leads are theatre esque, and it looks like it was lit by someone holding a torch fresh out of film school. The costuming makes it look like a circus. And the title….. Sledge hammer, much?