australian television information archive

Bruce Alexander as Sergeant Grey

Sergeant Grey is very much the country cop. He is fairly much the sole law enforcer in Pearl Bay — at least that's the way he sees it. He interprets its requirements in his own personal way. It must be said that Sgt Grey could never in any way be called bent. He is not corrupt and will be the first to inform you that the country demands quite a different style of law enforcement from that in the city. The country suits Sgt Grey and Pearl Bay suits him.

At 15, Bruce Alexander thought he would be studying Fine Arts. A misunderstanding led him instead into a plumbing apprenticeship. Then, by chance, he found himself in his first stage production. "It was a horrible musical, but I loved the job," he says. So Bruce became an apprentice by day and studied acting by night. In 1979 he went to England where he trained at East 15 in London and did repertory theatre. After returning to Australia he was involved in several theatre groups, including the MTC and Playbox. Inspired by other forms of performance, Bruce started training in Butoh, Japanese and European theatre forms.

He is now committed to such theatre and has established a company called Arthouse Theatre Company. Here he works with a regular core group of actors and trains actors in acting and movement forms. Bruce has written eight plays, including A Fifth Of Love, A Bottle Of Whisky, which he also directed when it was performed at the Athenaeum in 1996. He adapted Shakespeare's Macbeth and played the title role in the 1997 sellout season at the Universal Theatre. He is currently writing a new play for 1998. Bruce has also written two film scripts, and has appeared in numerous film and television shows including The Bite, Snowy, Stark, Janus, River Street, Stan And George's New Life and Father.

Bruce accepted his role in SeaChange on the strength of a script Andrew Knight had written: 'I love the words and enjoy creating the emotions of such a character.'