''Crownies'' is an

Australian television Television in Australia began experimentally as early as 1929 in Melbourne with radio stations 3DB and 3UZ, and 2UE in Sydney, using the ''Radiovision'' system by Gilbert Miles and Donald McDonald, and later from other locations, such as Brisb ...

drama series which was originally broadcast on

ABC1 ABC TV, formerly known as ABC1, is an Australian national public television network. It is owned and operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and is the flagship ABC Television network. The headquarters of the ABC TV channel a ...

from 14 July until 1 December 2011. The series revolves around a group of solicitors fresh from law school, working with Crown Prosecutors, who are the

public prosecutors A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal t ...

in the legal system of New South Wales, working for the office of the

Director of Public Prosecutions The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is the office or official charged with the prosecution of criminal offences in several criminal jurisdictions around the world. The title is used mainly in jurisdictions that are or have been members of ...

(DPP).

Production

ordered ''Crownies'' for a twenty-two-episode run and it was produced by

Karl Zwicky Karl Zwicky (born 16 November 1956) is Australian film director, producer and screenwriter. Movies Television series * Tricky Business (2012) (2 episodes) * Crownies (2011) (22 episodes) * Cops L.A.C. (2010) (4 episodes) * K-9 (2010) (5 ep ...

. It was the first long-form drama format to be commissioned by the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

since 2005's '' MDA''. Filming began in January 2011. The location chosen for filming was Sydney,

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. Many scenes were filmed in the business district

Parramatta Parramatta () is a suburb and major Central business district, commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney, located in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district on the ban ...

, more predominantly around the

Parramatta Justice Precinct The Parramatta Justice Precinct (PJP) is located in the western part of the Parramatta () central business district. The precinct houses the corporate headquarters of the New South Wales Department of Attorney General and Justice. Other legal off ...

for the low financial cost and its accessibility. Alongside the Parramatta river shops, churches and streets were used for location shoots. Every twelve days a Brazilian restaurant located on Church Street would be converted into the set of "Gar's Bar", which served as the "legal hangout" for the characters. To cut costs, scenes requiring countryside settings were filmed a mere fifteen-minute drive away from Parramatta. The series finished filming in September 2011. It is written by

Greg Haddrick Gregory Bevan Haddrick (7 September 1960) is an Australian-born Logie Award winning screenwriter and film and television producer. Over the last decade he has won six AWGIE Awards as a writer, two AFI Awards as a producer, and an Internationa ...

, Jane Allen, Kylie Needham, Tamara Asmar, Blake Ayshford, Chris Hawkshaw, Justine Gillmer, Pete McTighe, Stuart Page & Sam Miekle. It is directed by Tony Tilse, Chris Noonan, Cherie Nowlan, Grant Brown, Lynn Hegarty, Garth Maxwell and Jet Wilkinson. On 24 January 2011, Greg Hassall from ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'' announced the casting of Todd Lasance, Hamish Michael, Marta Dusseldorp and

Jerome Ehlers Jerome Ehlers (20 December 1958 – 9 August 2014) was an Australian actor and writer. He graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in 1987. Ehlers died in Sydney on 9 August 2014, after a ten-month battle with cancer. F ...

Episodes

Cast

Main cast

* Todd Lasance as Ben McMahon * Hamish Michael as Richard Stirling * Ella Scott Lynch as Erin O'Shaughnessy * Andrea Demetriades as Lina Badir * Marta Dusseldorp as Janet King *

Indiana Evans Indiana Rose Evans (born 27 July 1990) is an Australian actress. She is known for her roles in ''Home and Away'' as Matilda Hunter, '' H2O: Just Add Water'' as Bella Hartley, and '' Blue Lagoon: The Awakening'' as Emmaline Robinson. Early lif ...

as Tatum Novak *

Peter Kowitz Peter Kowitz is an Australian actor. Film and television acting His television credits include: ''Prime Time'', '' Richmond Hill'', '' Rafferty's Rules'', ''Chances'', '' Pacific Drive'', '' Water Rats'', '' Big Sky'', '' Halifax f.p.'', '' S ...

as Tony Gillies * Jeanette Cronin as Tracey Samuels * Lewis Fitz-Gerald as David Sinclair QC *

as Rhys Kowalski

Recurring

* Chantelle Jamieson as Julie Rousseau * Christopher Morris as Andy Campbell * Daniel Lissing as Conrad De Groot *

Marcus Graham Marcus Graham (born 11 October 1963) is an Australian film, television (including both serials and mini-series) and stage actor and director, with roles including '' Mulholland Drive'' and ''Josh Jarman''. He was known as a teenage heartthrob i ...

as Danny Novak * Aimee Pedersen as Ashleigh Larsson *

Ritchie Singer Ritchie Singer is an Australian actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and telev ...

as The Honourable Mr Justice Rosenberg * Paul Moxey as Harry * Elias Joukhdar as Tariq Badir * Petra Yared as Paula Corvini

Spin-off series

Before the series finale of ''Crownies'' had broadcast, ABC1 Channel Controller Brendan Dahill revealed that he sought the creation of a spin-off and singled out Dusseldorp and Michael for their portrayals. He believed that there were many successful aspects of ''Crownies'' to build on and expressed his surprise that the show was not as popular as he had envisioned. On 20 August 2012, ABC TV confirmed that it had commissioned an "8-part legal and political thriller" titled '' Janet King''. The spin-off went into production in early 2013 and featured various cast members from ''Crownies''. The first episode aired on 27 February 2014.

Home media

''Crownies'' was initially released on region 4 DVD in two separate parts. The first eleven episodes were released on 6 October 2011. The remaining episodes were released on 1 December 2011. The two box-sets were later released for region 2. Although the series has never been shown in the UK, it is available to view on the

STV Player STV Player is a video on demand service owned by STV Group and available free-of-charge across the UK, online, on mobile and on all major TV platforms, including Sky Glass, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Apple TV, Android TV, Freeview Play and Vir ...

, the video on demand service owned by

STV STV may refer to: Television * Satellite television ** Direct-broadcast satellite television (DBSTV) Channels and stations * STV (TV channel), the brand name of ITV broadcasters in central and northern Scotland ** Scottish Television, now le ...

, the ITV affiliate in North and Central Scotland.

Reception

Critical analysis

Doug Anderson from ''

'' liked the show for the cast, "fresh" writing and good relationship between character. He believed anyone with intelligence could relate to the show. He praised the character of Tatum Novak for being the modern girl and branded the rest as fairly conventional characters, with personal issues blended in with cases. But his colleague Craig Mathieson criticised the show stating "The show is struggling to find an even tone and at various times it's flirtatiously sexy, coolly cynical and blazingly emotional. The problem is that these diverse moods jarringly occur one after the other. It's somewhat messy."

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Official website

Production website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Crownies 2011 Australian television series debuts 2011 Australian television series endings Australian drama television series Australian legal television series English-language television shows Australian LGBT-related television shows Lesbian-related television shows Television shows set in New South Wales Australian Broadcasting Corporation original programming Television series by Screentime Television series about prosecutors