In Development Limited Series 6 Episodes Forensic Drama

Yield

An Australian Limited Drama Series — 6 × 55 min — Lantern Court

An innocent man sits fourteen years into a wrongful conviction for his identical twin's crime in this Australian forensic drama series. When a junior scientist finds a buried footnote in the original DNA report, the case begins to unravel — and everything the Queensland justice system built its reputation on comes apart with it.

6
Episodes
55
Min per Episode
14
Years of Injustice
QLD
Setting
MA
Classification

The Story

A wrongful conviction. Fourteen years. One footnote.

Danny Carew has served fourteen years of a life sentence for a murder his identical twin brother committed. The conviction rested on DNA evidence from a Queensland forensic laboratory — evidence that was subtly, catastrophically wrong.

When Priya Nair, a junior scientist auditing old case files, finds a single buried footnote in the original report, she doesn't understand what she's looking at. Her supervisor tells her to leave it alone. She doesn't.

What follows is a six-episode unravelling — of a conviction, of a forensic institution, of a family, and of the justice system's capacity to admit when it got it wrong.

The World

Queensland forensic drama — truth the system can't afford.

This Australian limited drama series is set against the real and documented history of Queensland's forensic science laboratories — a world of underfunded institutions, career pressure, political interference, and the slow bureaucratic violence of a system designed to convict rather than discover.

The series spans two timelines: the original investigation in 2012, and the present-day audit that threatens to expose it. As Priya pulls on the thread, the characters from the past — the detectives, the prosecutor, the twins' family — are forced to reckon with what they knew, what they chose not to know, and what they still stand to lose.

The series picks up where Onus Probandi left off — taking the forensic thriller short film and expanding its world, its stakes, and its emotional scope into a full limited drama.

Episode Structure

Six Episodes of Australian Crime Drama. One reckoning.

01
The Footnote
Priya Nair discovers an anomaly in a closed case file during a routine audit. Her supervisor orders her to archive it. She photographs it instead.
55 min
02
The Twin
We meet Danny Carew in prison and, for the first time, his brother Marcus — who has built an entire life on a lie that's about to surface.
55 min
03
The Original Case
A sustained flashback to 2012 — the investigation, the interview, the forensic report. The audience sees what actually happened.
55 min
04
Institutional Memory
Priya escalates. The laboratory's management begins to understand the exposure they face. The original detective is quietly contacted.
55 min
05
The Cost of Admission
Danny's lawyer files. The prosecution's case is publicly scrutinised for the first time. Marcus is confronted. Everything accelerates.
55 min
06
Yield
The system decides what it can afford to admit. Danny's fate is decided — but the question the series poses has no clean answer: what does justice actually look like when the institution can't be trusted?
55 min

Tonal References

What it feels like.

Mare of Easttown
The procedural patience, the community weight, the refusal to let the crime be bigger than the people it happens to.
Unbelievable
The institutional failure as dramatic engine. The way bureaucratic cowardice becomes its own kind of violence.
The Wire
Systems — not villains — as antagonist. The way institutions protect themselves even when the people inside them know better.

Proof of Concept: Onus Probandi

The short film Onus Probandi (12 min, completed 2026) was produced as a proof of concept for this series — establishing the visual language, interrogation-room tension, and forensic procedural tone that will define Yield. Available for screener on request.

View Short Film →

Pitch Package

What's available.

Series Bible

Full series bible covering character breakdowns, episode summaries, thematic framework, and production approach.

Proof of Concept Screener

Onus Probandi short film (12 min) available as a private screener on request from qualified industry contacts.

Pilot Script

Full pilot script for Episode 1 — The Footnote — available on request to broadcasters and co-producers.

Budget & Finance Plan

Indicative budget, co-production and financing structure available for qualified broadcaster and funding agency discussions.

To request any of the above, contact us directly.

Production Company

Company
Lantern Court
ABN
38 152 737 872
Location
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Website
Producer
Adrian Alback