When: 8.30pm, Wednesday
Where: TV3
The third chapter in the Underbelly series may not have the strong Kiwi connection of The Mr Asia Story from last year - which centred on New Zealand drug lord Terry Clark - but with the recent offing of Melbourne crime lord Carl Williams the notorious Australian underworld is in
the limelight once again.
The Golden Mile is a prequel to the original Underbelly, which was set in Melbourne in the mid 90s, and a continuation of The Mr Asia Story.
It picks up in the late 80s with the action revolving around the control of Sydney's Kings Cross and the corruption within the New South Wales police leading up to the 1995 Wood Royal Commission, which investigated this rash of crooked cops.
As you'd expect from Underbelly, there's plenty of sex, drugs, and brutality with a cast of usual suspects inspired by greed and ambition. And that's just the cops.
This time around, the story centres on John Ibrahim (played by Lebanese-Australian actor Firass Dirani, pictured), a cocky young hot shot who is deadset on making a name for himself in the ruthless Kings Cross world. In his eyes the Cross is where "the streets are paved with gold".
It's also a place, in the words of the show's narrator, police sergeant Jacqui James, where "nightmares walk the street". She's talking about blokes like drug dealer Grimy Gilmour; the head of the dodgy coppers club, Chook Fowler, whose job consists of bribes, backhanders and beatings; and underworld bigwigs Lenny McPherson and George Freeman.
The latter is the racing, gambling and ladies' man who had a prominent role in The Mr Asia Story. He gives young Ibrahim a kick-start in the criminal world by taking him on as a money collector.
The shows executive producer, Des Monaghan, says Kings Cross has always been home to some of the most colourful, seedy, and deadly people in Sydney society and he wanted to capture that on The Golden Mile.
"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," he explains.
"We're all fascinated as to why people break the rules but above and beyond that, I think that Underbelly has experienced such an incredible response because we name real people and the extraordinary events that they participated in."
The latest series was big across the Tasman when it premiered on April 11 with 2.2 million people tuning in.
