It was only supposed to be a three-month stint. Departing their home in Melbourne with 20-month-old daughter Clancy McWaters in tow, Lynne McGranger – who was replacing original actress Jacquy Phillips on the Sydney set of Home and Away – half-jokingly said to her partner, Paul, that, “If I get offered this as a full-time gig, you’re going to have to give up work.”
Luckily, the musician and sound engineer – who Lynne had met when she was performing comedy in Albury in the mid-1980s – was “raring to go” when that three months eventually turned into what would be an impressive 33-year contract.
Having dated for six years, it was Paul, says Lynne, “that kind of got clucky,” leading to the arrival of Clancy the day before Lynne’s 38th birthday in 1991.
Being a stay-at-home dad was a dream come true. “He couldn’t wait,” she laughs of his eagerness to be the chief caregiver, stopping work during their daughter’s formative years. “He would do the reading. Take her to ballet, to netball. He loved it. I don’t know how parents cope with young children when they’re both working. Invariably someone’s just earning money to pay for childcare, so we were very blessed for Paul to bring her up through her school years.”
It also gave Clancy, who married Luke Dickson in 2023, great modelling when it came to not having to follow traditional gender roles. “It’s happening more now, but it was rare,” she says today as she joins her mum in a photoshoot to celebrate the end of an extraordinary era. “Mum and Dad – they’re not married – were quite different to other families. Mum was the main breadwinner and it’s been cool because I’ve been raised with the belief that it doesn’t have to be that way where the woman stays at home and men go to work. I’ve got two awesome role models.”
How long has Irene been on Home and Away?
Television wasn’t necessarily a natural home for Lynne. After attending teacher’s college, she’d pivoted to live theatre – mostly comedy, and most of that improv. She performed in a musical troupe with friends Sally-Ann Upton, Lynda Gibson and Denise Scott both here and in Edinburgh. As well as sharing stages with other friends and peers, including Jean Kittson, Wendy Harmer, Judith Lucy and more in a glorious comedy heyday.
“That’s where I learned not to be afraid of failure,” she says of her time on the festival circuit. “I learnt just to be brave. Getting up, making an idiot of yourself. Not being afraid of failing, and thinking on your feet. It’s terrifying every time you do it, but it’s rewarding when it works.”
She’d done a couple of Flying Doctors episodes and played a nurse once on A Country Practice. But taking on the role of Aussie battler Irene Roberts was a baptism by fire.
“I was terrified because of my age,” she says of getting her small screen breakthrough just shy of her 40th birthday. “There was an assumption that I knew what I was doing, and I didn’t really have a clue because I’d only really done theatre. But I remember the producer saying to me, ‘Watch Judy Nunn [who played Ailsa Stewart] and learn.’ The way to do it is to watch and mimic the older ones. That’s how you learn if you want to stay and your character is successful. And even if your character is hated, that’s a good thing too, because what you don’t want is somebody to be ambivalent about you.”
When Lynne arrived, Irene was a nasty drunk with a temper. Parenting lessons weren’t something you’d go to her for. “Don’t get drunk and push your kids down the stairs,” laughs Lynne of what not to do like her onscreen alter ego.
As time passed, though, Irene transformed. She went on to become a friend and mother figure to many of the younger Summer Bay residents. Isla Fisher, Melissa George, Chris Hemsworth (“gorgeous human, lovely person,” Lynne recalls fondly) and many more would get their crash course in acting on the series.
“I loved them all,” she says now, listing dozens more. And while the hours on set were long, the consistency of working on the same show meant that she wasn’t missing the big moments in Clancy’s life as she grew up.
“There have been times when I’ve thought, did I miss out on certain things?” Lynne reflects. “And I probably did, but I was witness to so much more. I was there for the important things. For the concerts; for the year six farewell; for getting her driver’s license. Although I was banned from netball, because I was the parent who stalked up and down. Clancy had to send me away to get coffee and said, ‘Don’t come back till halftime.’”
As Irene’s tenure continued, Lynne reaped the benefits of the international success the show brought. It became a regular tradition for Lynne, Paul and Clancy to head to the UK every December to do the pantomime season.
“There’s video footage of me just standing there, I don’t know what’s going on,” she laughs.
“She was so cute,” Lynne beams. “We had to drag Clancy up on stage and her little knees were knocking. But she was just delightful.”
Having been taken on set by her mum over the years, Clancy flirted with a career in performance too, attending acting college as well as landing extra work on Home and Away. “I was mainly in the diner or the surf club,” she tells us. “Over the years I was promoted to being the waitress.”
While Clancy eventually took a different path, launching a successful Pilates business, Lynne continued at her day job, navigating everything from fire bombings to breast cancer as Irene.
“It wasn’t like I was performing the same play for 33 years,” she says of what kept her coming back season after season. “I enjoyed it, to have a gig like this was amazing. And after a while, it became part of me and part of my life. It was never tedious. For an actor to have this kind of body of work is like winning the lottery.”
Is Lynne McGranger leaving Home and Away?
As the years have gone on, Lynne says, Irene has become almost something of an extension of herself.
“Really, the lines have been blurred for a long time,” she confesses. “I don’t know where Lynne ends and Irene starts, or vice versa. But personally, as an actor, whatever is going on in Irene’s life stays on set. I don’t know how actors stay in character for months at a time – it would absolutely drive me nuts!
“Irene is much more in your face than Lynne. Irene doesn’t mind confrontation whereas Lynne’s not great at it. I tend to find something very interesting in my handbag if there’s confrontation going on around me. I’d rather smooth it over and move on.”
But despite her admiration for the character she’s inhabited for so long, at a point late last year she realised it was time to move on.
It was taking part in touring comedy musical The Grandparents Club (written by her ’80s compatriot Wendy Harmer) that the lightbulb moment hit. “I just went, this is what I love to do, even though I love my job,” she says of the realisation she had. “While I’ve still got my marbles and physical health I want to go back and do some more theatre. I also quite liked the idea of jumping and not being pushed.
“I want to enjoy life, I want to remain fit for as long as I possibly can. To be a bit more regular with my friendships and staying in touch with people that I may have lost touch with over the years. I look forward to being a nanna down the track. And if that’s not to be, still maintaining a great relationship with my daughter and my son-in-law. Being able to spend more time with the people who are important in my life instead of having work as a priority.
“And yes, I’d like to be known as Lynne … which might happen in some quarters, but I think until the day I die I’ll probably still be called Irene!”
She told her family first, before breaking the news to producers – and to her best friend and long-time dressing room buddy Ada Nicodemou. She was Lynne’s last scene partner and it was, she shares, an emotional moment. Her onscreen departure will air in mid-August on Seven.
“She was so calm and nonchalant about it,” says Clancy of learning about her mum’s decision. “It’s the right time. I’d love for her to retire, but there’s no way that she’s going to! She wants to go and perform more and do stage shows and if that makes her happy, I want her to 100 per cent go and do that. But also, just enjoy life. You know? She can go and start a book club with Ada if she really wanted to. She can go start a walking club. Anything that she wants to do.”
For now, what Lynne wants to do is go on a holiday – several in fact. This photo shoot was initially supposed to happen two days after filming wrapped. But after pushing herself relentlessly to the finish line, she succumbed to influenza A – and she’s still not 100 per cent, despite a week of bed rest.
Luckily, the farewell party took place ahead of her final scenes. Having overheard Lynne tell Ada she’d always fantasised about taking The Diner’s hamburger phone from set on her last day, her co-stars and crew clubbed in to buy her a replica.
“I nearly cried because it meant so much,” she says of the parting gift. “It’s in pride of place at home, on the kitchen bench where the landline used to be.”
They also bought her a voucher for the famous Sydney restaurant Jonah’s at Whale Beach. She and Paul are planning to spend a whole weekend in the area now that she no longer has her punishing 5am starts and 8pm finishes.
And that won’t be the last of the celebrations. As we went to print, news broke that Lynne has been nominated for a TV WEEK Gold Logie, alongside Ally Langdon, Hamish Blake, Julia Morris, Lisa Millar, Poh Ling Yeow and Sonia Kruger. In her 33 years with the show, it’s the first time she’s been up for the gong.
“I’d have left years ago if I knew this is what would’ve happened,” she jokes from the UK, on holiday ahead of taking The Grandparents Club 2 on the road across the country from July through to October.
“I’m excited to embark on the next era of my life, but in the meantime, I am so happy to bask in the honour of being nominated for a Gold Logie.“
Head to thegrandparentsclub.com for tour details and to buy tickets.
Home and Away airs Mon-Thurs at 7pm on Seven and 7plus.
This article appears in the August 2025 issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly. SUBSCRIBE so you never miss an issue.
