Australian crime story in running for BBC award

22 November 201723 January 2023

An audio adaptation of Alan Carter’s crime novel Prime Cut has been shortlisted for a BBC Audio Drama Award while lead actor Andrew Leung has been nominated for Best Debut Performance.

Now in their seventh year and judged by a team of industry experts, the BBC Audio Drama Awards celebrate the range, originality and cut-through quality of audio drama on air and online.

The adaptation of Prime Cut by Adrian Bean was part of the Crime Down Under series which showcased the best crime fiction from contemporary Australia.

Carter said it was a great feeling to see the story travelling so well. ‘With this recognition in the UK and with translations of the Cato Kwong books in Europe, it’s clear that there is a place for good Aussie storytelling out there in the world,’ said Carter. ‘Adrian has been great at keeping in touch and has high hopes for an adaptation of the second book in the series Getting Warmer.’

Prime Cut tells the story of one-time golden boy, now disgraced cop, DSC Philip ‘Cato’ Kwong who is banished to the Stock Squad in a remote region of WA. Cato gets one last chance for redemption when a body washes up on the shores of the Great Southern Ocean.

Andrew Leung, who played Cato, is a rising star who has appeared in 16 stage productions and whose screen roles include parts in Dr Who and the Steven Spielberg movie Ready Player One.

Carter said he was not surprised to see Andrew Leung nominated for Best Debut Performance. ‘He did a great job with Cato playing him with just the right balance of sensitive new age cop and smouldering hero,’ said Carter.

Leung was joined by a supporting cast that included Mark Little, famous for playing Joe Mangel in Neighbours, Melbourne-born Christine Stephen-Daly, who was Lara Stone in the BBC’s Casualty and Holby City, and Richard Dillane who is well-known for his film roles in Argo and Oranges and Sunshine.

The finalists for the BBC Audio Drama Awards will be announced on Thursday 4 January 2018, and the winners at a ceremony in the Radio Theatre at BBC Broadcasting House, London, on the evening of Sunday 28 January 2018. More information is available from bbc.co.uk.

Prime Cut was shortlisted for a 2010 UK Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger Award and won Best First Fiction in the 2010 Ned Kelly Awards. It was published in the UK by Michael O’Mara and has been translated into French, Spanish and German.