The following is an article which was in TV Week 13/9/97.


Blue Heelers tackles the heroin issue as Brett Climo joins the cast as... A BROTHER IN NEED

When Brett Climo got a six-month role as a heroin addict in Blue Heelers, he wanted to show the real psycological effects of heroin, which he says are rarely portrayed on screen.

Brett plays Robbie Doyle, the older brother of Constable Maggie (Lisa McCune). Robbie's police career is ruined because of his drug problems, and he comes to Mt Thomas to try to sort out his life.

It's a timely storyline, given current nationwide concerns about escalating heroin use, and, as Brett and Lisa say, one that, unfortunately, many families know only too well in real life.

"I was surprised when I was offered the role," says Brett, whose previous TV credits have been mostly clean-cut-do-gooders such as minister Colin McGregor in Banjo Paterson's The Man From Snowy River, nurse Michael Langley in A Country Practice and Dr David Ratcliffe in The Flying Doctors.

"I was a bit hesitant to do it because I'd seen TV portrayals of heroin addicts before and I always thought they were stereotypical. I wanted them (the producers) to know I wasn't interested in playing that kind of addict."

Brett says the positive side of the storyline is that it will show heroin addiction as a problem that can affect anyone.

"It's a drug that infiltrates not just people on the street, but professional people from good backgrounds, and all sorts of people from good backgrounds, and all sorts of people who would appear to have everything going for them," he says.

It's not just affecting so-called street people seen by the public as having no future. That's an appalling way to think anyway, but people have to realise it's affecting all parts of society."

Brett says it's important that viewers feel sympathetic towards Robbie.

"I'm playing the brother of one of the most popular actors on TV, Lisa McCune," he says.

"There has to be sympathy there. Viewers have to understand why Maggie invests so much time on him. It's a good opportunity to show how drug addiction affects those who love the person."

Lisa says she can understand why Robbie's problems concern Maggie so much. She is very close to her own brother, coincidentally also called Brett.

"If I ever found out anything like this was happening to my brother, I don't know I'd cope with it," Lisa says.

"I'd be angry and hurt, and I'd be thinking, 'Why me?' And the reality is this issue is not alien to a lot of Australian families."

As with many people these days, heroin addiction has affected someone close to Lisa.

"A girlfriend had an experience with a family member on heroin and it was terrifying for her, from what she told me," Lisa says.

"The problem here is huge. The way we (on Blue Heelers) are dealing with it is that we don't want to talk down to people."

"We're looking at the family relationship and how devastating addiction is to that, but how much love there really is and what a family will give up to help that person."

"I'm so glad we're doing this story. It's a brave role for Brett."

Brett says as well as drawing on the research done by the show's writers, he wanted to find out for himself what the life of an addict is like.

"I knew people in Sydney who have been involved in rehabilitation and detoxification centres," he says.

"My sister was in the police force for a while, so I knew a bit from talking to her."

"There are times when you can understand addiction and why a young person would want to try to cover insecurities."

"If there's a lack of confidence and you happen to find something that gives you what you don't have, that seems awfully attractive."

"It certainly relates to Robbie Doyle, coming from what outsiders would perceive to be a highly successful family in the police force."

"Robbie didn't have that confidence. Part of his reason for becoming addicted is that he felt inadequate with his family. He was very close to his mother and she died, and perhaps he'a a softer kind of guy than his brothers and his father."

Brett says something must be done about Australia's drug abuse problem. He is disappointed with the Federal Government's decision to block a proposed pioneering heroin program in the A.C.T., which would have seen the drug provided free to hardcore addicts in a controlled environment.

"Whatever the government has been doing in previous years to counter the problem hasn't been successful," he says.

"The sort of program they proposed has been operating in Europe for years."

Brett says ignorance about drug addiction can be a problem in gaining support for programs to help those affected.

"I was talking to someone very close to me the other day, and he said it wasn't fair for addicts to be provided with free needles because people with other conditions, such as diabetes, had to pay for them."

"There'a a lack of understanding that his isn't a choice for addicts. Drug dependency is a medical condition, not a choice."

This is not the first time Brett has work closely with Lisa. In the new film The Inner Sanctuary, he stars opposite the TV WEEK Gold Logie winner as her romantic partner.

His part in Blue Heelers mean he can spend only weekends with his wife, Michelle Louis, in Sydney. The couple married in October after an 11-year relationship.

"My marriage is a great part of my life and I feel I have direction once again," he says. "But I don't mind taking time out during the week while I'm working on Blue Heelers. It takes so much of my time, I wouldn't be much company."