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Lisa finds her sea legs
By LCDR Antony Underwood
Volume 50, No. 12, July 12, 2007 |
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| IN CHARACTER: Lisa McCune looks the part as LEUT Kate McGregor in Sea Patrol. “I’m able to crack out an order when required,” she said. |
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Lisa McCune doesn’t claim to be a good sailor – but she’s getting better.
Star of the new Nine Network drama series, Sea Patrol, Lisa said she was “in awe” of the roles and responsibility the Navy assumes to protect Australia’s maritime borders.
Fresh from four months shooting of the series at Mission Beach (on the Queensland coast between Tully and Innisfail), Cairns and the Gold Coast, she look relaxed in civvies, including a cherry-red blouse, on board HMAS Sydney at Fleet Base East on June 26.
“I’ve had uniform people around me all the time and they made the transition to Naval uniform a lot easier,” she said. “And when I’m in the role, I find I’m able to crack out an order when it’s required.”
Lisa has found a profound difference in wearing a police uniform, as she did in the popular police series Blue Heelers. “You can really see the need for a chain of command when you’re at sea,” she said.
“I’ve spent quite a lot of time in uniform and now, when I pass someone in Navy uniform in the street, I feel as though I should be saluting.”
Lisa said that she and other members of the cast had had to endure some rough weather on occasions during the shooting of the seagoing scenes. At one stage, she said, the boat in which they were shooting the series had to be relocated from Mission Beach to nearer to Cairns.
“I really do have a better appreciation of all the things the Navy does and a great respect for the way Navy people work. “I think the people on board know it’s highly important work.”
Before a screening of “some of the more exciting bits” on the flight deck of Sydney, Channel Nine’s Executive Director Jeffrey Browne addressed the Commander Australian Fleet RADM Davyd Thomas and CO of Sydney, CMDR Guy Holthouse, ship’s company and media present for the launch.
“This is the biggest and best drama production for the Nine Network,” Mr Browne said. “I want to thank the Navy and congratulate them.”
He said the 13-part series had cost $15 million to make.
Nine Network had committed to making Series 2 of Sea Patrol before the first episode of Series 1 had gone to air. “We’re thrilled at Nine to be able to assemble a small cast as good as this for this series to bring something of Navy life into the lounge rooms of Australia. I hope you enjoy it every week.”
Mr Browne went on to thank the producers, Hal and Di McElroy, whose previous credits include Return to Eden and the police series, Blue Heelers and Water Rats.
Mrs McElroy said she and her husband had first envisaged the new series while holidaying in Darwin about four years ago. “We were driving around the Naval base,” she said.
Mr McElroy said he and his wife had put the proposal to the (then) Chief of Navy, VADM Chris Ritchie.
“He was immediately supportive,” he said, “and suggested a patrol boat crew – we wanted to focus on a small family and the (Fremantle class) boat we used was 44 metres long and had a ship’s company of 24. The new (Armidale class) boats are about 55 metres long and have a similar complement.”
Mr McElroy said he and Mrs McElroy had interviewed literally hundreds of Navy people before casting.
“Their interest in helping and devotion to duty became immediately apparent,” he said, “and creation of characters became a really exciting voyage of discovery – the charge and the buffer were obvious and really strong characters.
“There is a strong moral compass in everything the Navy does. The Navy has seen that the events depicted are accurately portrayed and, indeed, most are based on actual happenings.”
Mr McElroy said the production required that all external action scenes for the 13-part series be shot over a seven week period and internal scenes in a set configured as the interior of a Fremantle boat. “We shifted a crew of 60 people and six tonnes of equipment on and off boats in open water every single day. Amazingly, there was no loss of equipment, no injuries and no one died.
“Our actions were helped by the fact that we worked alongside a full Navy crew for the experience.”
Mrs McElroy described the cast as “the best ever assembled”.
Review – see 'Promising start for Sea Patrol' feature.
CAST OF SEA PATROL |
Ian Stenlake
Lisa McCune
Saskia Burmeister
Matthew Holmes
Jeremy Lindsay Taylor
John Batchelor
Kristian Schmid
David Lyons
Josh Lawson
Jay Ryan (Bunyan)
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LCDR Mike Flynn
Lieutenant Kate McGregor
Lieutenant Nikki Caetano
Petty Officer Chris Blake
PO Bosun Pete “Buffer” Tomaszewski
CPO Andy “Charge” Thorpe
AB Communicator Robert Dixon
LS Josh “ET” Holliday
AB Cook Toby “Chefo” Jones
AB Billy “Spider” Webb |
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