Cops, not robbers: Taking on the guise of DI Joe Messina, Peter Phelps speaks about why na
Peter Phelps was part of 1970s gangland crime wave that lies behind Underbelly; A Tale of Two Cities only too well. He wasn’t one of the bad guys, or even one of the good guys, like DI Joe Messina, the character he plays. He was just a citizen of Sydney.
“It was quite a poignant time for me. I started acting in the late 70s and all my first gigs were from that time. I was reading about all these crime stories at the time so to play someone that you knew about when I was a teenager/early 20s and then to play it in my 40s - was quite cool to have a historical context.
He found the process of stepping into the shoes of an investigative policeman, even a fictional one that was in fact a composite of three real policemen, an exhilarating process.
“I always like the bit where we get the bad guys, handing out the court summons and just being on the precipice of getting all the evidence together and putting the jigsaw together – when we get to shoot that stuff, it is pretty cool.”
As part of his preparation, he met one of the three originals, nicknamed the Golden Greek. “He was at the forefront of joining those forces [state and federal police] together”, said Peter. “They hadn’t done this side of police work before. They were dealing with a corrupt police force so it was all new for them because it was such a big web of crime they were dealing with.
“He was a fairly interesting guy to play because the guy is still around - he is in his mid 80s. I got a lot of research information from him. He was meticulous in his records, he still had all the court cases and all of his own notes across the 70s and 80s in a leather bound bridge case – I had material that was very handy to have.He took Allison Dine’s testimony in court.
Aside from recreating his teenage memories of cops and robbers, Peter also enjoyed the vibe the series created as it time-warped back three decades.
“Joe is quite a different cop for Australia, he likes dressing in European suits,” he explained. “He was very well groomed which was rare because they were kind of laidback, sometimes a bit rough in their dress sense and in their style so this guy was kind of a stylish character.
“He was impeccably dressed and groomed so physicalities like that I took on. Over the period of the 10 years, we aged up and made me look a bit different. I just kept myself groomed and did my hair which was banded into a 80s style!”
Joe Messina was the straight-talking cop who defied all the temptations inside Australia’s corrupted police force as he devoted his life to uncovering the growing crime wave within.
Following on from the legacy of the first series, Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities soared to the top of the Australian ratings as one of the most watched crime drama.
Peter recalled: “It was one of those things that come around every 10 years when you get to do something that is really classy. A lot of the style and the way it was shot were based on a show, Blue Murder, that I was in, where I played a bad guy.
“I had a lot of friends saying, ‘Hey, what is going on with your hair?’ but apart from that, I pretty much stuck to my own little bubble.”
With his feet firmly on the ground, Peter has since worked on two series of Rescue Special Ops – a show due to screen over in the UK soon. But before that his thoughts have been focused on Scotland.
“I was in a play in the Edinburgh Festival two years ago and I have just been speaking to all my friends who are there at the moment opening their shows. We did an Australian play and I loved the city.
“I find there is an Australian connection to Scotland. You are part of Britain and we are still part of the Commonwealth so there is that gutsy, independence, and earthy kind of streak there.”
Find out more about the Underbelly character Joe Messina and the real story behind the Australian 1970s drug crime wave.
