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Crownies’ surprise package

Spoiler: Marta Dusseldorp plays a Senior Prosecutor who keeps her cards close to her chest on ABC1's Crownies. But this week she reveals more.

SPOILER: In ABC1’s legal drama Crownies Senior Prosecutor Janet King has been trying to keep secret from her colleagues that she is pregnant via IVF.

But in tomorrow night’s episode she will reveal even more.

“She has a lot of surprises actually,” says actress Marta Dusseldorp.

“She’s a lesbian in a committed relationship. She’s been with her partner for nine years, and they’re madly in love and her partner’s been trying for a baby for about two years with IVF. So Janet gives it a go and gets it first shot, but it’s not what she expects. There’s a lot of turmoil.”

Dusseldorp is a mother of two and was able to bring her own experience to the role.

“I’ve put in all the ugly bits for all the women out there!,” she laughs.

“I think Janet finds it hard to accept where she ends up, which I like because it’s contradictory to the idea of ‘Yay I’m pregnant!’ It’s difficult for her because she’s a control freak and her job is everything so she has to start to separate those two things and find a place inside her. Then she realises she’s put up a barrier with a lot of the cases because there’s a lot of child deaths, sexual assault and children involved. It becomes very difficult for her.”

To prepare for the role, Dusseldorp spoke with former Director of Public Prosecutions in NSW, Nicholas Cowdery.

“I was lucky to catch Nick when he was on the way out because he was very open. He was talking about mentoring and how important it is and how senior Crowns look after instructing solicitors and teach them,” she says.

“I’ve also been chatting with Margaret Cunneen who is a senior Crown prosecutor in New South Wales. My character isn’t based on her but I managed to hook up with her and we became personal friends, which has been a huge bonus for me.”

Cunneen was also the inspiration for Lisa McCune’s character in Nine’s Blood Brothers telemovie.

But one of the challenges has been sounding convincing with the legal jargon required for the courtroom scenes.

“I was so determined to sound like a Prosecutor. You have to make the words sound like you’ve said them a thousand times,” admits Dusselsorp.

“But now I don’t have a problem with it.”

Unlike many legal dramas, Crownies doesn’t neatly wrap up all its cases in a single episode. There is also an inherent difference in representing Prosecution to television’s frequent preference for the Defence.

“It’s not Defence which is what we’re used to, with people fighting for the accused and getting them off. This is a whole other side of law, which I had no idea about before I started this. I realised I’d been brain-washed into getting someone off and ‘were they lying?’ In this the accused is presumed innocent, but the Prosecution doesn’t go to trial unless they believe they’re guilty. So there is no ‘Are they guilty? Are they not?’” she explains.

“In one case I’m having difficulty believing that an 11 year old has the capacity to understand murder. So there are really fudgy areas inside that and the dilemma is quite great. But it is so costly to run a trial so they have to decide, and then they have to go at it full force.

“The younger solicitors get emotional, but I’m the one always reminding them it’s about evidence. What can we prove? So it’s different to other legal shows because you actually get into the nitty gritty of law and rule of law.”

The 22 episodes produced by Screentime represent ABC’s biggest drama commitment in years. While it may not have attracted headline ratings, the show is gathering some respectable word of mouth.

Dusseldorp attributes this to the drama’s scripts and hopes that multi-arc storylines will pay-off with viewers by the end of the series.

“Consistently the writing has surprised me. And we’re not all used all the time which is also great because it allows for the ensemble,” she says.

“When I sit down and commit to series television, at the end of it I know and love those people and I miss them. If I’ve connected with the show, it’s a gift.”

Crownies airs 8:30pm Thursday on ABC1.

24 Responses

  1. I love Crownies and tonights was the best so far. I love the theme song but hate how the announcer talks over it. I also hate how pop ups about shows that are following detracts from the story. Please stop these annoying practices and let us enjoy the best Australian drama that the ABC has come up with in years.

  2. Thanks, Trix.

    @Moanique – I know that’s a risk which is why I’m giving it so much more than my usual 20 mins to convince me! It’s more about seeing whether I can get into it this late or whether I should wait for the inevitable replay on ABC2.

  3. @ Secret Squirrel, I hope you enjoy it this week if you watch it, but i’m afraid that if you haven’t watched since the first ep then you have missed the building of the characters so far, and won’t fully appreciate it 🙂

  4. This is one of my favourite drama series at the moment and i like how the show both explains and explores how certain parts of the legal process works, which makes it easier to explain whats going on.

  5. Jody, you refer to “better legal shows” yet fail to provide any examples. Also, “arcane legal concepts”? Please elaborate. As for dull courtroom scenes, well courtrooms are fairly dour places by default unless you give them the Hollywood touch, and is that what viewers of this program want? Boston Legal and The Practice, which I am not criticising as both were great shows, are available on DVD for your nostalgia.

    This is a well put together program with high production values.

  6. Have to agree with Marta Dusseldorp. The writing on this show is excellent.
    The ABC should be congratulated for airing another quality Australian programme.

  7. Crownies – really worth watching!
    The actor who plays the role of Richard is very good(I’m sure I’ve seen him before on All Saints, or another Channel 7 soap).

  8. The “nitty gritty of law”…clunky exposition, arcane legal concepts which the actors let alone viewers struggle with and dull court scenes. This drama has fallen into all the traps which better legal shows have wisely avoided. Marta Dusseldorp is a stand out in a poorly conceived drama. It is no surprise it can’t find an audience even against weak competition on Thursday nights at 8.30. The ABC should be able to do better than this.

  9. Good show and I love that the writers have respected viewers enough to realise we can readily understand multi-level plot lines. I think it’s like Rake with bling and a facelift. Marta is outstanding, but who is she, where has she come from?

  10. I’m really liking it and while I think some of the younger characters are badly miscast or need further acting lessons Marta is a standout and quite believable. Good to see aussies working in quality TV.

  11. I’m really enjoying this show – not having storylines wrap up nice and neatly in one episode seems to be a great tool for this show, although some drag it mostly is in its favour. The

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