Sunday Mail
22nd June 2008

Sea Patrol II’s raunchy storylines are attracting attention, and viewers.

Channel Nine’s Sea Patrol II is steaming ahead.

Ratings soared after reports that the Royal Australian Navy was not impressed with the relationship dramas and love boat storylines portrayed on the patrol vessel.

The action drama won its timeslot in the first week of this month with almost 1.5 million viewers, thanks largely to a love triangle and unresolved sexual tension.

In recent storylines, Nikki Caetano (Saskia Burmeister) was sexually harassed and blackmailed over her secret affair with colleague Josh Holliday (David Lyons).

Captain Mike Flynn’s (Ian Stenlake) lingering attachment to old flame and executive officer Kate McGregor (Lisa McCune) has been the centre of attention, and the ship’s cook appears to be developing an interest in a radio officer.

Tomorrow sees the new commanding officer humiliate Kate and risk the safety of the boat. Mike suspects Ray Walsman is involved in the murder of a Russian mercenary.

Queensland actor John Batchelor, who plays Chief Petty Officer Andy Thorpe, says the sexy storylines, similar to those in ratings-winner Underbelly, saw viewers tune in to see what the fuss was all about.

“All publicity, we believe, is good publicity. The good thing for us is that we keep people’s interest.”

Batchelor, 38, says Sea Patrol is a long way from chasing Melbourne gangsters, a la Underbelly.

The Australian Maritime drama, set on fictional Royal Australian Navy Armidale class patrol boat HMAS Hammersley, was filmed around the islands in northern Queensland and at Warner Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast.

Batchelor says that life at sea is much more complicated than people might realise.

“You don’t understand what it’s like until you’re in there doing the job. You can tell people about it but it’s not until you’re out to sea with no land around you that you go, ‘This is daunting’.”

The Sydney-based actor says the show does not neglect serious military issues such as intercepting illegal fishing vessels and weapons training.

“We don’t do anything that hasn’t been approved as far as regulations go.

“The technical advisers from the navy have all been amazing. They were keen to make sure that what we said wasn’t going to be interpreted as boring navy-speak, and so they came to the party of making compelling TV while staying as true as possible to the Royal Australian Navy.

“For the sake of drama, no one is going to understand navy lingo and that’s the advisers telling us that, and the writers are going, ‘Really?’

“As far as the producers go, drama is what happens first. It’s the number one priority. They try to stick with navy guidelines as best they can but they are not making a documentary series. People realise that.

“Television shows about the forces or any institution whether it be the army, air force, navy, police, ambulance, or fire (brigades), will always receive criticism. All Saints is not a medical documentary series and City Homicide is not a police documentary series.

“People who always produce drama always cop that flack.”

Batchelor recently spent time in Hervey Bay to star in Subdivision, a film about a small town’s fate when developers come from the south.

By Scott Ellis
Sydney Morning Hearld
May 12, 2008

It’s a tricky business when TV dramas stray into real-world politics.

Push one side or the other of a particular agenda and you’re bound to polarise the audience.

But when the drama is Sea Patrol and the subject is how the Royal Australian Navy would react if a coup threatened stability in our region, there’s just no avoiding it.

Like it or not, said series star David Lyons, reacting to threats from our backyard is what the Australian Navy does and if the series ignored that it just wouldn’t be believable.

“It’s good to see them [the writers] getting pseudo-political about things,” he said.

“The coup is not necessarily meant to be a reference to any other particular country but it’s a good story to see because this is what the Australian Navy does.

“Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing is a person’s own opinion – and I’m certainly not going to push my opinion on that – but I think it is really important that those aspects of what the navy does are shown.”

At the very least, he said, throwing the action of Sea Patrol into the middle of a Pacific coup gives huge scope for the more human drama to come to the fore.

“It’s been great for the series to have something like that, it’s such a massive storyline,” Lyons said. “It really gives much more room for all the characters to develop.”

For Lyons’s character Leading Seaman Josh Holliday that means exploring another hot topic in the navy – what happens when crew members fall in love.

“The main story for Josh this season is his relationship with the ship’s navigator [Lieutenant Nikki Caetano, played by Saskia Burmeister] and the difficulties caused by the fact protocol says you can’t actually have a relationship,” Lyons said.

“It’s a really interesting one to play because there’s only so much that is allowed to be said or done between the two. It’s a very clandestine approach to a relationship and one which plays off both of their fears of being caught.”

Rest assured it will all be resolved, Lyons said, but possibly not in the way that people expect.

“What inevitably will happen as the series progresses is that both characters will be put in some difficult circumstances outside that relationship that will help to galvanise their feelings for each other and decide why they can or can’t be together,” he said.

“It’s going to be a very interesting trip getting them to that point.”

Sea Patrol, Nine, Monday, 8.30pm.