australian television information archive

McCune wants to rock the boat

SUITED up in her Navy jumpsuit, Sea Patrol's leading lady Lisa McCune eagerly awaited her piece of the action on a sandy stretch of The Spit yesterday.

And action is exactly what the Aussie actress has been longing for after her recent stint as the Coles supermarket poster girl.

"It's an opportunity to take on a physically demanding character. It's got strong action and a strong storyline," she said.

McCune, who has been doing her own stunts for the new TV series, is best known for her role on the hit TV drama Blue Heelers as police officer Maggie Doyle.

"I like working in uniforms. It informs your character so much and you don't have to worry about costume changes," she said.

McCune said she had a lot of respect for Sea Patrol's producers, Hal and Di McElroy, for their determination to continue making Australian dramas.

"I think people will be blown away by this show," she said.

"Seeing characters in extremes is really exciting. It's so far removed from everyday life and it will give people escapism from their own dramas for an hour."

McCune said her character was a career girl.

"She's very navy. She sees herself as being a captain of a big ship and has gone on the patrol to learn, but she gets put under her ex-partner," said McCune.

"That kind of fraternisation can't happen. It's similar to Blue Heelers when we were representing the Victorian Police.

"We're doing the same with the Australian Navy. We have to have a huge amount of respect for them.

"I don't want to be transferred off the boat."

Hal McElroy said action-dramas had been absent on Australian screens because they were difficult, dangerous and expensive.

The first series of Sea Patrol will cost $15 million, a budget usually reserved for American shows.

"Action gives you a point of difference. We have action at sea with smugglers, gun fights and warships," he said.

McElroy said each episode was a self-contained story, but an over-arching mystery would be revealed in the final episode.

"We're raising issues of illegal immigration and refugees; the issues that divide the community," he said. "The question of border security is vitally important to Australia and the world."

The television series will be sold internationally.

Former Heartbreak High heart-throb Jeremy Lindsay Taylor was also on set yesterday playing his character, the 'buffer'.

"It's a dream role. I'm the captain's right-hand man ... the action man in charge of making sure McCune and everyone else is OK," he said.

"This is a big role for me. I'm extremely proud of this show, I don't think the country has seen anything like it.

"Australian audiences are ready for shows of substance rather than watching a water feature being erected or 10 idiots in a house being filmed."

February 16, 2007
The Gold Coast Bulletin