Aussie action series Sea Patrol's second campaign has Jeremy Lindsay Taylor back on deck as Buffer, the epitome of naval bloke-dom. He talks to RUSSELL BAILLIE
KEY POINTS:
For those who enjoyed the gung-ho adventures of the first series of Sea Patrol, the most expensive Australian television drama to get a bottle across its bows, now hear this: the second one's much bigger and better.
Well, of course you would say that if you were a key cast member like Jeremy Lindsay Taylor, who plays Officer Bosun Pete "Buffer" Tomaszewski.
But for one thing, they've got a flasher boat. The HMAS Hammersly patrol boat has been upgraded from the 20-plus-year-old, since-decommissioned Fremantle class to a high-tech Armidale class tub.
That's courtesy of the Australian navy which, care of the Channel Nine production, has got itself a top-rating recruitment drive, which is now filing its third series.
But it's not just the hardware that's upped the ante. "We all got series two scripts and went 'Wow'," laughs Taylor during rehearsals on the Gold Coast, before weeks of shooting off the coast of Cairns, "and then it was 'Oh no, how on earth do we do this? How do you achieve what they have written?' It's like 13 Die Hard episodes."
Across the ditch, the A$15 ($18) million-budget 2007 first season started out with 1.9 million viewers on its first night, before its ratings bottomed out around the 1.2 million mark. But the second series built from a 1.2 million start to 1.5 million toward the end of the 13 shows.
"You never know whether it is going to work with an audience. No one had ever attempted this. (Creators) Hal and Di McElroy are so brave with coming up with the idea and even attempting it, because no one has shot a whole television series on the water."
While the first series was anchored by a storyline involving mysterious Bright Island and the conspiracy behind the death of a marine biologist, the second series has bigger stakes. The ship's crew get mixed up in a government coup on the (fictional) island of Samaru with connections to smugglers and a possible Mr Big played by - ta-da! - Alan Dale.
Actually, (spoiler alert) Taylor is involved in a bit of biffo with the expatriate New Zealand actor last seen in Lost and Ugly Betty.
"It was great having Alan come home from Hollywood and do some local drama and it was a lot of fun. I had a lot of rough-and-tumble with Alan and he's really funny and we had a really great time."
For Taylor, 36, Sea Patrol has been a major career break since doing his compulsory Aussie soap service in Heartbreak High with subsequent roles in the likes of McLeod's Daughters, Stingers and Blue Heelers.
Buffer is the Hammersly's gruff, dry-humoured, sergeant-major figure and a dedicated navy man.
When he first got the role, he and the rest of the cast underwent a naval boot camp to help make their characters more authentic. "I met five different Buffers and took little bits and pieces from all of them in combination with what the writers gave me, and made my own character out of those. They are a certain type of man and I just love playing him.
"When we're shooting there is a Buffer there and I'm just, like, what am I doing here? Which is fantastic for us. You've got round the clock advice on what your character should be doing."
Shooting a series takes about five months of the year, much of that on board and on location in northern Queensland, before heading back to the studio.
That means shifting a production involving about 100 crew and cast to the tropical north.
"It's scenic," says Taylor, "but has its risks. Mission Beach is paradise and one of the most beautiful parts of the world, but everything is trying to kill you. You have got sharks, you have sea snakes, you have different kinds of jellyfish that will kill you with one sting and let alone the waves."
But there is now a sort of naval camaraderie among the Sea Patrol squad.
"We get along so well - you are a group of people who are thrown together.
"The similarities between what (the navy) do and what we do is why we got into it so easily and quickly.
"Obviously it's not as real as it is out there and they pick holes in it and take the piss out of it, but ultimately we earned their respect pretty quickly when we started shooting on the boat, because they know how hard we work and we are just to trying to do the right thing by them."
Well, it's been a small boon to Australian naval recruitment that had been at an all-time low in recent years.
"It's a 13-hour, really expensive, really slick-looking commercial if you think about it.
"And if you suspend disbelief it's not like that out there, it's not as glossy, but still, those people do amazing jobs and what I loved about it is what we do and what they do is so similar."
Oh and the real navy people are so much better looking ...
"Aren't they? Exactly - and much better at their job. We just act like we know what we are doing."
Taylor will be signing on for another tour of duty should it be required after the third series.
"I think it's got huge legs this show, so long as it keeps changing."
LOWDOWN
Who: Jeremy Lindsay Taylor as petty officer Bosun Pete Buffer Tomaszewski
What: Sea Patrol, second series
When & where: TV3, Tuesdays 9.30pm
