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Heelers' reality show

SEN-Constable Sue Roberts has crossed the thin blue line from real-life policewoman to detective on Australia’s best loved cop show.

The Transit Division policewoman plays an internal investigator from Ethical Standards in the long-running Blue Heelers next month.

Word has travelled quickly around Victoria Police headquarters at Flinders St—and she is copping a ribbing from workmates.

“They love the show,” Sen-Constable Roberts, 33, said of her colleagues.

“I don’t know too many people in the force who don’t watch it. So, I’m going to be under the pump when it screens.”

Her fellow officers might be dishing it out up front, but behind her back they are showering her with compliments.

They also say the mother of two is one of the best shots around.

“Wow, who have you been talking to?” she said. “Yeah, I’m the one who does a smiley face on the target.”

Sen-Constable Roberts recently completed a three-year acting course at the National Theatre in St Kilda. During the day she would keep watch over the city’s trams, trains and buses, then she would head off to the theatre.

“It was full on, four nights a week, particularly, around the second year, when I decided to have a baby,” she said.

“Still, I kept going. But I was very pregnant. I remember one time I played a pregnant prostitute in a very, very small dress. “Very memorable. Wasn’t pretty.”

In the Blue Heelers episode, Payback, Sen-Constable Roberts takes on the role of Detective Denise West, who has been called in to investigate after a shooting among the Heelers.

Susie (Simone McAullay) shoots Paul Bishop’s character, Ben. It is up to Detective West to decide if it is an accident or, in fact, a payback.

After Payback screens on June 23, Sen-Constable Roberts will appear as a “no-nonsense” magistrate on Neighbours later in the year.

She says Victoria Police’s top brass have no problem with her burgeoning acting career.

“There’s a procedure to go through to do outside work,” she said. “And acting isn’t considered any different to any other outside employment.”

By Adam Zwar
Picture: Alex Coppel
May 23, 2004
The Herald Sun