Bad Cop, Bad Cop is a 2002 Australian television series produced
by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...

 and Southern Star

Southern Star Group

Southern Star Group is Australia's largest independent television production and distribution group....

, directed by David Caesar

David Caesar

David Caesar is an Australian television and film director and writer.He grew up in Turlinjah on the south coast of NSW and attended school in nearby Moruya where he was school captain in his senior year....

Cast

• Michael Caton
  Michael Caton
  Michael Caton is an Australian television, film and stage actor, and television host, best known for playing Uncle Harry in the Australian television series, The Sullivans, playing Darryl Kerrigan from 1997's low budget hit film The Castle and playing in the popular Packed to the Rafters. He is...
  
   – Det. Red Lilywhite
• Dan Wyllie – Det. Cons. Lou Knutt
• Helen Thompson – lawyer Tracy Lafever
• Roy Billing
  Roy Billing
  Roy Billing is a New Zealand television actor, now based in Sydney, Australia.-Career:Billing has starred in many television shows and had main roles on Bad Cop, Bad Cop, Dossa and Joe and Hell Has Harbour Views...
  
   – Assistant Commissioner "Pud" Tugwell
• Christopher Hobbs – put-upon low life Slim Azzopardi

Premise

The series is a black comedy

Black comedy

A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...

 about two utterly corrupt police officers Lilywhite and Knutt (the "bad cop, bad cop" of the title). Lafever is their friend, a lawyer with a relaxed attitude to the goings on. Police graft, corruption and brutality are satirised in a very dry comic fashion, and with a stream of matter-of-fact obscenities. The series is shot in the eastern suburbs of Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, with Lilywhite and Knutt often seen drinking at the Clovelly Bowling Club and numerous references to Maroubra. Police misconduct had been a real-life problem in New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

 and elsewhere in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

The title is a reference to the tactic of good cop, bad cop

Good cop/Bad cop

Good cop/bad cop, known in British military circles as Mutt and Jeff and also called joint questioning and friend and foe, is a psychological tactic used for interrogation....

; though in this case both cops are as bad as each other.

Quotes

• In the title sequence,
  Lilywhite: Off the car dickhead. You're about to learn something.
  Knutt (shows badge): We're the police. Now piss off.