Blue Heelers star William McInnes has come ‘full circle’ with NCIS: Sydney

William McInnes, who first appeared on Aussie TV screens in a police drama in 1998, reveals the pranks he used to play on his Blue Heelers co-stars and why he signed on for NCIS.

Australian actors William McInnes and Grant Bowler “creaky 90s show” Blue Heelers.

William McInnes jokes that he’s come “full circle” in his role as forensic pathologist Doc Roy on NCIS: Sydney, which is now filming its second season.

The larrikin Aussie said despite many years playing Constable Nick Schultz on “creaky 90s show” Blue Heelers: “I still get all the bloody scientific words wrong, I’m always mucking them up”.

“I do feel a bit sorry for all the people that have to come in and play all the dead bodies, but well, they don’t seem to mind,” he said. “They’ve got all the bits and pieces hanging off them, poor sausages. They’re all very happy to be a part of it, though.”

William McInnes as Doc Roy, Todd Lasance as JD and Olivia Swann as Mackey in NCIS: Sydney season 1, episode 2. Picture: Daniel Asher Smith/Paramount+.

On further thought, he recalled playing a dead body once shortly after he left drama school.

“I died of a burst appendix I think,” he said.

The 60-year-old actor and writer lives on the “nice and quiet” Mornington Peninsula in Melbourne. He told Confidential he’s content “not to be one of the crime solvers” because he still gets enough time off to “do other stuff” including researching a new book, and accepting an invition to present a prize-winning cow at a Brisbane agricultural show.

William McInnes in 1996 as Snr Con Nick Schultz in Blue Heelers.

Actor John Wood, with William McInnes and Lisa McCunes in Blue Heelers.

Asked if he had a good time working on the Logie-nominated naval crime show, McInnes joked: “Yeah, the food’s good! Lovely people, great crew. So yeah it’s good.”

He knew NCIS was a successful franchise, but hasn’t watched any of the episodes he stars in.

“The fun is doing it, not watching it. Someone comes up to you and says, ‘I liked that’, and you go, ‘That’s good’.

“If you watch the thing you go: ‘Oh god what am I doing there?”

Australian actor William McInnes playing Doc Roy in NCIS: Sydney. Photo: Supplied.

One review of NCIS: Sydney he does recall said: ‘John McInnes is the Bundaberg polar beer come to life.’

“I thought ‘I’ll take that’,” he said. “I’ve certainly had enough of them.”

McInnes starred in the classic Australian small-town police drama Blue Heelers from 1994 to 1998. “They were a nice bunch of people too,” he said of his co-stars.

TV Scene front cover of March 1998 with Blue Heelers actor William McInnes.

William McInnes and Karen Davitt from an episode of Blue Heelers that aired on April 15 1998.

“I complained every Wednesday we’d have a rehearsal day to plot the show for the studio. It was sort of anachronistic even then. You’d go through your publicity mail. There’d be [handwritten] letters saying things like: ‘Would ‘ya like to come shooting?’.”

McInnes admitted he started ringing the publicity department pretending to be different fans of John Woods.

“I called in once and said he’d been nominated for the Australian Naturalist Sector of the Year, does he want to accept the award? He has to be naked,” McInnes chortled.

“I’d write in letters and the person would come up and say ‘look at this weirdo!’.”

“They were different times. I was having a bit of fun.

“I didn’t mature much after Year 10.”

William McInnes as Doc Roy in NCIS: Sydney. Photo: Supplied.

Once, Constable Schultz made his “big” break in a case, where victims had been murdered with a Samurai sword.

“It must’ve been ninjas,” McInnes repeated his line with a eye-roll. “Do you know how I apparently worked that out? Reading James Clavell’s Shōgun novel.”

The series’ producers even got permission from Clavell to make the reference in their script.

As for whether the veteran Aussie actor anticipated starring in another crime series?

“I don’t know, not really. I’m glad it’s up and about and it’s nice people seem to enjoy it.”

“I mostly watch old Wallabies tests, when we had John Eales and things from the 90s or 90s. You’ve got to watching Working Girl,” he insists.

“Harrison Ford at his peak. Sigourney Weaver’s funny. A great comedy with a brain, that’s all you want really. A good story, a bit of a brain, it’s enough to entertain — and hopefully this show’s doing it.”

The Season 1 finale of NCIS: Sydney airs on Wed 3 July on Channel 10 at 8.40pm.

Originally published as Blue Heelers star William McInnes has come ‘full circle’ with NCIS: Sydney