54 minSeason 1 • Episode 10
LatestSam sets out to prove that James Lim was responsible for the murder of Patricia's husband Winston, but uncovers much more. Plus will his lover Claire stay in Singapore?
1964-65. Singapore is a city at a crossroads. Political and racial tensions are at fever pitch as the British pull out, and a new nation is about to be born. The lights of Bugis Street have never burned so bright: bootleg copies of Motown songs boom out from street stalls; the Rolling Stones are in town along with tourists and American sailors fresh from Vietnam. They join British and Australian soldiers checking out the prostitutes and gambling dens, en route to their own war in Borneo. This is the city of Sam Callaghan, Patricia Cheng, the CIA’s Conrad Harrison and the clients of the Cheng Detective Agency. The agency’s cases range from the usual (straying spouses and petty fraudsters) to events with international implications and complications. Sam’s contacts from his military days are useful - but they start to drag him back into a dark world that he would prefer to leave behind.
Production
Lush recreation of 1960s Singapore you can practically smell.
Acting
Joan Chen commands every scene with quiet, calculating power.
Score
Motown and period rock woven into the atmosphere perfectly.
Creator
Paul D. Barron
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Shot in Singapore with extensive location work, but the actual Bugis Street of the 1960s was demolished in the 1980s — the production rebuilt portions from archival photographs.
The series captures a precise historical moment: Singapore's 1965 expulsion from Malaysia and sudden independence, which the characters navigate without knowing the outcome.
AU
SG
