Underbellys final shot a brewing bromance

Publish date: 2024-06-30

AS the final episode of Underbelly Badness screened Monday night it became clear to anyone who had watched the series that the success of an excruciating 10-year murder investigation hinged on an unlikely partnership.

Early on in their lives, two men television audiences have come to know made choices that placed them at opposing ends of society's spectrum. One chooses to be a bikie criminal, the other a homicide detective.

Yet the paths taken by Detective Inspector Gary Jubelin and bikie-turned-police informant Frank O'Rourke (not his real name) eventually wound themselves to meet at a crossroads that became Strikeforce Tuno.

In the film Capote, based on celebrated author Truman Capote's renowned true crime novel In Cold Blood, in which the author develops a friendship with murderer Perry Smith, actor Philip Seymour Hoffman as Capote says "it's as if Perry and I grew up in the same house and one day, he stood up and went out the back door, while I went out the front".

It's an analogy that could be used to compare Jubelin and O'Rourke. In the final emotional scenes of Underbelly, the two men (played by actors Matt Nable as Jubelin and Aaron Jeffrey as O'Rourke) hug, with Jubelin declaring he couldn't have done it without him, while Frank admits he was "lucky I found you".

Beyond allegations of a brewing bromance, this was life or death. The two men share many similar traits - they are strong, committed, obsessive, (if not a little unhinged) but most of all, brave. They literally put their lives on the line to do the right thing and see that justice was done for murder victim Terry Falconer and his family left behind.

Anthony and Andrew Perish (played by Jonathan Lapaglia and Josh Quang Tart respectively) were convicted of murder charges at the Supreme Court last year only because of a steadfast refusal to give in by Jubelin and his team, and the gut wrenching decision by O'Rourke to go against his code to wear a wire and turn Crown witness.

This was in direct contrast to hired hit man "Decker" (not his real name) who not only rolled on the Perishes, but lacked the fortitude in court to stick by his police statement and earn the sentence reduction he was given. He now languishes in jail with another sentence - cancer.

It was captivating viewing and gave Australians an insight of the lengths investigators go to during those long, countless hours between a murder and an arrest.

Even having a very minor role in Tuno as their senior media advisor and being portrayed in Underbelly by actress Jodi Gordon, the magnitude of what O'Rourke did, and the enduring bond he formed with Jubelin and strikeforce detectives, was reinforced to me in this week's final episode.

Underbelly Badness has been a raw emotional ride for all those portrayed on the small screen. Jubelin being forced to watch his private life laid bare week after week, the detectives reminded of the painfully protracted investigation and for all involved, the sadness of revisiting the premature death of analyst Senior Constable Camille Alavoine (played by Ella Scott Lynch) who never did get to see the crooks convicted.

For me, the hardest part was not watching someone better looking play me. Far from it – that I have dined out on. But as an experienced media advisor portrayed on approximately four occasions carrying trays of coffee and muffins for the detectives AND the legal team was not even close to the truth. I had to put on record that I was not the token "tea lady" of Tuno.

Apart from this type of occasional "dramatisation", Underbelly Badness rightly glorified those who deserved it – the crimefighting detectives and an ex-bikie who did his bit to be a better man.

Kylie Keogh was the Senior Media Officer at the NSW Police Force between 2003 and 2010.

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