Airdate: Tough Nuts

Crime author Tara Moss hosts the new eight-part series that looks at Australia’s underworld and reveals the real story behind what made and shaped the most notorious figures in Australian criminal history.

Through expert analysis, psychological profiling and unprecedented access to those who were there, Tough Nuts debunks the myths surrounding these criminals and finally reveals the ugly truth about Australia’s leading underworld figures.

Featuring never-before-seen interviews with psychologists, police detectives, investigative journalists, former criminals and friends and associates of the men in question, combined with cinematic dramatised scenes of pivotal points in the criminals’ lives, Tough Nuts exposes the facts behind the fiction and offers a revealing – and often shocking – insight in to what these criminals were really like.

Tough Nuts delves deeply into the psyche of these men, exploring their lives from childhood through to adulthood and subsequent careers as vicious criminals and asks the question: what makes a good man turn bad?

The 8 x 1 hour series profiles a different criminal in each episode and features: Christopher Dale Flannery, Chow Hayes, Alphonse Gangitano, Dennis Allen, Russell Cox, Michael Sayers, Raymond Bennett and Lenny McPherson.

In episode one, premiering on June 24 at 7.30pm AEST, we are introduced to Christopher Dale Flannery, aka ‘Rentakill’. A hit man and gun for hire if the price was right, Flannery killed in cold blood before returning home to dote on his wife and children.

Through psychological profiling and interviews with police detectives, forensic psychologists, journalists, friends of Flannery’s and other associates including former criminal Mark ‘Chopper’ Read and former underworld figure Graham Henry, Tough Nuts gets inside the mind of this violent killer.

Featuring dramatised scenes of some of the crucial moments in Flannery’s life, including his brutal time served in Pentridge Prison, the murder of barrister Roger Wilson and Flannery’s eventual disappearance, Tough Nuts will also reveal some remarkable new details regarding Flannery’s death.

Tough Nuts is produced by Bryan Cockerill from The Full Box and is exclusive to Crime & Investigation Network.

Tough Nuts: Australia’s Hardest Criminals premieres on Thursday, June 24 at 7.30pm AEST, airing on the last Thursday of every month.