Australia has always excelled at producing ‘cop drama’ and as the populace keeps consuming and demanding, we keep on producing. Underbelly is based on the best selling series of real life Australian crime novels written by journalists John Sylvester and Andrew Rule. The first of currently three series (a fourth is now in production) looks at the seediness of Melbourne in the years of 1995-2004.

The first series of Underbelly dramatises the rise and fall (read: death) of the largest figures in the criminal underworld, including Alfonse Gangitano (Vince Colosimo), Carl Williams (Gyton Grantley), Mick Gatto (Simon Westaway) and Tony Mokbel (Robert Mammone), whose names will be familiar to almost all Australians alive during this time. Like any drama some dramatic license is taken, some characters are melded together for brevity, but for the most part Underbelly is an accurate and astonishing portrayal of the Australian modern crime scene.



Link: Tweaktown