Underbelly is an Australian television drama series, based on the real events of the 1995–2004 gang war in Melbourne. The series began screening on 13 February 2008 on the Nine Network (and affiliates) in all states and territories except Victoria, due to a court injunction. Underbelly is a 13-part mini-series, based on the book Leadbelly: Inside Australia's Underworld, by Age journalists John Silvester and Andrew Rule.
Synopsis
The key players in Melbourne's criminal underworld, including the Moran family and their rival, the maverick Carl Williams, are featured using their real names.
The major factions, as presented in the story, are the Morans, including Lewis, Mark, and Jason Moran, the "Carlton Crew", which included Alphonse Gangitano, Domenic "Mick" Gatto, his lawyer George Defteros and Mario Condello, "the Russians", led by Nik "The Russian" Radev, and the Williams family, which included Carl Williams, Tony Mokbel, Andrew "Benji" Veniamin and, at different times, Victor Brincat and Dino Dibra.
The police investigators, Steve Owen and Jacqui James, are fictional, but based on amalgamations of several officers who worked on the Purana Task Force, which was charged with investigating the gangland war and halting the killing.
According to its marketing, the series "uses the framework of the murderous war between the two gangs, and the bigger moral war between the gangs and the Purana Task Force, to explore a complex array of individual stories and relationships - some touching, some incredible, all breathtaking - it is a mini-series that examines the kaleidoscopic nature of loyalty, love, revenge and pride when the normal and identifiable emotions of human attachment are moved from the context of social decency to social indecency."[1]
Synopsis
The key players in Melbourne's criminal underworld, including the Moran family and their rival, the maverick Carl Williams, are featured using their real names.
The major factions, as presented in the story, are the Morans, including Lewis, Mark, and Jason Moran, the "Carlton Crew", which included Alphonse Gangitano, Domenic "Mick" Gatto, his lawyer George Defteros and Mario Condello, "the Russians", led by Nik "The Russian" Radev, and the Williams family, which included Carl Williams, Tony Mokbel, Andrew "Benji" Veniamin and, at different times, Victor Brincat and Dino Dibra.
The police investigators, Steve Owen and Jacqui James, are fictional, but based on amalgamations of several officers who worked on the Purana Task Force, which was charged with investigating the gangland war and halting the killing.
According to its marketing, the series "uses the framework of the murderous war between the two gangs, and the bigger moral war between the gangs and the Purana Task Force, to explore a complex array of individual stories and relationships - some touching, some incredible, all breathtaking - it is a mini-series that examines the kaleidoscopic nature of loyalty, love, revenge and pride when the normal and identifiable emotions of human attachment are moved from the context of social decency to social indecency."[1]
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
