australian television information archive

Aussie Bob & Kiwi Terry

Episode 2.01
February 09, 2009 (8.30-9.30)
Ratings: 2.582 million viewers (1st)
Written by Peter Gawler
Directed by Ken Cameron

Australia in the 1970s. The crime scene is on the move. Forget armed robbery and marijuana. Australia is about to embrace the hard stuff — heroin. Leading the charge are two men in New South Wales: Aussie Bob Trimbole, from the town of Griffith, and Kiwi Terry Clark, a Sydney-based charmer with a twinkle in his eye and a big dream.

Down Melbourne way, the crime world is yet to catch up. The crims in that city are led by brothers Brian and Les Kane, hard men from the notorious Painters and Dockers trade union. The Kane brothers are old-school crims who don't realise that times are changing. They're more concerned with protecting their own turf than branching out.

One man who does understand the changing times is furniture shop owner and NSW political candidate Don Mackay. Mackay has spent much energy trying to clean up his home town of Griffith, NSW and is beginning to make inroads, much to the chagrin of Trimbole and his mates.

If Trimbole's venture into the drug trade is ever going to work, Mackay has to be taken out of the picture. So Trimbole makes sure of it. And he makes sure his corrupt friends in the NSW police are sympathetic to his situation. In so doing, he changes the course of Australian history.

Notes: the debut episode of Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities easily became the most successful television premiere since the introduction of OzTAM People Meters in 2001. Some of the events in "A Tale of Two Cities" were first dramatised in the acclaimed 1995 ABC minseries Blue Murder, which, like the first series of Underbelly, did not air in some parts of Australia for legal reasons.

Cast:

• Matthew Newton as Terry Clark
• Roy Billing as Bob Trimbole
• Peter O'Brien as George Freeman
• Ian Roberts as Barry
• Chris Sadrinna as Greg Ollard
• Emma Palmer as Julie Theilman
• Adelle Bastick as Kiwi Girl
• James Englund as Marc Hunter
• Ian Williams as Dragon Band Member
• Stephen Woodward as Dragon Band Member
• Jack Graham as Dragon Band Member
• James May as Dragon Band Member
• Tony Poli as Frank Tizzoni
• Mercida Ashley Olah as Geroge Freeman's Manicurist
• Igor Breakenback as George's Minder (Stuntie)
• Andrew McFarlane as Don Mackay
• Simon Gleeson as Uniformed Constable
• Steve Anderton as Malcolm Paris
• Nick Lazarou as Young Italian Labourer
• Tom Simmons as Immigration Officer
• Damon Gameau as Andy Maher
• Brett Maxworthy as Customs Officer
• Amber Kenny as Female Customes Officer
• Jenna Lind as Maria Muhary
• Ric Herbert as Al Grassby
• Diane Craig as Barbara Mackay
• Matt Dale as Bruce Pursehouse
• Elanore Agnew as Mackay Child
• Milly Haddrick as Mackay Child
• Cymone Rose as Blonde Woman
• Angela Lemaitre as Topless Indian Woman
• Damian De Montemas as Brian Alexander
• Stephen Bourke as Farmer
• Jennie Dibley as Famer's Wife
• Joe Morizzi as Padrini #1
• Brooke Callaghan as Glenda Trimbole
• Dustin Clare as Chris Flannery
• Teo Gerbert as Laurie Prendergast
• Luke McKenzie as Young Mick Gatto
• Tim McCunn as Brian Kane
• Martin Dingle-Wall as Les Kane
• Asher Keddie as Liz Cruickshank
• Estelle Chown as Jacqui Cruickshank
• Peter Phelps as Joe Messina
• Harold Hopkins as George Joseph
• Scott Burgess as Jim Blazey
• Barry Jaggers as Bruce's Father-in-Law
• Caroline Craig as Jacqui James / Narrator

Music:

• "This Time" performed by Dragon
• "Shakin All Over" performed by Normie Rowe
• "Freak Ya Lonliness" performed by Bumblebeez
• "Take My Love With You" performed by Eli 'Paperboy' Reed & The True Loves
• "Beautiful Okinawa" performed by Sonoton
• "Tennessee Bird Walk" written by J Blanchard/M. Morgan
• "Moonchild Blues" performed by Jack Grunsky
• "Thousand Cuts" performed by Wolf & Cub