Secret City

Australian political thriller Secret City might be a fictional tale with no shortage of murder, corruption and secret deals, but star Anna Torv doesn’t think the twisted stories in the series are really that far from the truth.

Based on the novels The Marmalade Files and The Mandarin Code by Nine News political editor Chris Uhlmann and journalist Steve Lewis, Secret City, explores the seedier side of the nation’s capital and the deals that happen in the corridors of Parliament House and the shady dealings of our security services.

In the new season, Secret City: Under the Eagle, Torv stars alongside Jacki Weaver, who plays Attorney-General Catriona Bailey, Danielle Cormack as MP Karen Koutoufides, and Don Hany as Prime Minister Ewan Garrity.

It’s easy to write off all of the intriguing elements in the series as pure fiction, but Torv, 39, who plays maverick reporter Harriet Dunkley in the Foxtel series, isn’t so sure.

“I think it’s incredibly close — I don’t think it’s way out at all,” she tells Watch. “And that’s not me being a conspiracy theorist, I just think we’re inundated with so much stuff now that you don’t have to dig very far to start to see the tangles underneath the surface.”

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The follow up to the 2016 original, this sophisticated and gripping saga returns on March 4 with plenty more intrigue, and a brilliant cast.

Here’s why you should watch:

It’s got… a great cast
Anna Torv returns to the role which won her a 2017 TV WEEK Logie Award for Most Outstanding Actress. Also back for more are Marcus Graham and two-time Oscar-nominee Jacki Weaver. Some exciting new faces include former Wentworth star Danielle Cormack, Don Hany (Picnic at Hanging Rock) and Rob Collins (the upcoming Tim Minchin-led series Upright).
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One way to measure Anna Torv’s successful stint in Los Angeles is through technology. When the Australian actor first relocated to the capital of commercial television in 2008 to pursue roles the world was far less wired and phones were definitely not smart.

“My show reel was on a DVD and I was going to internet cafes every day to check my e-mail for possible meetings and because it was prohibitively expensive to call home,” remembers Torv. “You would get online and use a map program to figure out where you had to go for that day’s auditions, and if you deviated from that route you got totally lost.”

Torv definitely found her way. The 39-year-old, who now calls Los Angeles her “work home”, has built a successful career playing resolute and multi-layered women on successful American series such as J.J. Abrams’ science-fiction labyrinth Fringe and Netflix’s serial killer period drama Mindhunter. She also headlined one of Foxtel’s best Australian dramas, the 2016 security state mystery Secret City, which returns next week for a second season.

“To work in Australia I need a good project and the time, that’s all,” Torv says. “There’s something lovely about going into a first [script] reading and basically knowing everyone in the room because we all used to have a beer together after the show in our early 20s.”

In the first season of Secret City Torv’s Harriet Dunkley was a political journalist for a fictional daily newspaper working out of the Parliament House bureau, pursuing threads linked to abuses of national security that involved data smuggled out of China and the death of Harriet’s former husband, transgender woman and Australian Signals Directorate analyst Kim Gordon (Damon Herriman).

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Anna Torv and Danielle Cormack are featured in the March 2019 issue of Foxtel Magazine! Check out our galleries for the FULL shoot!

ANNA TORV RETURNS — THIS TIME WITH A VERY FAMILIAR NEW PARTNER IN CRIME IN DANIELLE CORMACK — FOR THE LONG-AWAITED SECOND INSTALMENT OF POLITICAL DRAMA SECRET CITY

When Foxtel Original drama Secret City wrapped in 2016, star Anna Torv had just one wish: that it wouldn’t be the last we’d see of her character, plucky political journalist Harriet Dunkley.

“When we finished shooting the first season, I was so hopeful – I had my fingers crossed that we’d get to do it again,” Torv tells Foxtel Insider. “I love everyone who makes it.”

Fast-forward nearly three years and Harriet and co are back in Secret City: Under the Eagle, once again stirring up trouble in the Australian capital.

For Harriet, much has changed since the first season. She’s six months out of jail, about to conclude her parole period and eager to get the hell out of Canberra — for good! But where would be the fun in that?

Fortunately for viewers, it’s only a matter of time before intrigue and scandal pulls her back in. When she’s offered the role of press advisor to independent Adelaide MP Karen Koutoufides (Danielle Cormack) in the wake of a deadly explosion with military links in the politician’s electorate, Harriet’s soon re-entangled in her old life and going toe-to-toe with her former sparring partners.

“It’s a two-year jump and [the producers have] been really great about that,” Torv previews of the sequel season. “We’re still in Canberra, it’s still kind of the same world. Harriet has just finished her parole — she’s been on parole for probably about six months — and she’s looking to get out of Canberra, start a new life and leave all her old ghosts behind. But she gets dragged back in!”

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