Don HanyHBO Asia's first original production is coming to the UK tonight as Serangoon Road premieres on Sony Entertainment Television.
The series stars Australian actor Don Hany, who spoke exclusively to Female First about filming the show and the challenges he faced going into something that he knew absolutely nothing about.
The show is set in the heart of 1960s Singapore, as political and colonial tension is at an all time high, and one of the most tumultuous settings of the 21st century comes to life.
"It's a show about new beginnings," began Don as he burst into life and excitement, clearly passionate about the work he had done on the one of a kind series.
"Everyone in the show is in a state of flux. Patricia who is played by Joan Chen has just lost her husband and Su Ling has just lost her boss, and Sam the character I play has lost a good friend."
Though Serangoon Road is described as a "detective series", Don says that the term "refers loosely to the show, because it's more a noir/romance/political thriller at times, and I use the term romance with a double meaning.
"It's there in the conventional sense, but it's also a show that romanticises Singapore and South East Asia in the '60s, in the exotic sense which no longer really exists - specifically in Singapore because it's so modernised - and so the Asian experience just isn't on offer to tourists in the same way as it was back then.
"So, there's a real romance about that period for Westerners, and the window of opportunity that existed in that time to explore is something that I think we really celebrate with the show."
The Australian Cold War is something also explored in the series, "because all of this stuff was happening only a few hours away.
"It can be kind of regarded as the reason why we enjoy the freedom that we have today in many respects." Don continued.
Though he now appears very knowledgeable on the subject, Don claims he was "as unread and unprepared as you could be for something like this."
He takes on the Australian Sam Callaghan role, who now lives in Singapore and is on the run from the military.
"Life is sort of one big trap to Sam. He was imprisoned as a child and he looked up to his father who was a soldier and thought that life in the military would be exciting like a lot of guys did, but that ended up being another trap for him.
"He ended up in Singapore, but he's about to walk into a number of traps, and he doesn't wanna work with Patricia - he doesn't see himself with his friends forever and he feels trapped in this relationship with Claire, and all of this is motivated really by his view of failure."
Listing off Sam's failures as his mother, Chang, his father's death, his life in the military and his relationship with Claire as well as his opium addiction, it's clear that Callaghan is a character with many problems.
"He's motivated by failure, as something or someone is really what he requires to feel alive, he sort of always is fighting mentally or physically or ideologically to progress further."
This wasn't just another acting job for Don, who had to learn bits of Mandarin, Indonesian and Malay for the role as well as climatising himself to the days and taking on a style of Martial Arts, "which ended up being a fusion of Australian Military training, a bit of boxing and Silat - a form of Martial Arts which is kind of a contemporary version of Kung Fu."
He admits that filming in Indonesia was "really tough", as he'd never worked in South East Asia in the past for an entire job.
"The way we make television is quite different to the way they make it in that part of the world. One hour long format dramas are kind of foreign to them. They generally make a lot of what they call cinetron, or little 15 minute, 20 minute, half hour soap dramas, and the idea of shooting one hour episodes - it took a bit of time for a rhythm to kick in where everyone felt like they were on the same page."
He did say however that is was a pleasure to be a part of "one of the first co-productions that made its way through completion", as a lot of projects similar to this one don't ever make it on-screen because of "cultural, logistical and political conflict just within the production."
"There's potentially so many stories to tell from that period of time in Singapore, and yet we had to be sensitive to it all, but yeah I'm so proud of the involvement in this venture between Australia and South East Asia. It's really my hope that this show pioneers [more like it]. I feel like that's really long overdue."
Serangoon Road premieres tonight - Wednesday, April 9 - at 9pm on Sony Entertainment Television, Sky 157, Virgin 193, BT 454, and TalkTalk 454.