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Courting drama

ALISON Whyte finds working alongside William McInnes extremely difficult. The Tasmanian actress plays his recently divorced ex-wife in Marshall Law—a role which sees him pick at her mercilessly.

His character Dylan riles Verity inside and outside court, throwing the freelance barrister off-guard at every opportunity.

But Whyte says the source of her displeasure is more to do with McInnes than his character. "He makes it so hard to work," she says. "He says some of the funniest things and has us all cracking up in rehearsals and then he can go completely straight-faced while we're all struggling. It's like ‘shut up, William!'."

Other than the occasional giggling fit, Whyte says she is enjoying her return to series television.

Her role in Marshall Law is her first regular gig since the Dogwoman series, though Whyte is also well known for roles in Good Guys Bad Guys and Frontline.

She has even played a barrister once before in State Coroner, though she admits "it was a very different role".

"Playing lawyers is really fun though," she says. "It's got its ups and downs like every job, but really it's just like playing dress-ups all day long."

Whyte's character Verity Marshall is the straight woman of the series. Her sister Ros (McCune) provides the sex appeal, while her ex-husband, Dylan, plays the show's protagonist.

Marshall Law focuses on the trio's tangled relationship with a backdrop of quirky legal stories based on truth and strange and unusual people who work in the court system. "It's not a straight comedy or a drama, it's just this juggling act between them which is great," Whyte says. "It's not slapstick comedy, it's more incidentally funny."

By Jennifer Dudley
August 01, 2002
The Courier Mail