0/5

Ramsay Street’s resident whirlwind

In more than 10 years on Neighbours 'Lyn Scully' has shifted from domestic mum to a whirlwind of conflict. But Janet Andrewartha says there is great heart at her core.

“It’s like a second home,” laughs Janet Andrewartha.

The famous Nunawading studios, once owned by Channel TEN, Global Studios, and now leased by FremantleMedia Australia, have been her workplace for more years than she cares to remember.

“I think something like 1984 I came here to do Prisoner,” she told TV Tonight. “Then in 1999 I started as ‘Lyn Scully (on Neighbours) and I did seven years consecutively. Then I went away for theatre and other stuff for nearly three years and came back about mid-way through 2009.”

Andrewartha had emerged from the National Theatre Drama School when she began to pick up roles in television.

“I think Carson’s Law was being shot here, it was marvelous. I did one episode of that. I don’t think I’d done any other TV. I might have done some education stuff for the ABC, but I hadn’t done much screen. I was only just a new graduate,” she said.

“I got one episode playing Val Jellay’s daughter, I think. She was a stage person but she could do the small screen really well. It was incredible. Then she ended up coming into Neighbours for a while, playing my mother. Which I thought was hilarious.”

Andrewartha has now juggled both television and theatre roles during her time on and off the TEN soap as her workload allows, most recently for the Melbourne Theatre Company.

“The last one I did was Arthur Millers ‘All My Sons’ and I’d never done Miller. I’d done some other American playwrights but never Arthur Miller. What a jewel. Remarkable writing.

“I’ve had some lucky breaks with theatre. I seem to get some terrific roles, so I feel very fortunate. Same with TV. The characters I seem to be asked to play are so different to each other. The one before this character was ‘Marion Stewart’ in Embassy. It was a Grundy-ABC co-production.

“She was the ambassador’s wife and she was upper middle class with a very good education and a lot of money, so it was a completely different character to ‘scrubber’ Lynnie! When Lyn first came in she was a working class girl and of course before that was (Prisoner‘s) ‘Reb Keene’ who was a middle class girl but practically a psychotic. I just love the fact that I get to do the variety.”

Her character on the Ramsay Street soap is one of the show’s heightened characters, prone to gossip, instability, emotional blackmail and streetside scandal. In the ten plus years since she arrived on the street with husband Joe and children Steph, Felicity, Michelle, Jack and later Oscar, she has gravitated from domestic mother to a whirlwind of drama. Contrasted against the earnest, romantic teenagers, ‘Lyn Scully’ provides the writers with a vehicle for conflict.

While it doesn’t always win her immediate audience warmth, Andrewartha still speaks fondly of a character who is flawed if well meaning.

“At her core she’s still Lyn, she’s still, absolutely still the same,” she says. “She’s getting a little world-weary if you like. She’s changed because of circumstance but it’s not the essential core of her.

“The essential core of Lyn is that she’s about good, old-fashioned ideals and morals and attending to religious beliefs. She’s following the rules and loving her children above everything else and putting family values first and has a strong sense of fair play and loyalty. None of that has changed. However, with life chipping away at her she has a lot of failed relationships.

“Her marriage to ‘Joe Scully’ fizzled out rather weakly and amounted to nothing much in the end. Not that it wasn’t successful while they were together -it was- but they just grew apart. And then there was ‘Joe Mangle’ whom she really loved and that didn’t work out,” she says.

“He just left her. He dumped her and then ‘Paul Robinson’ dumped her at the aisle practically just the next day. So she’s very unlucky in love and she’s had to learn to be a lot tougher to survive.

“She’s had to raise ‘Oscar’ until recently and manage on her own. She’s been bankrupt twice and had to pull herself up by her bootstraps and get on with it and I think whereas she was once just the sweetest, most gullible person you could ever meet, she’s now a little more, worldly-wise.”

More recently Andrewartha has dealt with her own upheaval. She took time out from work in 2007 to focus on family while her daughter completed Year 12. She relished such time, often denied by a busy schedule. But in 2008 she cared for her mother who became ill.

“I had the privilege of being able to nurse her for a year and she died the following January, and that was fantastic because although she went into hospital three or four times, for small operations and things, most of the time she was in her own home which is not far from me,” she said.

“I was able to go everyday and be with her and my father and help out. It was in many ways a wonderful year and to be able to do it was great. After mum died I went to China for a couple of months and stayed with my sister.”

During this time she was approached to return to Neighbours.

“I read this storylines and they were really fun things that they had planned for me for the first six months. And I couldn’t have been happier when they said ‘Stay another six and then maybe even another six!’

“People love coming back to this show. It’s a big family. It’s the cast which can change and change back and so on, and I’ve got good friends on the crew here. It’s amazing but it’s a great co-operative venture, the whole thing.”

Andrewartha says while writers continue to deliver her enjoyable storylines she intends to stay put, balancing work and family life.

“I’m not behind bars anymore, just the coffee shop counter. Could do worse.”

11 Responses

  1. Reb Kean!!! 🙂 … My favourite ever ‘Prisoner’ character! 🙂 … ‘Prisoner’ is my absolute favourite show, and the massive boxset of every episode is worth every cent it costs to buy… I was a young teen at the time Reb Kean was on the show, and I also loved James Dean, like Reb did, which made her so cool to me… I still have some old TV Week ‘Prisoner’ articles featuring Janet Andrewartha, and other ‘Prisoner’ cast members… I also remember a teacher at school being shocked I was allowed to watch the show, after talking about an episode that had just been on haha… Fantastic show, and I don’t watch ‘Neighbours’, but thank you for this interview with Janet! 🙂 …

  2. Thank you for a fantastic interview David.
    Janet is a fantastic actress, I just love the character of Lyn – she always makes me laugh & the show would be lost without her.
    I hope more past characters come back to the show, I’m really enjoying my Neighbours at the moment!

  3. Oh man, when Lassiters exploded I nearly wet myself – I was so excited I rang my partner up and was like ‘Lassiters just exploded, Max went flying!!’ *sigh* those were the days.

  4. Good I was curious what her current contract was with the show. I remember when she originally returned it looked as though she was only to be around for 6 months to help out some Steph related storylines.

    Her character is a little unused at the moment. A shame because back in the hay day of Lyn and Susan being bestfriends and the whole Scully family her character was used a lot more effectively.

    Lyn’s shoplifting was the first shark her character jumped. She should have more stability. What Neighbours needs is more stability. The show is at its best when it steers clear of outrageous drama and focuses on realistic family dramas… then at the end of every year or once every six months a plane crashes, wedding car drives off a pier, Lascetors explodes of there’s a bush fire. That’s true quality soap opera.

  5. I can’t stand her stupid Rebecca / Paul war (hope it is done for good), it is juvenile and totally unrealistic – as if she would still be in love with him.

    Lyn’s return is just another bad storyline from a long list of stupid moves. Top of the list being the lieing baby mama storyline and making Toadie give up love again.

    Rant over.

  6. Thanks so much for this David! It’s great to read Janet’s insight into how Lyn has changed over the years. When she returned last year I was disappointed at how bitter and twisted she had become, but this puts it into perspective. I’m glad she’s settled down a bit now, and I agree with rickster – I love her feuding with Paul and Rebecca. Her friendship with Susan is great too. I always look forward to scenes with them gossiping or making fun of Karl!

Leave a Reply