Cirrus@Austlit

'With humour, honesty and self-deprecating charm, one of Australia's best known TV actresses lifts the lid on life - both on-screen and off.

'From a young age, I could lie like a chop in gravy. I loved the thrill of crafting a story. It wasn't until my twenties that I made the connection that lying is a lot like acting…

'For almost 30 years, Lynne McGranger has been entertaining TV viewers all around the world. As a veteran on the popular soap Home and Away, her much-loved character Irene Roberts has long been a font of wisdom, good humour and unforgettable lines.

'But Lynne's story goes far beyond Summer Bay. From an Aussie childhood full of fad diets (tuna, milk and oranges, anyone?) to the relationship heartaches, career disasters and difficult choices that would change her life forever. But then Lynne landed a 'guest role' on Home and Away that's lasted 29 years and counting …

'Acting Up: Me, Myself & Irene is a warm, hilarious and intimate look inside the life of one of Australia's living TV legends.' (Publication summary)

'Despite an often‐repeated cliché that gender and sexually diverse characters are relatively absent from film and television, Australian screen production has a very rich history of representing sexual and gender diversity: greater than nineteen wide‐release films since 1993, including internationally recognized films such as Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), The Sum of Us (1994), Head On (1998), and The Monkey’s Mask (2000), portray gender and sexual diversity. Nine Australian films with LGBTQ, gender, and sexually diverse themes were released between 2013 and 2018, indicating an entrenchment of LGBTQ representation on Australian screens. Characters in major Australian television dramas and soap operas, such as Home and Away and Neighbours, have increased in regularity and complexity over the past two decades. Sexual stories, including narratives of minority sexual lives, have never, of course, been repressed or invisible, but according to Ken Plummer, they have long been central to contemporary Western culture (4). Stories representing gender and sexually diverse subjects depicting identity struggles and articulating minority health outcomes are a major and ongoing part of Australian creative production. What is significant in cultural analysis is not questions of visibility or invisibility but how the continuities and disruptions of depictions of gender and sexual minorities play a significant, pedagogical role in social participation, social harmony, acceptance, individual health and wellbeing, and community belonging (Cover, Queer Youth Suicide; Emergent Identities).' (Introduction)