australian television information archive

No more miss nice girl

From a by-the-book cop to a bed-hopping lawyer, Lisa McCune dishes the dirt in her new TV drama

Promiscuous, disorganised and messy… that is Ros Marshall, the character played by Lisa McCune in Marshall Law, her return to series television.

And fans of Maggie Doyle—the girl-next-door police officer from Blue Heelers who made Lisa a household name and won her four consecutive Gold Logies as the most popular personality on Australian TV—will be raising their eyebrows when they see the bed-hopping antics of racy Ros, one of two sisters working as lawyers in Melbourne.

"People will say nobody sleeps with that many men, but I'm here to tell you they do," Lisa laughs. "The way I see it, Ros is looking for Mr Right—and he's not so easy to come by these days."

The men in her life may come and go, but Ros does have at least one stable relationship in her tumultuous existence—her sister Verity (Alison Whyte).

"It's rare to get two strong female characters on TV who are sisters," Lisa says. "They're usually just good friends, but being sisters adds another dimension to the relationship.

"There has to be a chemistry there—like a love affair, really. And a sister is a relationship I don't have [in real life]."

"I've talked to a lot of my friends with sisters, and they have interesting stories," she adds. "Most tell me how they used to squabble all the time but became friends when they grew up and moved out of the family home."

Ros and Verity live together, and Lisa believes two women who would also make interesting flatmates are her past and present characters.

"If Maggie met Ros, I think she's have a fabulous time!" Lisa believes. "Ros would be the girl at school who does the dares! She's more carefree than Maggie and not a worrier.

"It's funny how chaotic Ros is, as I'm a bit uptight in real life. I'm really clean and Ros is really messy."

Lisa is delighted to be back at the Seven Network filming TV drama. She reveals that the two-and-a-half-year hiatus between Maggie's death in Blue Heelers and Ros's appearance in Marshall Law was a deliberate ploy.

"I loved Blue Heelers so much! It was a great training ground, but it was all-consuming," she confesses. "To do another regular TV series sooner would have been wrong."

During her time away, she starred in the Australian production of the stage classic The Sound of Music, filmed the acclaimed miniseries The Potato Factory and gave birth to her first child, a son named Archer, in May, 2001.

Lisa can't wait for the response of the public to Marshall Law.

"I always attack a project the same way—I give it my all," she says. "Maybe Blue Heelers was a freak. It's done so well for so many years, and people took it into their hearts. I hope Marshall Law does that, but in a different way.

"In a TV environment where there is a lot of drama, Marshall Lay is a little bent. If the TV guide is like a menu, it's the offering that's having a chuckle!"

By Kelly Robinson
July 2002
TV Week