Changing places

As Diver Dan swims out of SeaChange, William McInnes plunges in. He talks to FRANCES GRANT about small-town philosophy.


Never hook up with the cool guys like laidback fisherman Diver Dan. When the going gets tough in a relationship, do they get into the swim? No, mate, they turn turtle.

Look at the way things turned out on the Australian small-town drama SeaChange. Diver scuttled off to the Galapagos Islands, dumping love interest Laura (Sigrid Thornton) the minute things started getting complicated with her ex-husband and the kids.

But the end of the affair didn't sink the show. Diver disappeared to loners' heaven and a new bloke stepped into the leading man's flippers.

Journalist Max Connors arrived back in his hometown of Pearl Bay to replace Diver in Laura's affections - and the second season of SeaChange still topped the ratings in Australia.

But the man who plays Connors, actor William McInnes, isn't one to pre-empt how his performance might go down across the Tasman.

"I hope you like the second series with old boufhead in it - that's me," says McInnes on the phone from home in Melbourne. "It was pretty nerve-racking here to see how it would go down."

Connors comes back to Pearl Bay with a wife in tow, but his ultimate destination will land him in the vicinity of town magistrate Laura Gibson.

Don't mention the words "sex symbol of Pearl Bay" to McInnes, however.

"Don't ask me, I'm the worst person to ask," says the man who, nevertheless, describes himself a little later in the interview as "a prime bit of Queensland beef."

"All I was happy with is that it rated really well and there weren't too many complaints about me, although some weird people wrote in and said they didn't like people with hairy chests and perfect teeth."

Local viewers will be familiar with the teeth, if not the hirsute chest. McInnes played constable Nick Schultz on Blue Heelers for four years before being offered the SeaChange role.

"It's like having been in the Second World War, man in uniform," says the son of a "huge man" who was a paratrooper during the Second World War. We'll hear more about dad McInnes later, when we get around to small-town politics. But no slagging Blue Heelers in the meantime.

"It was a good one to me."

The thought of coming into an established television drama gave him pause for thought, McInnes says. But once the decision was made he approached the role with his usual philosophy.

"There's nothing worse than doing work and being miserable. If you can't go and have a laugh you might as well stick your head up a bucket."

His character on SeaChange has a close connection to Diver Dan. They met in Cuba and Diver ended up in Pearl Bay, inspired by Connors' nostalgia about life in the small town by the sea.

"Connors started his journalistic career at the Port Deacon Voice of Reason - which is a terrific title for a newspaper.

"He got sacked because he was a bit of a rabble-rouser and was always on at Bob Jelly. Bob was into creating his mini-empire and Max just loved people like him to prick and tease - that sounds a bit dubious, doesn't it? Prick and tease. Sounds like a dodgy pair of solicitors."

So that explains shire president Jelly's less than enthusiastic reception towards home-town boy Connors on the show this week: "Just when life looks up, a pack of seagulls kacks on you."

Connors has more than the heartbroken magistrate Laura to contend with. Yes, that's going to be a storyline. But the journalist has other fish to fry.

"His whole life is in a state of flux but the one thing that holds it all together is the way he can still have a go at Bob."

McInnes' may shrug off that sex-symbol bizzo but the man who grew up in the small coastal town Redcliffe, just north of Brisbane, is more than qualified when it comes to rural drama.

The characters at Pearl Bay, for example, are no larger than real life provides. "I had a friend and we used to mooch round on the weekends and spy on all these people - it was incredible, we had about 20 of them - who used to look like famous people.

"There was this guy who looked like Spencer Tracy, from The Old Man and the Sea, and he used to work in the hardware shop. At Redcliffe Furniture there was a dead ringer for [former Prime Minister] Malcolm Fraser. And there was a Post Office lady who we used to call David Niven because she had a moustache and spoke with an English accent."

And there was dad McInnes, of course.

"He was a riot of a guy. He used to run for council all the time for the Labour Party and never get in. But he used the same signs all the time, so he'd be about 20 years older than his photograph on the signs."

Towns like Pearl Bay aren't confined to Australia, McInnes says.

"There's lots of Pearl Bays everywhere, in New Zealand, Australia, all over the world. I think that's the show's unifying attraction.

"There you go, howzat for politician's speak," he says, slipping into Jelly mould.

"And I'd like to say to you, Frances, to all the people in New Zealand, that we in Australia appreciate and respect you, our entwined histories ..."

Spookily convincing - but time's running out. Over here, we're envious of SeaChange's accomplishments, I say.

"No! Look Shortland Street's pretty good," he says.

"And I'd just like to say to you: Sigrid Thornton's lovely to work with, John Howard [Bob Jelly] is terrific to work with, I think the director's really good, I'm glad it was a success here, I hope it's a success there.

"Just remember I have an economics degree, I'm an intelligent person (for the record, we'll note he has a wife, two kids and a dog called Doug), I love New Zealand, I love New Zealanders - and I'll tell what I like eating, Whitakers Peanut Slab. Oh what a drip, God almighty."

We get the message and we'll respect it. After all, our entwined histories allow us to appreciate the charms of Aussie culture.


Who: William McInnes

What: SeaChange

Where: TV3

When: 7.30 pm