Underbelly: The Golden Mile (Channel 9 2010, Firass Dirani, Emma Booth)

The Golden Mile is the third in the Underbelly series, prequel to the original Underbelly and continuation of Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities this time moving the action to the 1980′s. Many of the same characters cross over from Two Cities including the likes of George Freeman and Lennie McPherson as well as cop Trevor Haken.

In the Golden Mile the action moves to King Cross in the 1980′s where young Cross face John Ibrahim is determined to make a name for himself, no matter what the cost and who gets hurt.

Once again the series is based on real exploits, Kings Cross has always been home to some of the more esoteric elements of Sydney society and TGM captures that spirit down to a tee. The original Underbelly was a real shock to the system, A Tale of Two Cities upped the ante considerably with lashings of sex and The Golden Mile is heavy on the violence. As exec producer Des Monaghan remarked “Underbelly differs greatly to the normal staple of television drama, because we are dealing with real life and real people, with all the chaos and unpredictability this entails.”

The series opened with a two hour special featuring the first two episodes, guest stars include the likes of singer Natalie Bassingthwaighte, Caroline Craig and Steve Bastoni.

production details
Australia / 9 Network – Screentime / 13×60 minute episodes / Broadcast from Sunday 11 April 2010

Music: Burkhard Dallwitz / Costumes: Louise Wakefield / Executive Producer: Des Monaghan, Gregg Hadrick / Producers: Elisa Argenzio, Peter Gawler

Series: Underbelly

cast
FIRASS DIRANI as John Ibrahim
EMMA BOOTH as Kim Hollingsworth
SIGRID THORNTON as Inspector Gerry Lloyd
WIL TRAVAL as Joe Dooley
DIARMUID HEIDENREICH as Eddie Gould
DAMIAN GARVEY as Detective Graham “Chook” Fowler
CHEREE CASSIDY as Debbie Webb
SALVATORE COCO as Hammer
DEITER BRUMMER as Trevor Haken
PETER O’BRIEN as George Freeman
JOHN McNEIL as Lennie McPherson