UNDERBELLY-style violence returns to the small screen in a new series about Australia's infamous bikie wars, writes Holly Byrnes.
The solid concrete walls of an industrial unit block in suburban Sydney provide the perfect cover for the cast and crew of Bikie Wars: Brothers in Arms.
It's not the paparazzi this production is hiding from, but they're taking no chances as they re-enact one of the bloodiest bikie battles Australia has seen.
It may be almost three decades since the Milperra Massacre on September 2, 1984, but tensions between the warring parties still run hot on the streets of Sydney.
For Channel 10, it's the kind of heat marketing money can't buy before this anticipated six-part mini-series is broadcast.
On set, Hit finds the mood celebratory, as the cast recreates a party in a purpose-built Comancheros clubhouse.
Director Peter Andrikides watches the action on a monitor, giggling like a schoolboy.
It's a light moment in this dark tale that will shock audiences with its Underbelly-style brutality.
As that TV crime franchise was criticised for glamorising gang activity, Brothers in Arms should brace for the same charge as it explores the bond that drove these men to kill and die for each other.
It's this brotherhood that won lead actor Callan Mulvey's respect and interest in taking on the role of Anthony "Snoddy" Spencer.
Spencer was the loyal lieutenant brought into the Comanchero fold by club boss Jock Ross (played superbly by Matt Nable) who would lead the mutiny against his president's tactics and leave to start an Australian chapter of the Bandidos.
With pride at stake, a war began, which would end in bloodshed on that fateful day at the Viking Tavern, Milperra, when seven people (including a 14-year-old bystander) were shot dead and 40 club members hospitalised.
Keeping on the right side of those allegiances and "doing justice to this story" was a challenge for Mulvey.
"They're very protective of the brotherhood and they bloody should be," he says.
That's not to say the criminality is to be admired or excused, Mulvey says, but honouring the story was a key.
"It's hard to get it right for both sides ... both sides seem to have conflicting stories and there will be a lot of people who feel Snoddy shouldn't be made a hero or that Jock's been demonised," he says.
"I want the people who are still alive to feel they've been respected and we've done justice to this story."
Mulvey's on-screen chemistry with Maeve Dermody, who plays Spencer's girlfriend Lee, produces some of the drama's most touching moments.
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