TIFFANY FOX, The West Australian
April 22, 2010

Deciding what to watch in the evening can be a bit like selecting a meal from a restaurant menu – sometimes our tastebuds feel like a special, gourmet experience and other times we just have a hankering for mum’s home cooking.

Sea Patrol star Lisa McCune has no illusions as to which category the high-seas action adventure fits in to.

Now in its fourth season, the series follows the fortunes of the small navy patrol boat, HMAS Hammersley, and its crew as they take on people smugglers, terrorists and drugs off Australia’s coastline.

Honesty, integrity, honour, courage and loyalty are the crew’s watchwords, as they race around the ocean and round up the bad guys.

It is fast-paced, family-friendly Australian television that has attracted its fair share of detractors over the years but McCune says Sea Patrol’s broad appeal should not be seen as a bad thing.

“I think we can get kind of highbrow about our film and our television and sometimes we just want to eat mashed potatoes,” McCune says.

“There are a few dead bodies but you are not looking at anything challenging, you can get up during the commercial breaks and you can watch it with your family. We don’t need a delicacy all the time.”

Audiences obviously agree. The first three seasons drew an average audience of more than 1.3 million viewers nationally per episode and the new series has been extended to 16 episodes, up from the usual 13 of previous years.

Filming can be a hard slog for the cast and crew, who have to spend up to five months on set and weeks at a time on the boat but for McCune the role of coolly professional Lt Kate “XO” McGregor was too good to let go.

“I love it because as a woman in my 30s I was not being put in the kitchen and being made a mother, I was out on the high seas and being put in charge of a crack team of navy guys,” she says.

While she is reluctant to give any plot twists away, McCune says some turbulent romance is on the horizon for HMAS Hammersley’s tough executive officer.

“The last series was interesting because we wanted to focus on the navy side of this and we missed out on the character’s personal development because she was always on the boat,” she says.

“But there is more of that this year, which is terrific because I really like playing that. This series we start talking about women in the navy and when they are starting to make a choice between making a life as a mother or a wife, or whether or not they want to have a career.

“Sea Patrol has a huge teenage boy following, so it is interesting to deal with a character like that who is asking those questions.”

Former cast mate Martin Sacks will also make a guest appearance in a move sure to delight fans of the duo’s Blue Heelers’ characters PJ and Maggie. McCune says the series will move away from the overarching story-lines it has focused on in the past in favour of more stand-alone episodes. The shift in focus will be a test for fans used to the action-driven story-lines but McCune hopes the characters will continue to strike enough of a chord with audiences to see the series come back for a fifth season.

In the meantime, she is working with the Melbourne Theatre Company and spending some time learning how things work behind the camera with the hope of branching out as a producer

“With drama, particularly when you are only making a certain number of episodes a year, you just wait until you see how they are going before you dive in again,” she says.

Sea Patrol airs today at 8.30pm on Nine and 9pm on WIN.

By David Knox (TVTonight.com.au)
April 15, 2010

When it comes to promoting Sea Patrol, Lisa McCune could almost be photographed at the front of the HMAS Hammersley in a style used for the movie Titanic. Such is her enthusiasm for making Australian drama, and such is the reliance of the network on her star-power to propel the series.

But McCune, who studied as a teenager at the WA Academy of Performing Arts, is defiant in championing the industry and it is her true spirit that has connected her with audiences since becoming a star on Blue Heelers.

She understands her appeal meets a broad demographic, equally as much as she understands footage for promotional campaigns will make the most of her popularity.
“When the Channel Nine Marketing Department get it my face is up the front and I get that,” she tells TV Tonight. “That’s just what happens when you market a show.

“But on a day to day shooting basis I’m there all day most days, and I can’t make that show without the other nine actors or the crew or the brilliant guest actors we have.

“I’m not in it for personal glory. I would have taken my career in a different lurch if I had wanted that. I like working as part of the team.”
McCune says she accepted Hal McElroy’s invitation to join the series at a time when Australian drama needed endorsing.

“I was really insistent on it being an ensemble piece,” she says. “The star of the show is the boat and the navy. And the great thing about the show that keeps it rolling on is that in navy life, characters do transfer on and off boats. So this character could be transferred off and the show still keeps running. So I guess I felt really strongly that it would be a company show.

“I think there’s a real danger about a show being based around one person too much, unless it’s like a Halifax-style show where the show is about that person.
“We’re all in it together, the main cast, and we’ve got a really strong guest cast as well.”

The fourth series has 16 episodes, 3 more than previous years. The first series had FFC miniseries funding which required an ongoing storyline arc. But at 16 episodes this approach has been more challenging to sustain. According to McCune, the end result is more focus on characters, to the benefit of the finished product.

“I think our character development hasn’t been as strong before as this series,” she says. “We see the personalities and the light so much more this time around.”

At the McCune acknowledges that Sea Patrol is a broadly-appealing commercial work, which aims to draw Australians families to Australian drama. As she accelerates her own interest in production, she has also engaged in discussions with Producer Hal McElroy on scripts.

“I said to him ‘I think sometimes it’s a little bit obvious.’ And he’s really smart, he said, ‘This time of night when the family is pretty busy, you just sometimes have to explain a little bit more when the audience is younger.’

“Interestingly too on the flip side of that, our televisions are becoming bigger. And the bigger they become sometimes the less we need to say because it becomes almost filmic.

“I’ve got a family here, and they’re a little bit young, but at 7:30 they’re watching something that’s a little bit more obvious. You haven’t the focus completely of someone who’s just sitting down to watch television,” she says.

“I think for adult drama we’ll have to say less and show more. Which is kind of scary because it’s digital now so when you’re seeing it close you’re seeing it really raw.”

McCune is already pursuing interest in becoming a Producer, developing a project with writers Tony Morphett and Gus Howard. Children’s producer Jonathan Schiff is also mentoring her on another project.

“Now that I’m a bit older and confident I’m a bit more willing to take a risk. I’ve optioned a book, and there’s a play that I’d like to option. I’ve got a lot of people who are giving me good advice. No matter what comes of it, it adds to my sensibilities as an actor to know what goes on on the other side of the camera,” she says.

Such passion for Australian drama even extends to ideas on programming. McCune isn’t at all surprised to see shows like Underbelly pulling big audiences following the end of Daylight Saving.

“When it’s Daylight Saving I can’t get my kids into bed before 9. I look forward to the day when we have a 7pm news bulletin and we can start producing drama from 8 to 9 and then 9 to 10pm. And I think that will help solve the Daylight Saving problem that we have for 6 months of the year, for those states that have it,” she suggests.

“There’s no way I can see a 6pm News. 7pm would be great for me. I know you’ve got it on the ABC, but I think programming on the hour would be great because at the moment when you see a 9:30 drama it doesn’t end until 10:30, but they bleed it over until 20 to 11. So from 8 to 9 and 9 to 10 you can still be in bed by 10 and see a good bit of drama.”

As for the future of Sea Patrol, to which she is clearly pivotal, McCune says its destiny lays with viewers.

“Ultimately something has to work on commercial television. I’m a strong believer that things can artistically work as well as commercially work. Perception is very important. I just hope when people review Sea Patrol, ie. journalists, that they review it as someone with a broad demographic rather than saying ‘I love this kind of television, or that kind of television.’ Sea Patrol is family viewing.

“But at the end of the day the audience decides. They are the power in television and we have to remember that. If they want more Sea Patrol then they’ll watch and we’ll make more,” she says.

“I don’t believe television is dead. We have a strong industry and there’s a lot being made at the moment. It’s very exciting.”

Sea Patrol airs 8:30pm Thursdays on Nine.

Show Swap
TV WEEK
25 August 2009

With Sea Patrol docked until next season, Kristian Schmid took time to appear in this week’s episode of Packed to the Rafters.

Kristian plays a cerebral palsy-sufferer – and brother of new Rafter’s hunk, Jake (James Stewart).

“I wanted to be sure that I got it as right as I possibly could, so I spent some time at the Spastic Centre and talked to a lot of people with cerebral palsy,” Kristian tells TV Week.

“It’s terrifying taking on a role like this because there’s also the danger of offending people. I’ll be giving the guys at the Spastic Centre a call to make sure that they were happy with what I did.”

Kristian Schmid on Rafters

David Knox
TV Tonight
26 August 2009

There are quite a few stars popping up on different networks at the moment.

Next week we’ll see Kerri-Anne Kennerley’s appearance on Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation.

An hour later Sea Patrol’s Kristian Schmid has a role in Packed to the Rafters, as the brother of Jake (James Stewart).

“I’m playing a character with Cerebral Palsy and he is the brother of Rachel’s boyfriend,” he told TV Tonight. “It brings up a whole lot of ‘how am I going to deal with this?’ subjects.”

“The cast are really friendly, as are the crew, and they make the guest artist feel very welcome, so I’ve been having a ball.

“It’s really got some fantastic writing on it as well, which makes my job a lot easier.”

It airs 8:30pm Tuesday on Seven.

Temporary Rafter

Daily Telegraph
31 August 2009

SEA Patrol’s Kristian Schmid recently returned to civvies to film a six-part guest role for Seven’s Packed To The Rafters from this week (Tuesday, 8.30pm).
Schmid debuts as Jake’s (James Stewart) brother Alex, who suffers from cerebral palsy.

“The function of the character is not just to explore what it’s like to have cerebral palsy but to show how it affects the people around him,” Schmid explains.

“It raises questions for Jess Marais’ character (who is seeing Jake) and how she deals with it.”

While Sea Patrol actors Jay Ryan, Jeremy Lindsay Taylor and Saskia Burmeister have left the series, Schmid confirms that he will set sail on the program’s next voyage, which starts filming in and around Mission Beach this month.

Sunday Telegraph
September 2009

Closer – Vanessa Santer talks about the old days with Kristian Schmid.

Many remember him as Tod from Neighbours, but Kristian Schmid is all grown up and set to join another of TV’s most popular families. He joins the cast of Packed to the Rafters tonight as a guest role.

Q Are you on set at the moment?
No. I’m at the park with my son. We’re having a nice day together. I’m about to start work on Sea Patrol (where he has a recurrent role) in September. We film in far north Queensland. I take my family with me, but we’re in Sydney otherwise.

Q You had such an iconic role on Neighbours. Do you still get recognised as Todd?
It’s a strange one. Yes I do, but also Neighbours was associated at the time with growing up and was a really positive time in life for people. So I get a lot of “did I go to school with you?” or “did you go to this whatever?” Sometimes I say yeah, sometimes I say no, it depends on what sort of mood I’m in.

Q Yours was surely one of the best deaths ever on a soap opera. Was it a good way to gout of Neighbours?
It was very traumatic for many people. Being hit by a van is pretty good – it’d have to be up there.

Q Were you a fan of Packed to the Rafters before scoring the role?
Yeah, I think it’s a great show. I watched the first series and there are very talented people working on the show. To be honest, I’m a big fan of all the new Australian dramas. I think they’ve cast it (Rafters) really well with people who like working with each other, so there’s a bit of magic there and it’s really good writing. It looks at interesting issues without getting too heavy and dark.

Q You play a character with cerebral palsy in Packed. How challenging was that?
Look, it’s interesting because normally you’re just focused on the acting and hitting the right emotional keys, but when you’re playing someone with any sort of disability or physical trait there’s something else to think about. After talking to people with CP, it’s about muscle spasms that you don’t have a lot of control over. I’m generalising, but usually they have to concentrate extremely hard to control any twitches. There are so many things going on you get a similar look of concentration.

Q Why acting?
It changes all the time, but the easy answer is because I can. I truly like telling stories and there’s an element of me that likes to be the centre of attention. And it’s a great that as a male you get to embrace a lot of the emotional side of your like that some others may hide away. I get to play for a living. I don’t consider it work; I really enjoy what I do. When I’m doing 14-hour days that’s something to rejoice in.

TV Week
15 August 2009

SEA PATROL’S MASS EXODUS
Last week we promised a Sea Patrol scoop – now we have three! Jeremy Lindsay Taylor (Buffer), Saskia Burmeister (Nav) and Jay Ryan (Spider) have all elected to sign off from active duty and won’t be around when season four of the naval drama hits our screens next year.
The shows’ creators released the news after Jeremy told reporters, including TV WEEK, that he had quit the show. And they admitted that despite knowing that Saskia was leaving early on, Jeremy and Jay’s exits came as more of a surprise. “We were able to make a brief reference to Nav moving on, but by the time Jeremy and Jay told us they wanted to leave, we’d already written and were shooting series three- so we couldn’t create storylines just for their departure,” they explain.
While their characters will be missed when the Hammersley returns to the seas, the show’s creators are confident that fans won’t stay upset for long.
“We’ve come up with some wonderful stories for next year – and some really exciting and intriguing new characters,” they promise. “There will be 16 episodes [up from 13], so there will be heaps to enjoy.”
Stay tuned for updates on what’s next for Jay, Saskia and Jeremy – and to see which new faces will appear when Sea Patrol returns.

JEREMY’S LA PLANS
Speaking exclusively to TV WEEK when we dropped by to visit his acting workshop from teens, Jeremy revealed the reason he left Sea Patrol was to finally try his luck in LA.
Jeremy plans to launch his assault on Hollywood early next year, after heading over to LA next month to meet with agents.
“I think I’m ready now,” he reveals. “I love telling Australian stories – I’ve had a great run and hope to continue having a great run in this country – but I’ve got to expand that now.”
Jeremy’s also filmed a guest role on Rescue Special Ops and has been teaching acting at Sydney drama school Screenwise all year. He reveals that if he hadn’t made it as an actor, he’d have pursued a career as a drama teacher.
“I always wanted to teach,” he says. “I want to be a director too, and courses like these are the best training to work with actors.”

Phil Brown
Brisbane News
15 July 2009
Sea Patrol star Ian Stenlake finds himself back where he began for Bille Brown’s latest production
When Ian Stenlake was 20 years old he arrived back in Brisbane from an overseas trip with a brainwave.
He would become an actor. His parents weren’t convinced. “They said, ‘That’s nice, son, but you get your degree first and then you can do whatever you want,’” Ian recalls. “So I went to UQ [University of Queensland] to study commerce-law and while I was there I started acting and that was it for me.” Now Ian, 40, who plays Lieutenant Commander Mike Flynn in the hit television series Sea Patrol on Channel Nine, is back in the city where it all began. He has a part in what promises to be the feelgood play of 2009 – Queensland Theatre Company’s production of Bille Brown’s The School of Arts. Brown, aka The Boy from Biloela, is a Queensland icon and this play is about a troupe of travelling players. It’s a farce, a whodunnit and a serious drama as well, set against the backdrop of the 1967 referendum to include Aborigines in the national census.
The storyline involves a production of Hamlet which runs into trouble when star of the show Byron Savage (Brown) decides to modernise Shakespeare’s classic, using live ammunition on stage with disastrous results. Bille Brown makes no bones about the fact that there are strong autobiographical elements.
“I’ve drawn from my personal history as well as Queensland’s,” Bille explains. “Growing up in Biloela in central Queensland, I recall seeing a travelling troupe of actors that included my friend and fellow actor Geoffrey Rush, who toured around the state with Bryan Nason’s Grin & Tonic Theatre Troupe. I thought a comic yarn about those days would be the best way to celebrate the company I’ve kept and the state I’m in.” The play is QTC’s Q150 event and Ian Stenlake says he’s thrilled to be in it.
“It’s great to be back where it all started for me,” Ian says.
“When I came back to Brisbane and had my epiphany that I wanted to be an actor, I went and auditioned for a part in ToadShow’s 1991 rock musical Phantoad of the Opera. I was one of 50 dancing pirates but it was a start and it immersed me in the scene here. My career just snowballed from there.” Ian’s talents were obvious and he soon began getting varied roles, eventually as a leading man.
His stage and screen resume is impressive. He has a reputation as a song and dance man and has starred in Oklahoma! and Cabaret, among other musicals and is married to another musical star, Rachael Beck (Les Miserables, Cats, Beauty and the Beast). The couple have two children, Tahlula, 2, and Roxie, six months.
In The School of Arts Ian plays Catholic priest Mike Walsh, which seems an appropriate role for the son of a preacher man.
Ian was born in Barcaldine, where his father was the local Methodist minister. Later the family moved to Dalby, Mackay and, eventually, Brisbane where Ian went to Kenmore State School, Brisbane Boys’ College and Indooroopilly State High School.
“Just being a preacher’s son doesn’t qualify you to play a Catholic priest,” Ian says, laughing. “But it might help a bit. I did manage to talk to a couple of dad’s Catholic friends when I was preparing for the role.” His own experiences in country Queensland probably help more.
“The play evokes heaps of memories for me,” Ian says. “Bille has captured the spirit of the country town school of arts halls that I remember from the towns I lived in when I was a boy.” It was in those halls that Ian did his first performing, karaoke to a small cassette player, although back then he had no inkling that he would ever be making a living from singing, dancing and acting. That came later, after the epiphany he talks about. And now he’s back where it all began.
“Acting just found me,” Ian says. “And it happened here.” The School of Arts , until Aug 1, Playhouse, QPAC, from $30, ph: 136 246.