The 12 essential crime fiction screen adaptations (Part Two)

Summary
In part two of our look at the 12 essential crime fiction screen adaptations, we're counting down from six to one. Discover what landed where and how these stories shaped Australian cinema and television, highlighting their cultural significance and cinematic brilliance.

Key Topics

• Adaptation of 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' and its cultural impact
• The success of 'The Dry' and its influence on Australian crime genre
• The role of Australian landscape in storytelling and film

Chapters

• Introduction to Australian Crime Novels
• Picnic at Hanging Rock: A Classic Adaptation
• The Broken Shore: A Deep Dive
• Scrublands: A Unique Adaptation Approach
• Bad Debts: The Jack Irish Series
• Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries: A Glamorous Detective
• The Tie for Number One: The Dry and Its Impact

Resources & links

• 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' (film)
• 'The Dry' (film)
• Kerry Greenwood's Miss Fisher series
  • Episode 7 of the Kill City Podcast - Murder in the Dark, celebrating Kerry Greenwood
• Easy Tiger Productions (website)
• Easy Tiger (IMDB)

Disclaimer

The episode transcripts are auto-generated, and while all efforts are made to ensure their accuracy, there may be some instance of incorrect spelling and/or errors in the accuracy.

www.killcitypodcast.com.au

Transcript

Helen 0:00

The Kill City podcast acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands we're on. Here in Melbourne, that's the Wurrundjeri Woi Wororong people of the Kulin Nation. We honour their deep connection to storytelling, a tradition carried across more than 2,000 generations. Pay our respects to elders past, present and emerging, and we extend that acknowledgement to First Nations people listening today.

Leigh 1:01

Welcome, Helen. Good to see you. How are you? I'm very well, thank you, and happy to be back. Well, I'm excited for this episode because we only got halfway through, and I know what we've got coming is um genuinely great Australian novels and the screen adaptations. Um bigger squall are just as impressive, so I'm super excited to get into them. Now, for those not wanting a recap on numbers 12 down to 7, fast forward or go on mute for the next 30 seconds. We had at 12 Silver by Chris Hammer, 11, Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears by Kerry Greenwood, Les Norton by Robert G. Barrett, Force of Nature by Jane Harper, Stiff by Shane Maloney, and Deadpoint by Peter Temple. That's where we landed last week with 12 through seven. If you missed that episode, we'll be sure to leave a link for it in the show notes. So okay, Helen, where are we starting?

Helen 1:58

We're starting with the adaptation of Joan Lindsay's 1967 novel, Picnic at Hanging Rock. If you've never read it or seen the film, the premise is actually deceptively simple. There's two schoolgirls and their eccentric maths teacher that vanished during a summer picnic at Hanging Rock, known to the Wurinju Rurong people as Nanolong. Now it's a 153-metre volcanic outcrop and it's near Wood End in Victoria, and this happened all on February the 14th in 1900. And what happens afterwards is that the people left behind are just really haunted by what they can't explain. And the film, directed by Peter Weir from a screenplay by Cliff Green, was actually released in 1975, and it's just become an enduring classic of Australian cinema. It was nominated for five actor awards, three BAFTAs, it actually won Best Cinematography for Russell Boyd, and he became one of the defining cinematographers of the Australian New Wave. And he then crossed over to Hollywood, he shot Gallipoli, The Last Wave, The Year of Living Dangerously, and he even won an Oscar for the cinematography for Master and Commander, The Far Side of the World. And of course, I have to mention the film soundtrack. Now, Bruce Smeaton had this amazing score that was threaded with Georges Samphir's haunting panpipes, and it's just impossible to separate this film from that sound.

Leigh 3:25

Now, before we get any deeper on this, I have one question. And for anyone listening, we'd love to hear if you're on this. You can click the fan mail link in the show notes. I'm just after a yes or no, and we'll put it on our socials as well. My question is this Am I the only person who for a really, really long time thought the picnic at Hanging Rock was based on a true story? I need someone out there to help me out and let me off the hook. I can't surely be the only one, can I?

Helen 3:55

You know, I don't think you are, but I would love to hear if people dial in to say that they were fooled too. Look, from my research, it looked like the whole country spent decades half believing that it really happened. And while Joan Lindsay wrote it as fiction, she was really clever in the way she did it. And there were those gaps that felt like history. And then when Peter Weir made the film, he kind of turned the atmosphere into something iconic. And it's been so influential. Even American director Sophia Coppola has mentioned it when talking about the tone of her films, like The Virgin Suicides and Marie Antoinette. And then there was such a debate about its truth for years. And I even, in my research, I found a Canberra Times clipping from 1975, and it was dramatically titled Picnic at Hanging Rock Tragedy, True or False. And the journalist described combing through records for any likely deaths, you know, that might have been it, and they f before they finally conceded that it was in fact a frightfully clever piece of fiction. And then when I watched it quite a few years later, just those scenes of the girls roaming Hanging Rock calling, Miranda, Miranda, just you know, lodged in my brain, and there was something so otherworldly about it. You know, the floaty white dresses, those strawbocher hats. I couldn't actually resist giving it a go when I went on a bushwalk in Hanging Rock, maybe once, maybe even twice. Have you spent any time at Nanalong? You know, it's a pretty famous place for a day trip for us Melbourne to go bushwalking and go to a picnic.

Leigh 5:27

I actually haven't, to be honest. It is a part of Victoria that I've yeah, I've I don't think I've ever been to actually. Um Yeah, no, I don't think I have.

Helen 5:38

No, you have to add it to the list. Be great to take the kids. Though it is quite um there's a lot of scrambling up rocks, so better, yeah, but you know, you've got to live a little bit, don't you? But then um, you know, it does bring us to the film because I actually think we need to talk about Peter Weir's adaptation from the novel because it was quite remarkable. I think um, while it's sort of etched into Australian cinema, I think its influence kind of stretches really far beyond it. I mean, Sophia Coppola was kind of an obvious example, um, but you can actually see the fingerprints of it in so many other directors' work. I think of um people like Jane Campion and her early work like the piano, Peter Jackson's film Heavenly Creatures. Um, I've even read an interview where Greta Gerwig talks about atmosphere as being storytelling. So that was something he captured beautifully, that drifting, sort of uncanny mood, that sort of that's something that filmmakers have been trying to bottle ever since.

Leigh 6:38

Yeah, and the cast is quite the sort of who's who of Australian film and television as well.

Helen 6:43

Oh, absolutely. Look, just stacked with Aussie Stalwart's, you know, Helen Morse, Jackie Weaver, John Jarrett, Martin Vaughan, Gary MacDonald, and then there was a whole cohort of young actors who went on to have sort of really long and illustrious careers.

Leigh 6:59

Yeah, and it's interesting. I mean, the film took on a life of its own, I guess as you'd expect, but the book and the film almost seem to coexist quite independently now.

Helen 7:11

Yeah, they do. And look, I think it's also worth remembering that Weir's film kind of just did become the landmark of Australian New Wave, and that I sort of mentioned that before, and that's um really the burst of 70s filmmaking where um you know it's widely recognised that Australian cinema finally found its sort of confidence and its own voice. It's when local directors kind of started telling those bold, really Australian stories, and then kind of the rest of the world sort of stood up and paid attention. Um, if you are curious about this era of movie going, um, there's films like Walkabout, Wake in Fright, The Cars That Ate Paris, Storm Boy, My Brilliant Career, Mad Max, Newsfront, they're all really worth tracking down.

Leigh 7:57

I love Mad Max, and I still even now, um obviously a long time from that particular period of Australian filmmaking, I'm still loving what um George Miller's doing with that franchise now. It's great.

Helen 8:09

Yeah, look, so you know, Australian, Australian new wave sort of continues, yeah, for sure. Look, and going back to Picnic at Hanging Rock as a film, I think it's really important to recognise that it actually sits on older ground than colonial times. Uh Nanalong is a deeply significant place for the Jia Warong Wurorong and Tongwarung peoples of the Kulin Nation. And I think that Lindsay's mystery of those banished schoolgirls sort of sits on top of a landscape that's sort of already shaped by dispossession and the forced removal of First Nations people. And I think that's really important to recognise, and that's the thing. Sort of the film kind of feels dreamlike, hypnotic, but it's the sacredness of Nanalong that pushes back against that romanticism because the land has its own stories and it remembers. So when you watch it with that in mind, the whole film actually becomes a story about colonial uncertainty, and it's that idea that European logic can't fully grasp or even control the landscape in this place, and that what the landscape really quietly does is resist those narratives that are imposed on it. It's so powerful.

Leigh 9:26

Um, yeah, it really is one of those films that stays powerful no matter when you watch it.

Helen 9:32

Exactly. Yeah. Look, we better move on. Um, so what's next on the list as we count down to number one?

Leigh 9:39

We're looking at The Broken Shore by Peter Temple, which in my humble opinion is an exceptional example of the best of Peter Temple's storytelling, along with Rowan Woods' um filmmaking.

Helen 9:50

So you're a fan?

Leigh 9:51

Yes, and I suspect that you're not at all surprised by that answer.

Helen 9:54

No, no, I'm not. Now, for anyone that doesn't know the story, homicide detective Joe Cashin gets pulled into the murder of a wealthy local. From there, the film digs into police corruption, small town politics, and the racial tensions that sit just under the surface.

Leigh 10:11

Um, so ahead of us recording this episode, I've gone back and watched it again. Um and to be honest, I like I love everything about this. Um, and that there's just so much to like about it. I mean, I think first and foremost, the setting. Um apparently it was filmed around Port Campbell and I think Port Ferry in Western Victoria. Um and if you didn't know better, you'd think that they'd like custom built the town. Like it was so well done. And and I say that when you know that Australian film budgets are, you know, they're a slither of what an American budget would be, right? So um it just looked like it was, you know, purpose created for the um you know, for the setting, but but when obviously it's it's been found in Victoria, so it was just so such a good setting.

Helen 11:02

Absolutely. Look, and you know, it was really well cast as well. So it was quite the who's who of Australian character actors. It had Don Haney in the lead role as Joe Cashin, who played the role to perfection, just had this sort of understated, sort of quiet, gentlemanly quality about him. There was Claudia Carvan as Helen Castleman, Anthony Hayes as Detective Rick Hopgood. Then there were a collection of other great performances from some actors at the top of the game, like Dan Wiley, Tony Briggs, Wayne Blair, Eric Thompson, Catherine McClendetz, Robin Nevin, and Noni Hazlehurst, along with really strong performance from Damon Herriman.

Leigh 11:44

Who I actually just saw in Art recently, along with Richard Roxborough and Toby Schmidt, which is um not crime at all, it's um uh comedy about art. Um might just be finishing in Melbourne as we release this episode and is on its way to Adelaide, I think. But great piece of theatre for anybody that is interested, and um, he's always great, Damon Herriman.

Helen 12:03

Oh, I couldn't agree more.

Leigh 12:05

So super location and casting, um, and it had this wonderful tone throughout it, um, exceptional cinematography. Um, Rowan Woods, known for films like The Boys with David Wenham, Tony Collette, and a young Anthony Hayes. Um, Little Fish with Kate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving. Um, and then he's also done things like you know uh Rake and the Kettering Incident Um and The Commons. Um and the Broken Shore one, it won a collection of awards. So it was uh 2014 uh Apri Music Award for the best soundtrack album, um 2015 winner at the Actor Awards for Best Cinematography in Television, which was Martin McGrath, Australian Directors Guild 2014 winner um for best direction in a telemovie, Rowan Woods, and then it won a 2014 Augie Award Um for television telemovie adaptation um uh which was Andrew Knight, the writer.

Helen 13:05

Wow, I think it was thoroughly deserving on all fronts.

Leigh 13:08

Yeah, I I think so. Um yeah, I definitely think so on that front. Uh so what's next on our list?

Helen 13:15

Okay, next we're talking about Scrublands by Chris Hammer, one of my absolute favourites, and its screen adaptation uh by Easy Tiger Productions. Now the setup for this is such a beauty. It's a small isolated town which is shattered after a local priest calmly opens fire on five parishioners. A year later, journalist Martin Skarsden arrives thinking he's writing a simple anniversary piece, but of course, nothing in Port Silver is simple. Now I've said this before, but I do love the Martin Skarsden character. He's such a world-weary one-time war correspondent, but he just seems to find trouble at every turn as he kind of hunts for the truth. Look, and the casting was spot on for this. Luke Arnold was perfect as Martin Skarsdon. He's kind of got that mix of grit and weariness, um, looking with that quiet intelligence that the character needed, but he never ever kind of tipped over into cliche.

Leigh 14:12

No, that's true, actually. I agree very much on that. Um, and then there's Bella Heathcote, and she was terrific as uh Mandy Blonde, uh, bringing uh a steadiness um that really grounded the story. Um I thought the supporting casts were really well chosen too. Jay Ryan, Adam Zoire, Victoria Thane, um all lent in and helped sort of build that sense of a community carrying old wounds.

Helen 14:37

Yeah, and look what I also found really interesting is the way that the book was adapted for television, uh, because the series didn't really try to create the novel kind of you know, chapter for chapter. And Luke Arnold said in interviews when he was promoting Scrub Brands when it first came out that the adaptation, of course, wasn't meant to be a literal or page accurate recreation of the novel because what works on the page doesn't always work on the screen, and I think that's quite common. So instead, really the writers focused on lifting the story off the page in that what they thought was the most impactful way, and they kind of had to reshape scenes and characters to sort of suit more of that visual medium, and then structurally, the show actually does something a little bit unusual to a lot of Australian crime dramas, it leans into a how catch em approach.

Leigh 15:26

What on earth is a how catch em approach?

Helen 15:29

Now, I'll I've been doing research, you know, I love my research, Leigh, and this is sort of a bit of a filmy tech, but I trust me, it is a real thing. It's actually, I understand, the formal name for an inverted detective story, and this is where the audience actually gets key information early. So the tension actually comes from how the detective uncovers the truth. And a classic example, if you remember Columbo, the old TV series. So every episode used to show you the killer, that's how it started, and then the fun was watching Columbo actually unravel the mystery.

Leigh 16:03

All right, I get you. I think I understand this. All right, tell me more.

Helen 16:07

Okay, so while Scrublands isn't a pure how catch em, kind of really does borrow that energy because it reveals the pieces kind of earlier than you'd expect. So the suspense comes from watching Skarsden work out how everything fits together. And the critics, when they reviewed the series, they really picked up on that because they were, you know, they raved about how the adaptation was so fresh and distinctive because it wasn't just a normal coup done it. And then when it was on Stan, it was really well received, and critics praised its atmosphere and performances. And look, it was also a big commercial success as well. Stan pushed it as one of their flagship Australian originals, it performed really strongly so that it they commissioned a second series with the same creative team, and I think that really tells you how well it landed with audiences. And then after Scrublands was released in 2023, the second series, Scrubland Silver, that premiered, I think, in around April 2025. And this time Easy Target Productions adapted Chris Hammer's second Martin Scarsden novel, but Greg McLean still returned to direct. So now we're lucky enough to have two Martin Scarsden stories on the screen, which I can actually really happily watch multiple times. And of course, I've mentioned it, but you can, if you want to watch them, both series are um streaming on stand in Australia. Sorry, I just got a bit carried away because I do love Chris Hammer. Um, but yes, what have we got next?

Leigh 17:35

We are talking about one of my all-time favourites, Bad Debts, the adaptation of Peter Temple's debut novel and the first introduction of Jack Irish, um, in this with Guy Pierce in the lead role of Jack, lawyer, collector, cabinet maker, and sometimes gambler. Um, people that listen to our show will have heard me quite frequently talk about my love of Peter Temple's work and his Jack Irish character, um, whether on the page or on the screen. I'm just a huge fan, obviously. Um, one of those episodes was The Red Right Hand, which was the legacy of Peter Temple, and we'll leave a link to that episode in the show notes. Now, the production company behind Bad Debts and the Broken Shore that we've already talked about was Easy Target Productions, who have been pivotal in bringing some amazing films to the small and big screen. Um, a quick roll call includes you know the three Jack Irish novel adaptations and the three subsequent six-part TV seasons, Scrublands and Silver, and then a bunch of incredibly popular Australian TV shows from Rake to Colin from Accounts, The Twelve, Doctor Doctor, and the upcoming Treasure and Dirt, which is the adaptation of Chris Hammer's novel that I know you're excited about.

Helen 18:45

Oh, very much so. And we'll leave a link in the show notes to their website and IMDB page to highlight some of the other great work they've done.

Leigh 18:53

Yes, and while we're talking about Easy Tiger, I just want to take a moment to give Ian from the company a huge shout out. Um, some of you might remember that I was going to investigate why the fourth of the Jack Irish novels, Black Dog, wasn't ever made into a telemovie to close out the three previous um novels that were. Um Ian's come back to me and was just so generous in his response to my question, which obviously was quite obscure, you know, 10, 12, 14 years after the fact. So um so I'm and I'm so grateful for him to come back to us. But essentially he's told us that the transition in part was reflective of um audience viewing habits of the time changing and a desire for them to want to return to the program on a weekly basis. Um so it's interesting to remember um as well, and he pointed this out, that um this was before the age of catch-up TV. So obviously there's a range of financial and budget considerations that played a part as they always do in TV and film productions, and then marketing and promotional reach on top of the production budgets played a part too. But at the same time, um telemovies were becoming harder to sell overseas because of the growing desire for TV to fit into that one-hour time slot, which meant they were increasingly difficult to fund. Um and as such, the sort of overseas market for telemovies sort of effectively diminished. And now, and I I must admit, I didn't necessarily click to this, but now, I mean, they're essentially a thing of the past. Um creatively, and then from a storytelling perspective, he and he also pointed out um that after the three movies from the novels had already tackled, you know, corrupt developers and politicians, etc., um, the pivot that they went to for the season one of the the standalone six-part TV um seasons um was the was the approach that they decided to take to sort of keep it fresh. So that was really interesting, and again, um really thankful um to Ian for taking the time to come back with a very generous response.

Helen 20:53

That's really interesting, and it's such a good nudge to revisit some of their other work because there's a couple I've been meaning to get to.

Leigh 21:00

Absolutely should. Um so Bad Debts first aired in October 2012, um, and a lot of the filming was centered around the inner city of Melbourne, suburb of Fitzroy. Um, and keen fans of Temple's Jack Irish books will remember that Jack's late father, Bill, um, was a former Fitzroy football club. Great. Um, okay, what's next on our list?

Helen 21:22

Well, we're jumping from one of your favourites to one of mine, the TV adaptation of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, which is based on the work of the late Kerry Greenwood.

Leigh 21:32

Yes, now, and anyone that's playing along at home, we've actually been talking about Kerry Greenwood a lot lately, almost as much as I've talked about Peter Temple. Um, if you missed episode seven, Murder in the Dark, that was our deep dive into Greenwood's career. And then Helen followed it up by reading the first chapter of Cocaine Blues, the very first Finey Fisher novel. Uh, the plot description for Miss Fisher's murder mysteries goes like this a glamorous private detective sachets through the back lanes and jazz club. Of 1920s Melbourne fighting injustice with her pearl-handled pistol and her dagger sharp wit. Given we've covered so much Miss Fisher territory in episode seven, what else can we say about this acclaimed series?

Helen 22:14

Uh how about a few bits of trivia?

Leigh 22:18

Sounds good to me.

Helen 22:19

Alrighty, so first up, Essie Davis, who plays Friney, and Hugo Johnston Burt, who plays Hugh Collins. They actually worked together before on Cloud Street back in 2011, which is the adaptation of my favourite Tim Winter novel. And here's a fun one. In the series, Miss Fisher lives at 221B on the Esplanade in St Kilda, which is actually a little wink to Sherlock Holmes's house, which is 221B Baker Street in London.

Leigh 22:49

There you go. I did not know that.

Helen 22:52

Also, if you watch season two, episode seven, Blood at the Wheel, right at the start of the rally, you can spot Kerry Greenwood and her partner in the background. It's a real blink and miss at cameo. And then finally, the series was re remade by HBO Asia in 2020 as Miss S, and it was set in the 1930s Shanghai instead of 1920s Melbourne. It was filmed in Mandarin, and Franny became Sue Wen Li. Inspector Robinson became Lo Choi Heng, and Dot became Xiao Tao Zhu.

Leigh 23:28

Well, that's pretty cool. I didn't know that.

Helen 23:30

I know, I'd love to see that actually. I don't know how to find it. I don't think I could find it on Netflix. But Leigh, before we go any further, I think it's time we bring to life one of the greatest entrances in Australian crime television for our listeners. And by revisit, I mean we're actually going to perform it.

Leigh 23:50

Absolutely not.

Helen 23:52

Oh, come on, Leigh, please. Well, I what I'm proposing is just because you know, I think our listeners need to see this or hear it really. We're going to do the first Phrynne Jack encounter from episode one of Cocaine Blues. Now I've checked with copyright, it's just a little tiny version of it, so we won't be infringing on anything just to get people a taste. Can you come on and summon your inner detective inspector?

Leigh 24:17

This sounds a little bit like bullying.

Helen 24:19

No, it's character development. Come on.

Leigh 24:22

Alright, let me just um just get myself prepared. Police, open up.

Helen 24:30

You must be the inspector. Apologies. Urgent call of nature.

Leigh 24:34

This is a crime scene

Helen 24:36

Lucky for you, I'm wearing gloves. Miss Phrynne Fisher, lovely to meet you.

Leigh 24:41

You didn't know the deceased?

Helen 24:43

Never met him, but poison seems likely.

Leigh 24:46

We haven't determined the cause of death.

Helen 24:48

Every lady needs a hobby.

Leigh 24:50

Miss Fisher?

Helen 24:52

Given the posture, the timing, the lack of blood, something ingested seems probable. Hmm. Mild wild some ice, of course. Now do you have a card? I'm a woman alone in a dangerous town.

Leigh 25:04

I plan to make this town less dangerous.

Helen 25:07

Good. I do like a man with a plan. Cut.

Leigh 25:13

Okay. Uh for any agents looking for um male actors without talent, um, feel free to uh hit me up. Um uh yeah, we probably have listeners, probably don't need to listen to me doing that again.

Helen 25:29

Oh, come on, admit it it was good fun. And look, really, it was just a taste of how the TV series turned the Miss Fisher books into such witty stylish adaptations. Look, they really, you know, that script that we just did, you know, it it sort of showed how it kept their tone and sparkle under the fantastic direction of Tony Tills, the razor-sharp work of the writing team, um, led by the amazing Deb Cox with writers like Shelley Birch, Michael Miller, Liz Duran, Isabel Dean, Joe Martino, Kelly Lefere, and Elizabeth Coleman, they all shaped it. That real Fryney energy.

Leigh 26:07

And this is a PSA, I'm retiring from acting immediately.

Helen 26:12

All right, that's fair. But look, again, it shows how sharp the first episode of the TV series is. That chemistry was instant, the banter was ridiculous. And look, and the best thing of all was that Phrynne basically solves half the case before Jack had even finished knocking on the door. But back to the original series. Look, I think it's just such a beautifully crafted adaptation of such an immensely popular character. Um, I'll say it again: there were there were th 23 Fry Fisher novels plus two short story collections. There wasn't really anything like it in Australian crime fiction. And if you want more in Kerry Greenwood and Phrynne Fisher, you can check out episode seven of our Kill City podcast.

Leigh 26:52

Right, well, we are very much at the pointy end now. So quick recap. We had uh Picnic at Hanging Rock at number six, uh The Broken Shore at number five, Scrub Lands at number four, bad debts at number three, and Mr. Fisher's Murder Mysteries at number two.

Helen 27:10

Okay, cue deep breath, a drum roll.

Leigh 27:20

And here's where things got a bit messy. Um we tried we genuinely tried to pick a single number one, um, but we just couldn't do it. So instead of a clear winner, we've ended up with a tie. So our top spot is actually shared.

Helen 27:36

It is. And the first of our joint number ones, and interestingly, both winners are um debut novels, but it's Trent Dalton's Boy Swallows Universe, which made the jump to TV in such an amazing way.

Leigh 27:49

Yeah, this was just so good.

Helen 27:51

Ah, remarkable.

Leigh 27:53

Now, as a bit of historical context, Helen and I met at work in Melbourne CBD about ten years ago, and I remember when this book came out, and I'm sure you remember it, it felt like half the office was reading it at the same time. And I think we're all quite fascinated as we worked our ways through it as to where it was going to go. It was truly an epic journey and story, so well brought to the screen. It was just it was just fantastic.

Helen 28:18

Oh goodness, I remember it like it was with yesterday, Leigh. I mean, that's how our friendship started, just discovering that we had books um that we liked in common that we enjoyed talking about. And of course, you know, we actually there were a few ex-Qeenslanders, myself included, um, as part of those conversations that meant for this book that we had those constant geography flashbacks, and there was like, oh my god, I remember Bogo Road Jail, or oh, that would have happened in Anala.

Leigh 28:44

Yeah, I do I remember that.

Helen 28:47

Look, for those listening, if you're not familiar with the storyline of Boy Swallows Universe, here's the short version. So Eli Bell is a kid growing up in Brisbane in the 1980s. He has a real chaotic family life and a knack for stumbling into danger. He's trying to work out what it means to be a good man while navigating crime, family secrets, and his first love, and it's all set against the backdrop of working class Brisbane.

Leigh 29:11

And Brisbane is basically a character in the story.

Helen 29:14

Exactly. Look, the book name checks suburbs like Darra, Fernie Grove, Oxley, Wacole, Anala, Corinda, Yorongapili. I'm saying all these for my friends in Brisbane, Gold Coast, Springbook Falls, Yatler and the Sunshine Coast. And look, this is all in the first few pages.

Leigh 29:31

Um, and the show really did bring all that to life.

Helen 29:35

It did. Production designer Michelle McGay literally sat with Trent Dalton going through boxes of his childhood photos and memorabilia to sort of really create recreate that world authentically.

Leigh 29:47

Um, critics loved it, obviously.

Helen 29:49

Oh, yeah, they did. Look, they were the reviews praised its exceptional performances, especially from the young actors. And the ability to kind of balance darkness with hope. I think um some of the quotes were read from reviews was you know, it was a dangerous world filtered through Eli's dreamy, curious perspective. Um, and then just people just raved about the fantastic performances by the cast.

Leigh 30:12

Um and it wasn't just critics' audiences that really loved this as well.

Helen 30:16

Oh my goodness, absolutely, yes. There were so many people. You always talked it about it being sort of unbelievably good, the best book-to-screen adaptation that they'd ever seen. You can read it, you know, people's reviews on Letterboxd and all over online.

Leigh 30:31

Um, and the awards that it won certainly didn't hurt either.

Helen 30:35

Nope, that's true. It won a staggering 12 actor awards, it won five logies, it was so well received. Look, and that casting was just incredible. Travis Fimmel, Simon Baker, Brian Brown, Anthony LaPalia, Toby Schmitz, Sophie Wilde, Senator Briggs, Leigh Tiger Haley, Phoebe Tonkin, who's now actually set to play Gemma Woodstock in the Dark Lake adaptation, which is super exciting. And then Felix Cameron as Eli Bell, who, oh, he was just on another level.

Leigh 31:07

He really was. Um, and what surprised me was just how big this went internationally.

Helen 31:12

Oh, goodness same. Because you don't actually necessarily expect a story that's just so Brisbane, you know, not even Australian, like it's so quintessentially Brisbane to sort of suddenly be watched by people, you know, in the US, UK, Europe, South America, but boy, it really took off.

Leigh 31:30

It did, and um Netflix really pushed it hard globally too.

Helen 31:35

They did, yeah. And look, I think the thing is that that hyper-local detail didn't put people off. In fact, it actually pulled them in. And reviewers overseas, I read, you know, talked about how refreshing it was to see a coming-of-age story that was set somewhere that you know wasn't like typically in New York or London. Um, there was one US critic that talked about it being authentic and emotionally huge, and that it was a universal story that was sort of actually told in a very specific place.

Leigh 32:02

And I think audience is really connected with the Eli character.

Helen 32:07

Oh, completely. Look, I think he did an awesome job to kind of bring that mix of danger and innocence and hope, and that just kind of you know it touched hearts and translated everywhere. Um, and Felix Cameron himself, you know, his performance was such a big part of that, and and people really just were talking about him everywhere.

Leigh 32:27

He was phenomenal. Um, and the themes are universal, family, survival, loyalty versus love.

Helen 32:33

Oh, exactly. You know what? I like to call it a Brisbane story, but I think it's you know, it's an everywhere story, and you can tell that Netflix viewers really responded to that. You know, it charted really strongly in a whole bunch of countries. Um, and I think it picked up a whole new international fan base for Trent Dolton, who's just gone on to bigger and better things. Alrighty, well, we better move on because I think everyone's wondering what adaptation shares top billing with it.

Leigh 33:01

Well, it's probably no surprise to anyone who's been listening to this podcast or to anyone who follows Australian crime fiction blockbusters. Um, our other number one is the adaptation of Jane Harper's 2016 Debut The Dry, um, which became the 2020 feature film directed by Robert Conley, who you'll know from Balibo, Paper Plains, The Bank, and um Christos Tokas's Slap.

Helen 33:26

Yeah, such a solid resume.

Leigh 33:28

Very, and we've talked about this before, but The Dry really did help kickstart this whole Helcyan period of Australian crime fiction. Um, the timing of the film was perfect. Uh, it pushed Rural Noir even further into the mainstream and showed just how cinematic Australian landscapes and small town tensions can be.

Helen 33:47

And it's such a fantastic adaptation. Look, it's one of those films I can happily rewatch over and over again. Oh my goodness, the atmosphere, the pacing, uh, the performances, all of it just really worked. And look, we've talked about the dry and Jane Harper's influence and what her writing's done for the genre. Look, there was so much to like about this, and I've said it before, Eric Banner was wonderful, as was the outstanding supporting cast. There was Genevieve O'Reilly, John Paulson, Bruce Spence, Julia Blake, Matt Nabel, who's also turned his hand to crime fiction with the recent thriller Still, Jeremy Lindsay's Taylor, Bebe Bettencourt, Miranda Tapsil, and Keir O'Donnell.

Leigh 34:31

Now, obviously, we talked about the second of the Aaron Fork books being adapted too in Force of Nature. Uh, and I'm really hoping that the third and final Fork book, Exiles, gets the big screen treatment too. Um, I've checked IMDB and there's nothing there at present but fingers crossed.

Helen 34:46

Oh, mine too. Look, he's, as I've said, I've got to stop banging on about it. I think he's such a great character. And Eric Banner plays him so well. Look, it'd be fantastic to see that trilogy rounded out properly. And something people might not know is how seriously Banner approached the role. He actually spent time with federal agents and financial crime specialists to get a feel for Falk's world. And he talked about wanting to capture that very Australian mix of kind of restraint, but also that real emotional weight. And of course, he's a Melbourne West Side boy, so he's always said that he's felt a connection to stories set sort of, you know, a bit more in that regional and rural Australia.

Leigh 35:24

Um, and we should mention Robert Connolly too, because his direction is a huge part of why the dry works so well.

Helen 35:31

Absolutely, because look, Connolly not only directed it, he also co-wrote the adapted screenplay with Harry Cripps. And I think they made some really smart choices. They kind of tightened up the structure, they sort of sharpened that jewel timeline, they sort of lent into the landscape as a character, which is something we talk about a lot that um Australian sort of uh crime does. And Connolly's even talked about wanting the drought to kind of feel like that pressure cooker. Um, and again, you know, we talk about that too, but you can just feel it in every frame.

Leigh 36:04

Yeah, no, I love that. And uh, we talked about it before with scrub lands and how the heat is just you know so um enveloping and yeah, it um you really feel it in this one too. Um now I know you never say never, but do you think there's any chance Jane Harper might bring fault back in future books?

Helen 36:24

Oh, look, I wish I'd love to have a crystal ball, but I'm just not that cleverly. So I think we can only say time will tell. Um and for anyone who's feeling inspired, both the dry and force of nature are pretty easy to find across a range of streaming platforms. So you can curl up with sort of your giant bowl of popcorn and screen your own Aaron Falk double feature from the comfort of your living room, sort of wherever you like.

Leigh 36:52

You can. So that rounds out our 12, actually 13 essential Australian crime fiction adaptations. Um, we hope you enjoyed hearing about as much as we enjoyed talking about them.

Helen 37:03

Yeah, but before we sign off for another episode, um, we want to talk about a couple of exciting adaptations that are on the horizon that are worth keeping an eye out for. Now we've talked about Sarah Bailey's The Dark Lake with Phoebe Tompkin, from what I know is being produced by Bruha Ha Entertainment, who are responsible for Boy Swallow's Universe. We don't know much more than that, but I think just watch this space.

Leigh 37:28

Yeah, absolutely. And I'm almost as excited as I am for Dust Fall, which is the adaptation of Vicky Petraidus's novel the unbelieved.

Helen 37:36

Oh yeah, that's gonna be huge.

Leigh 37:39

The basic setup is great. Detective Tig heads back to her coastal hometown and starts digging into a series of drink spiking assaults. And the deeper she goes, the more she realizes she's up against a whole network of hidden predators and a system that's been failing women for years. Um, it's a tense, it's atmospheric, it's a classic Vicky portrayed us.

Helen 37:57

Oh, yeah, and the cast is fantastic. Anna Torv, Kate Box, such a strong lineup.

Leigh 38:04

Yeah, it is, and that's slated for release in 2026, which you know suddenly doesn't feel that far away.

Helen 38:11

No, it does not. And then finally, we've got Treasure and Dirt. Now that's featuring two of my favourite characters, Ivan Lucky and Nell Buchanan from the Chris Hammer novel of the same name. And the setup's really cool. Uh, there's a miner that turns up beheaded in out back Opal Town, and Ivan and Nell get sort of pulled into this web of secrets, there's lots of greed and long buried sins out in the desert.

Leigh 38:36

Treasure and Dirt is probably my favourite um Chris Hammer novel, so I'm really looking forward to this.

Helen 38:41

Oh, yeah, and look, the casting's spot on too. There's two great Aussie actors centre stage. There's Michael Dorman as Ivan and Liv Hewson as Nell. Dorman's such a great fit. Um, people will might know him from Patriot for All Mankind and Joe Pickett and Liv Hewson brings real range too. They were fantastic in Yellow Jackets and Santa Clarita Diet. So I think it's actually a really strong pairing. Um and look, this one's slated for 2026, which is this year too.

Leigh 39:13

Um excellent book. So I can't wait for this. There's a lot to look forward to.

Helen 39:18

Oh, absolutely. Now I feel we covered a lot today, Leigh. Um, but yeah, I just want to thank everyone for listening. We look forward to chatting to you next time on the Kill City podcast. But in the meantime, happy reading, happy watching, and may your TBR pile treat you kindly.

Leigh 39:35

See you next week.