It’s been four decades since Lisa McCune last competed on a TV talent show – and that experience was almost enough to put her off for life. It was the 1980s, and Lisa, along with a friend, went on Perth’s Young Entertainers, singing songs including Kate Bush’s “Babooshka” and the Laverne & Shirley theme song “Making Our Dreams Come True”.
“I’ll never forget them coming and saying to us – I think I was 12 or 13 – ‘I think we might have to wear a bra on television, girls,’” Lisa tells TV WEEK with a laugh.
The actress, now 53, went on the talent show several times, making it as far as the grand final.
“I have a little bit of PTSD,” she admits. “I remember that being really overwhelming at the time, the competitiveness, being scored. It was really nerve-racking.”
After knocking back Dancing With The Stars in the past, Lisa finally said yes this year. Partnered with champion UK dancer Ian Waite, she found it very different from being on Perth’s Young Entertainers.
“I had such a strong partner in Ian, and I really, really loved getting notes from the judges,” she says. “That was great.”
This week on the show, Lisa and Ian are dancing the quickstep, following on from their first two high-scoring dances, the tango and the jive. For the jive, Lisa showed off her legs in a pair of short shorts.
“I was a little worried about that outfit,” she admits. “I looked at Nadia’s [Bartel] legs and Sammy [Jade] and Nikki [Osborne]… they’re beautiful women, and I thought, ‘Oh, I just like keeping a few things under garments now.’ But yeah, you go with it.
“It goes to show that anybody can get great joy out of dancing, no matter what your shape or size. That’s what’s great – that as a 50-something woman, I just went out there and danced.”
Lisa’s three children, Archer, Oliver and Remy, with former husband Tim Disney, are now all over the age of 18. She says she probably wouldn’t have done Dancing With The Stars when they were any younger because it would have been “too intense”.
Now, the three of them are getting to see how hard their mum works, with Remy going along to watch her dance live.
“They’re so funny,” Lisa says. “One of my sons had some mates over last night and they said, ‘We’re going to be all sitting around watching on Sunday night, Lisa.’ They’ll probably have some pertinent comments to make and I’ll just turn around and say, ‘Well, you go and do it better!’”
After a long career in TV, starring in shows such as Sea Patrol and How To Stay Married, Lisa is still best known for her first big role, as Constable Maggie Doyle in Blue Heelers. That doesn’t bother her in the slightest.
“It’s really nice when people come up now and say, ‘I just loved that show so much,’” she says.
Playing Maggie won Lisa 10 TV WEEK Logies Awards, including four Gold Logies – all of which she’s given to the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne (ACMI).
“I had nowhere to put them in my house and I wanted to put up the kids’ basketball trophies, not the Logies,” she explains.
“So they’re at ACMI, so people can go and share in the Logies.”
As well as having more acting roles in the pipeline, Lisa is working on developing new TV series through BroadStory, the production company she’s formed with director Fiona Banks and screenwriter Greg Haddrick. On top of that, going on Dancing With The Stars has reminded her that she always needs to have a challenge in her life. Her next challenge: to get her motorbike licence.
“I’ve just got to book in the week to go and do it,” she says. “I really want to do that. And then I can see myself tottering around Europe on a scooter!”
