A SCREENTIME production for the NINE NETWORK Production Notes Des Monaghan, Greg Haddrick Jo Rooney & Andy Ryan EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS Peter Gawler & Elisa Argenzio PRODUCERS Peter Gawler, Felicity Packard, Jeff Truman, Adam Todd & Andy Muir SERIES WRITERS David Caesar, Andrew Prowse, Karl Zwicky & Shawn Seet SERIES DIRECTORS MEDIA ENQUIRIES Terry Stuart: NINE NETWORK T: 03 9420 3458 M: 0407 272 062 E:
[email protected] BRIEF SYNOPSIS Spanning the years 1915 to 1927, UNDERBELLY: SQUIZZY will chronicle the exploits of Joseph Theodore Leslie Taylor, known to all as “Squizzy” – the vertically challenged crime tsar whose ego and ambition knew no boundaries. With an unquenchable thirst for money and power, Squizzy also yearned for respect and fame and was not averse to betraying friends and followers who stood in his way. A master manipulator, he courted the press, entertained the masses with daring accounts of his criminal exploits and graduated from simple theft to loftier heists that gained him maximum media coverage, ultimately creating a public persona that made him the first superstar gangster of the 20th Century. SYNOPSIS In 1915 the world is at war in Europe and the Middle East. In Melbourne, Australia, another war is being waged. A pint-sized crook christened Joseph Theodore Leslie Taylor but known to all and sundry as “Squizzy”, leader of the Bourke Street “Rats”, a notorious gang of pickpockets, is locked in combat with “Long Harry” Slater’s “Narrows” gang. The prize is control of the city’s streets, brothels, opium dens and stolen goods – and the status of “king” of Melbourne’s underworld.