australian television information archive

Creators Alison Nisselle and Tony McDonald
Producer: Bill Hughes
Executive Producer: Jill Robb
Directors: Michael Carson, Ian Gilmour, Julian McSwiney, Kate Woods

Aired: 1992–1993 (26 x 50 min)

PHOENIX is a hard-edged, gritty police drama set in the tense and claustrophobic world of a Major Crime task force which brings together a crew of idiosyncratic, competitive characters over a knife-edged, maximum stress year-long investigation. PHOENIX is no traditional crime story. Its characters are not clean, superhero cops, just real police officers whose attitudes can be shocking and whose humour is grim and black. The first series recounted the investigation of the bombing of the Victorian state police headquarters, loosely based on the real-life Russell Street Bombing of the mid-80s. The series was lauded as one of the most realistic depictions of police investigation techniques, including both surveillance and forensics, and is still widely considered as one of the country's greatest series.