Hell Has Harbour Views (ABC 2005, Matt Day, Lisa McCune)

In Hell Has Harbour Views Hugh Walker seems to have it all. He’s 31, charming, handsome, and a senior associate in the largest law firm in the land. He numbers amongst his clients some of the country’s most powerful banks and insurance companies, and his employers see him as a litigator who will eventually join their own esteemed ranks as a living God. Oh, how Hugh longs for an office with a harbour view (and the things he will do to get one!)

There’s just one small problem. A vow he made when he worked for Carneys, an ideologically sound law firm that acted for the little guys against the corporate monoliths. He promised himself that he would never cross to the dark side. Now when he looks in the mirror, he doesn’t like what he sees. And his dreams, his alcohol fuelled nightmares, are filled with images of those he has skewered with justice’s sword … farmers, paraplegics, brain-damaged children … they all come to visit him at night.

And his waking hours aren’t helped any by the fact that he has fallen out of love with his fabulous girlfriend, Helen and in love with the divine Caroline. Deception mounts deception. The closer you get to the top of the greasy pole, the more slippery it becomes. Hugh just manages to hold on … until he finds himself the only witness to a frantic, sexual indiscretion on the boardroom table, and the centre of a bitter power struggle between two warring factions within the firm’s senior partners.

He seems damned whichever way he turns, and that harbour view is becoming more and more elusive…

production details
Australia / ABC-Hilton Cordell / 1×120 minute episode / Broadcast 2005

Writer and director: Peter Duncan / Novel: Richard Beasley / Producer: Ian Collie / Executive Producers: Chris Hilton, Scott Meek

cast
MATT DAY as Hugh Walker
LISA McCUNE as Caroline
MARTA DUSSELDORP as Helen