Maggie Doyle

Development and casting

The character of Maggie Doyle was created by Hal McElroy and Tony Morphett as a young constable just arriving in the town of Mount Thomas. Her early characterisation is that of a young woman, determined to prove herself, and who is unwilling to stand for any form of discrimination.

Lisa McCune came to the role at the age of just 22, having appeared mainly in advertisements and theatre-work. McCune had her first audition with creator and producer Hal McElroy. She told Doug Aiton of The Age: "It was a fabulous audition because everyone in the room was going for the part they were reading." McCune did two more auditions, and told Aiton that for the first time, she felt relaxed. The producers also made everyone feel like they wanted them to do well. She then spent the days after the auditions talking to her agent Cluny Morton, who would keep her updated on the casting progress. Eventually, Morton informed McCune that the producers wanted her for Maggie. McCune admitted that she did not think she would get the part, as she thought she was not strong or "weighty" enough, but she was "delighted". She was also aware that as it was just the pilot she was cast for, it might not work out, but two weeks later the cast were informed that the show was going ahead for an initial run of 13 weeks. According to Ann Tenna, also of The Age, station bosses believed that, despite her inexperience, McCune would "take our sitting rooms by storm".

Although it had been claimed that McCune was originally cast as Roz Patterson, but swapped roles with Ann Burbrook, this was denied by Hal McElroy in an interview with TVFlashback.com, who confirmed that McCune had always been intended to play Maggie Doyle.

Maggie's departure from the show was the culmination of a three-year-long arc which saw her deal with her brother's addiction to drugs, and then attempt to bring down the drug ring which had ultimately contributed to his death. Although McCune has stated that she fought to prevent her character being killed off, Maggie's death went ahead, and became one of the most-watched moments in Australian television history.

Character background

In her fictional backstory, the character is the only daughter of police officer Pat Doyle and his wife, Kathleen. She is the youngest member of a policing family, with her eldest brother Mick serving as a detective in the Internal Investigations Division (IID), later known as the Ethical Standards Department (ESD), while her second eldest brother Robbie worked primarily in an administrative role. Kathleen Doyle died sometime between her daughter's graduation from the Police Academy, and her arrival in Mount Thomas. Without the family matriarch, the Doyle family were described by Tom Croydon as the most hide-bound and pig-headed family he'd ever met.

Coming from a family of Irish Catholics, Maggie was educated, at least during her primary years, at an unnamed Catholic school staffed by nuns. On one occasion, she insisted on playing the part of Joseph in the nativity play and, on another, the eight-year-old Maggie performed a citizen's arrest on a classmate and dragged him down to the police station for squirting one of the nuns with the bubbler.

Role on Blue Heelers

Maggie officially joined the Victoria Police midway through 1992, having graduated from the Academy in the same class as her then lover, and later colleague, Wayne Patterson (Grant Bowler). After the academy, she was gazetted to an unspecified station in Melbourne's western suburbs and served there until she was posted to Mount Thomas. Upon her arrival in town, Maggie was called into action even before her first shift when her new landlady, Chris Riley (Julie Nihill), asked for help when one of her kitchen staff arrived at the pub in the middle of the night claiming she'd been raped.

On her way to work the following morning, Maggie got her first taste of the town's attitude to a female constable when she was heckled by a couple of local men. After reporting for duty, her first day was a whirlwind which saw her shoot a vicious dog before saving the rape victim from a suicide attempt, and finished it off by exposing the rapist for what he truly was in the midst of a crowded pub.

Later that year, Maggie was out on a solo patrol when she intercepted a vehicle being driven erratically. The only occupants of the car were a local member of parliament (MP), Ken Forbes, and his press liaison, Glenn Ritchie. Forbes had been driving, but refused to undertake a breath test and insisted on talking to her boss. Back at the station, Forbes finally took the breath analysis and was found to be nearly twice the legal limit, but both men insisted that Maggie was mistaken and Glenn had been driving. Maggie insisted on going through with the charges, backed up by Tom Croydon (John Wood), and was soon put under intense pressure from several sources to drop the case, which resulted in her father, Pat (Dennis Miller), coming to help. When she was forced to move out of the pub by Inspector Ted Faulkner, Pat took matters into his own hands, and "convinced" Glenn of the wisdom of telling the truth, who in turn convinced Forbes to take the rap.

Following the completion of her probation period, Maggie applied for a trainee vacancy with the St Davids Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB), which would be the first step on the road to becoming a detective, however she was beaten out by Rose Egan (Dale Stevens) who then completed the trainee-ship at Mount Thomas under the tutelage of P. J. Hasham (Martin Sacks).

During the second season, Maggie found herself in trouble when her gun-belt was stolen after she discarded it in order to save a boy who was apparently drowning. The police were faced with the prospect of children in possession of a loaded weapon which had been modified to require less pressure to pull the trigger, a nightmare waiting to happen. With the Inspector on their backs, her colleagues faced a race against time to find the gun before the worst could happen. When the gun found its way into the hands of a young child, only pure luck prevented a tragic end.

Rank

Maggie joined the Victoria Police in 1991. At the beginning of the series in 1994, she held the rank of Constable.

Relationships

Romance

Maggie never married, but was briefly engaged before her death:

P. J. Hasham (Martin Sacks) was Maggie's on-again-off-again romantic partner and eventual fiancé. Although they often butted heads when their theories on cases didn't match up, Maggie was P. J.'s most frequent investigative partner after her arrival at the station. Their relationship turned romantic after they were trapped together overnight in an old goldmine. After initially hiding their relationship for fear of being transferred, they finally announced their engagement in 1999. The engagement ended just two episodes later, however, as Maggie was gunned down on the brink of entering the Witness Protection Program.

During the first season, Maggie was shown to have a previous romantic relationship with Wayne Patterson (Grant Bowler), a classmate at the Academy who became her colleague at Mount Thomas. She also had brief relationships with Glenn Ritchie (Jeremy Callaghan), the press liaison for a local politician, and Sean Neale (Richard Huggett), a detective based in St Davids. In later seasons, she shared a kiss with Ben Stewart (Paul Bishop), but this relationship was limited to a few dates before Maggie became engaged to P. J. shortly before her death.

Family

Of all the characters in Blue Heelers, Maggie has one of the best known family backgrounds. Her father, Pat Doyle (Dennis Miller, is a frequently recurring character throughout the first seven seasons of the show, often arriving in Mount Thomas after hearing that his daughter needs help. Pat is Maggie's idol, and is a widower and old school police officer who retires as a sergeant. Although he dotes on Maggie, Pat has shown a tendency towards "tough love" when it comes to his two sons.

Maggie's eldest brother, Mick Doyle (David Field, later Terry Serio), first appears when the Internal Investigations Division (IID), with whom he is a detective sergeant, arrives in Mount Thomas and raids the home of her colleagues. Mick is shown to be very close with his sister, calling her "Mitsy", with this closeness causing tension with both their father, and with Maggie's colleagues, all of whom resent the fact that Mick is a member of the "toe-cutters". Despite their closeness, it is revealed during the seventh season that Mick is responsible for his sister's murder.

Maggie's younger brother, Robbie Doyle (David Wenham, later Brett Climo), was also a police officer, and was a senior constable serving in a mainly administrative position when he was dismissed after being charged with the theft of heroin from Mount Thomas and related drugs charges. Robbie continued to recur on the show until his character's death, with Maggie putting her career on the line for him several times as he went through drug rehabilitation. After he relapsed again, Maggie was forced to arrest him, resulting in his incarceration. He later escaped from gaol, again putting Maggie's career in jeopardy, before being killed by an armed assailant while protecting his sister.

Friends and colleagues

Over the course of some six years in Mount Thomas, Maggie is shown to have developed friendships, or at least close acquaintances, with a number of local personalities. Like most of her colleagues, she has a strong friendship with Chris Riley (Julie Nihill), a shire councillor and the publican of the Imperial Hotel, the local "watering hole" used by the local police. Chris is Maggie's landlord when she first moves into town, and remains a close friend and confidante after Maggie is forced to move out by pressure from superior officers.

For around three years, Maggie's closest friend was her roommate, Gina Belfanti (Rachel Blakely), a local paramedic whose work often crossed path with that of the police before her death, which came after contracting Japanese encephalitis.

Despite initially finding her boss, Tom Croydon (John Wood), to be gruff and something of a chauvinist, Maggie proved herself to be an excellent copper, which in turn gained her more respect from Tom. Over time, this respect developed into something of a father-daughter dynamic and Maggie came to look at Tom like a second father, though he remained willing to offer stern counsel on the rare occasions that Maggie made a mistake.

Maggie was friendly with all her colleagues, even the occasionally dour Nick Schultz (William McInnes), but found her closest friendship with fellow female officer Dash McKinley (Tasma Walton). Despite the age difference between them, Maggie and Dash bonded over their shared experiences as females in a male-dominated workplace. Following Gina's death, Dash became Maggie's roommate, sharing a house with her until she decided to leave Mount Thomas in the aftermath of her mother's death. With Dash gone, Maggie's new female colleague is Jo Parrish (Jane Allsop), but the two have little time together to begin bonding before Maggie is gunned down.

For a lot of her career, Maggie's family connections – to her father, the "old school" sergeant, and her brother, the "toe-cutter" – complicated her relationships with her fellow officers. Despite having a strong sense of pride in being a cop, Maggie found herself despising her profession on more than one occasion, describing the force as a "boys' club" after being pressured by her superiors to move out of her room at the Imperial Hotel while she was pursuing charges against a politician.

Personality

The character of Maggie Doyle was initially conceived as a strong, opinionated woman who had little time for the outdated and chauvinistic views of her male colleagues and many of the townspeople who were not used to female police officers. Coming from a police family, she deeply believed in the ideals which the police uniform should stand for, and frequently took it personally when she perceived that a fellow copper has disgraced that uniform. Despite her police heritage, Maggie is shown making her fair share of mistakes, which sometimes have the potential for serious consequences, including one time where her decision to leave her gun belt unattended to help what she thinks is a drowning youth almost ended in the death of a child.

Maggie's attention to detail, interpersonal skills and stubbornness made her character a perfect foil for that of P. J. Hasham and they were frequently paired together on investigations. As the only female officer for the first two and a half seasons, Maggie is usually called upon to perform the roles which need a softer touch, like dealing with babies and young children, but she isn't one to shy away from wading into the middle of a brawling crowd. As the series went on, Maggie also filled the role of mentor to the less experienced constables joining the station, in particular the new female constables.

Maggie is an idealist and a feminist, willing on more than one occasion to put her career on the line to expose corruption and chauvinism, including at least two occasions where she brings charges against politicians who are very different to their public personas. Although higher-ups have tried to convince her to back down on more than one occasion, Maggie is nothing if not stubborn and this bloody-minded determination comes to the fore when she investigates the drug ring she believes led to her brother's death.

Reception

Although Blue Heelers was not expected to become a popular programme, the show became a hit shortly after it began airing, with much of this success credited to the quality of the ensemble cast, including Lisa McCune as Maggie Doyle.

During her time on Blue Heelers, McCune was nominated for twelve individual Logie Awards. After winning the Silver Logie Award for Most Popular New Talent at the 1995 ceremony, McCune was nominated for the Silver Logie Award for Most Popular Actress each year from 1996 until 2000, winning the award on all five occasions. Additionally, she was nominated for the Gold Logie Award for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television on six consecutive occasions between 1996 until 2001, winning the award four times in succession between 1997 until 2000. She was also nominated three times at the People's Choice Awards, being nominated for Favourite Actress in a Drama or Serial in 1998, and Favourite TV Star in both 1998 and 1999, winning both awards in 1998.

As a result of her time on the show, McCune rapidly progressed from being relatively unknown to being one of the most recognisable, and popular, faces on Australian television. At the height of the show's popularity, as many as 4 million viewers tuned in to watch her will-they-won't-they romance with Martin Sacks' P. J. Hasham on a weekly basis. The relationship culminated in Maggie's death in what remains one of the most iconic moments in Australian television history.