The Sydney Morning Herald
The Guide
July 10-17 2011

After five seasons, acclaimed Channel Nine drama Sea Patrol has come to an explosive end.

As the “real life” commanding officer of the first HMAS Hammersley (the former Fremantle class patrol boat HMAS Ipswich), I was at the first day of filming off Dunk Island in far north Queensland. The actors and crew arrived on that overcast, choppy day, unprepared for filming on board. Some of Australia’s finest actors were literally thrown in the deep end. If you look back at the first episode, you will appreciate how these actors have grown into credible mariners. At first, they didn’t know their ports from their starboards but now they could hold their own in any exchange of navy speak. They spent hours working with their counterparts to get their characters right.

The production team arrived with their vast array of technical equipment only to find there is only so much room on board an operational naval vessel.

The frustration when neither I, nor Mother Nature, could give them the right amount of light or wind was always a fun discussion. Director: “Captain, can you please come left a bit so we can get the right light over the back of the boat?” Captain: “I can alter course to port but the rock may foul our propellers.” Director: “I’m confused, you can’t come left?”

But despite the initial challenges, the production teams became more proficient at operating within these limits and produced an amazing product. The storyline was, at times, a little on the edge of belief for navy personnel but that’s to be expected. When ribbed by my colleagues, I had to remind them this was drama, not a training video.

The day-to-day activities of the Hammersley are not what we would consider a standard day at sea (the paperwork alone would keep the crew occupied for months). While the navy is trained to face the challenges the Hammersley crew faced on a regular basis, thankfully the reality rarely comes to pass.

While it was sad to see HMAS Hammersley sail into the sunset, hopefully Commander Flynn or Lieutenant McGregor might return to our screens one day on one of the navy’s Offshore Combatant Vessels of perhaps even a Collins class submarine.

Commander Darren Grogan was commanding officer of the Royal Australian Navy’s HMAS Ipswich during filming of the first series of Sea Patrol. He is now military adviser to the Chief of Joint Operations at Headquarters Joint Operations Command in Bungendore.

Soap World Article
July 2011

The image of Lisa McCune, Aussie TV’s favourite sweetheart, has undergone something of a shake-up in recent months, and the leading lady admits the timing has been perfect.

While Lisa continues to be seen as Lieutenant Kate McGregor on Sea Patrol, now screening in its final season she admits the end of the series after five years and the arrival of a variety of projects have marked a dramatic new direction in her life.

Within days of completing filming on Sea Patrol, Lisa had donned legal robes and was playing Crown Prosecutor Margaret Cunneen in the new true crime telemovie, Blood Brothers. Once work on the movie was over, Lisa then returned home to Melbourne to launch her first cook book, Hopscotch and Honey Joys.

But it was the end of last year on Rake, playing a ruthless mother who would go to any lengths – and into any bedroom – in order to sway her daughter’s court case that the image of the TV sweetheart had begun to change.

“And it is a nice change too,” McCune says. “I am having such a good time with this work. I am at a point where I want work that gets under my skin, I want to do things that really get to me, and I want to do things where I know I can learn.

“It is so good when you go back to square one and see what this experience willteach me and how it will challenge me. I have been doing TV drama for so long now, and so when you get comfortable with that, it is nice to take on something to see what else you can do. That is what I want at this point.”

In the meantime, her work in front of the Sea Patrol cameras over recent months is being played out as she brings the tale of Kate McGregor to a conclusion.

The romance of Kate and Mike (Ian Stenlake) has been sent off course – yet again – with Mike’s transfer back on to the Hammersley. But this could prove to be the breaking point for Kate. “If this was a friend of mine, I would tell her to get off the ship and get away from him – I think their time has passed and it has all been one big missed opportunity,” McCune says.

“She is still very much in love with him, but because of the love of a man, it has held her back. It is time for her to move forward with what she wants in life.” that time could be just ahead with the arrival of her former flame, Jim Roth (Ditch Davey) back on the Hammersley. The years apart between the once-hot couple has only added heat to the sparks between them.

“He is so cute and he really digs her,” McCune says. “Kate is so delighted by Jim, and he is so great in every way. The nice thing about Jim is he is passionate and impulsive, whereas Mike is always dragging the chain.

“Kate is swept away by Jim, but she has to shake off her feelings about Mike first. So it is crunch time for all of them. The thing is, she falls very much in love with Jim, and the thing is, she knows he will bring her real happiness.”

The high-octane action of Sea Patrol has always demanded strength and physical ability, so it was the opportunity to play a woman taking on the legal system that appealed to Lisa with the telemovie Blood Brothers.

“Sea Patrol has always been so physical, and this was a mental challenge – I had these great long courtroom sequences to learn, and that scared me – but that is why I wanted to take them on and see what I could do with them.

Sometimes, a reputation can be dangerous thing – and Dutchy certainly has one hell of a reputation to live up to. The Petty Officer on the Hammersley is handsome, charming, intelligent and successful, and has a way with women that earned him a notorious reputation in every quarter of the Australian Navy. But that reputation is about to catch up with Dutchy (Conrad Coleby) in both his professional and personal life, thanks to Navcom officer Madelaine Cruise (Renai Caruso). She has heard all about Dutchy and his activities both on and off the ship, and she makes it clear – he is in her target. Madelaine makes no secret that she is unimpressed by what she has heard, on upcoming eps of Sea Patrol, and believes the naval officer is a threat to national security. But away from the ship, Dutchy quickly realises he is a target of a very different kind with Madelaine. Her sexy approach and seductive come-on leaves nothing to the imagination!

Dutchy is stunned by Madelaine’s hot and cold behaviour. He is incensed by her bold professional attacks on his character, but the truth is, he also finds her dangerously attractive. “There is such frfriction around them, and there is so much to-ing and fro-ing, and he really has no idea what is going on,” Conrad Coleby says from the Sea Patrol set. “Every way he turns, he finds nothing but confusion when it comes to this women. There is a real trust issue for both of them in everything that they do. He eventually has to stop and ask why she is being so difficult towards him?”

But the fractured relations between the pair reach an unusual new level when Mike (Ian Stenlake) instructs Dutchy to attend a meeting with Madelaine in her hotel room. From the moment she opens the door, it is very clear Madelaine has something on her mind, and it is nothing to do with the Hammersley crew’s latest mission. Every word she says and every look she gives him lets Dutchy know their relationship is about to enter a much more physical and very sexy new chapter – and he falls for it. But just as things are about to get very hot and steamy, Madelaine receives a top secret message from navy headquarters about an undercover mission, which is about to turn into a disaster.

Wanting to impress Madelaine and win her respect, he volunteers for the dangerous task of going undercover in a terrorist cell. But this could turn out to be the most dangerous decision of his life, as he will later wonder whether she was setting him up all along. “Madelaine thinks he can not be trusted, and she also accusses him of being indiscreet,” Coleby adds. “So he puts himself on the line to prove himself, but Dutchy soon realises she has sent him into real danger and his life is on the line – and there is much more to this than he was lead to believe. He soon discovers she has not done all she can do to protect him when he is on the job. So he wonders if that is just a very bad mistake, or if she was using him all along?”

The standoff and double dealing between the pair will take them into a dangerours territory – both of the work variety, as well as the human heart. But the sexual tension between the pair will continue to simmer until it reaches a boiling point, which could end up burning both of them. It will be another dangerous mission, however, that will change the dynamic between the star-crossed lovers. Dutchy will once again be forced to wonder if she has put his life on the line all in the name of getting the job done. But just when he is certain of his suspicions, Madelaine has another revelation involving a brutal murder that will drop an even more explosive bombshell on their fledgling affair. “This all comes out of trust, and that is one of the things I love about Dutchy – there is always some mystery to him,” Coleby says. ” You still have no idea what he is feeling half the time, and what he does tell, he tells in his own time.”

By Ara Jansen
The West Australian
April 26, 2011

As the crew of the HMAS Hammersley pull packages from the choppy ocean water, helmets come off to the dazzling grin of Capt. Jim Roth.

The SAS team has arrived because something big is brewing and after tonight’s return episode of Sea Patrol you’ll realise they’ve come out blazing for Damage Control, the series’ fifth and final season. The drama quotient is already high and there’s the frisson of something else hiding just below the surface.

This season the special-forces team will work alongside the Hammersley crew in their efforts to defeat a terrorist ring which, of course, brings the action close to home.

Capt. Roth is played by recurring guest Ditch Davey, whose character was last seen in season two when he also became a love interest for Lisa McCune’s Kate, aka XO. Back on the boat working in such close quarters rekindles Jim’s feelings for Kate and there’s every indication he won’t let her get away a second time.

“What’s great about this series for me is that my character is already established and this time he has come with a job to do,” says Davey, a WAAPA graduate, from his home in Melbourne.

“I’m not just there to sweep Kate off her feet. Jim comes back with his own job to do, so it’s not just a love storyline.”

Playing policemen and special-forces operatives, at least for the moment, has become Davey’s thing. He became a household name during six seasons in Blue Heelers and more recently in the Underbelly telemovie Tell Them Lucifer Was Here, as well as All Saints and Wilfred.

The 39-year-old says he has become comfortable on screen in uniform and the action aspect is very much part of Davey’s own character. He is also in the best physical shape of his life, which he is definitely not complaining about.

“I have a large amount of respect for being in uniform on screen. In acting, we’re playing up to everyone’s expectations of what a uniform represents. You have to be able to play the part convincingly but also do the uniform justice for the men and women who protect us and do it every day. I’m very proud to do that.”

Davey is also shooting an Australian action movie called Crawlspace at Melbourne’s Dockland studios – where he again plays a man in uniform – before moving on to another local feature called John Doe.

“No whinging here,” says Davey, who has also just celebrated the birth of his first son. “With Sea Patrol, I’ve never had the time commitment of the regulars. You last saw me in series two, so I don’t have half my year taken up with the show like they do.

“I’ve enjoyed watching a little from the outside and seeing how the show has grown, how the actors have grown with it and how the storylines have knitted together and become stronger and thicker. I’ve liked the journey they’ve had and the cast have been phenomenal to work with.

“I finish the storyline I started but it’s not the conclusion you would expect on a primetime show. They don’t wrap it up in a bow which I really liked. I think they were really brave.”

Sea Patrol: Damage Control returns tonight at 8.30 on Nine and WIN.

By Geoff Shearer (TV Editor)
Courier Mail
21 April 2011

The final season of Sea Patrol – Series 5 Damage Control premieres on Nine next Tuesday at 8.30pm, but the good people of Mission Beach, where much of the series has been shot over the recent five years, had a sneak preview last night.

It was a chance for producers Hal and Di McElroy to say thank you to the northern Queensland costal town for their support.

The final 13 episodes will see the crew of the Hammersley go head-to-head with terrorists, drug traffickers, serial killers and people smugglers.

In the first episode, a deadly bombing sets off a rite of passage for one of the Hammersley’s younger sailors.