60-493: News Free Zone was a 1985 Australian TV comedy show starring Grahame Bond . It was the idea of Maurice Murphy . It was intended to be an entire evening's entertainment in one half hour with no news (shown at 6pm, the same time the three commercial networks showed their evening news). It screened daily. The regular segments included: Murphy says the program was based on his "absolute hatred of anything journalistic and philosophical" and an "absolute love of enjoyment and fun and
120-611: A Sydney production of the musical Oliver! as well as being the lead singer and guitarist in the Sydney rock bands The Pogs and Oakapple Day . O'Donoghue was 14 at the time he met Bond, when The Pogs were brought in to provide musical backing for one of the Architecture Revues. After graduating, Bond and friends continued working together on a wide range of projects in radio, theatre, TV and film. He collaborated on several short films and stage pieces with Weir, and wrote and played in
180-521: A TV deal." Maurice Murphy was a pivotal figure in this fertile era of Australian television comedy—he oversaw Aunty Jack and its various spin-off series, and also acted as a vital buffer between the Aunty Jack creative team and the ABC's conservative management. Ted Robinson , then a young director, got his break working for Murphy on the second series of Aunty Jack . Robinson later took over Murphy's mantle in
240-535: A concert tour, a #1 hit single, " Farewell Aunty Jack " (a version of the closing theme of the series) and a best-selling album Aunty Jack Sings Wollongong , released in early 1974. "Farewell Aunty Jack" was released as a single in December 1973, reached Number 1 on the Australian charts a week later, where it stayed for 3 weeks. It was the first Australian single in picture-disc form to hit No.1 nationally, reputedly being
300-525: A daring football game starring Aunty Jack. Aunty Jack alternated one-off sketches with segments featuring many regular and semi-regular characters. All episodes featured segments with Aunty Jack and her sidekicks – Flange Desire (Sandra McGregor), Thin Arthur (Rory O'Donoghue) and, in the first season the Narrator Neville ( John Derum ) who was replaced in the second season by Kid Eager ( Garry McDonald ),
360-520: A heart attack. Bond then departed for a much-needed holiday on Norfolk Island where, jointly inspired by the convict ruins and his holiday reading, Errol Flynn 's My Wicked, Wicked Ways , he came up with the concept for a new series set in the bushranger days, which became Flash Nick from Jindivick . The next outing for the classic Aunty Jack team was Wollongong the Brave (1974), a series of four one-hour specials that showcased favourite characters from
420-557: A national tour of their new stage show The Aunty Jack Show and Tell , to promote the release of the Aunty Jack DVDs. In October 2011, Bond released his autobiography , Jack of All Trades Mistress of One . On 11 June 2012, Bond was named a Member of the Order of Australia for "service to the performing arts as an actor, writer and composer, and as a supporter of aspiring artists." The Aunty Jack Show The Aunty Jack Show
480-554: A number of stage comedies and revues. The success of Bond's work in the Architecture Revues led to a professional stage revue for the PACT Theatre Company, Balloon Dubloon (1969) with Weir, which in turn led to an invitation from festival director Sir Robert Helpmann to stage a revue, Drip Dry Dreams at the Adelaide Festival and Richbrooke. Through Bob Allnutt, a staffer at the PACT Theatre Company who also worked for
540-516: A parodic amalgam of characters like Dennis the Menace and Ginger Meggs . There were also semi-regular appearances by the folk-singing duo Errol and Neil (Grahame & Rory), and rock'n'roll butcher Kev Kavanagh (Bond), a character that he had introduced (as "Mr Kevin") in Peter Weir's Homesdale . Derum left the show after Series 1, wishing to pursue other interests. Derum appeared in archival footage in
600-530: A single sketch in the second series, was given his own series The Norman Gunston Show which ran from 1975 to 1983. After a faltering start, it became hugely popular and McDonald won the Gold Logie in 1976. Bond, O'Donoghue, McDonald, MacGregor and Derum later appeared in News Free Zone , created by Murphy in 1985. Each episode included an Aunty Jack sketch in a section called Vintage Video . Bond also revived
660-443: A special that launched colour TV broadcasting on the ABC. The Aunty Jack team also undertook a successful concert tour during 1974 and, boosted by the popularity of the show, the Aunty Jack theme song (Australia's first picture disc single) went to #1 on the Australian pop chart for 3 weeks, followed by a successful LP based on the show, Aunty Jack Sings Wollongong . NSW Premier Sir Robert Askin 's retirement from politics in 1975
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#1732914140715720-417: A surreal black comedy called Homesdale with an ensemble cast that included rising actress Kate Fitzpatrick . In the film Bond played Mister Kevin, the first incarnation of the popular Aunty Jack Show character Kev Kavanagh . Soon after Homesdale Bond and Weir were asked to create a children's radio series for the ABC, to replace the long-running Argonauts Club . It was for this series that Bond created
780-745: A writing course and was inspired by the first episodes to write and submit scripts, which were welcomed by the team. This character featured only briefly in Aunty Jack , but became much more prominent in the spin-off Wollongong the Brave as the Wollongong media 'un-personality' Norman Gunston . The Gunston character also appeared on the Aunty Jack Sings Wollongong LP and starred in the Logie-winning Tonight Show parody, The Norman Gunston Show , which premiered in 1975. Some of
840-479: Is a Logie Award-winning Australian television comedy series that ran from 1972 to 1973. Produced by and broadcast on ABC-TV , the series attained an instant cult status that persists to the present day. The lead character, Aunty Jack was a unique comic creation – obese, moustachioed and gravel-voiced, part trucker and part pantomime dame – who habitually solved any problem by knocking people unconscious or threatening to "rip yer bloody arms off". Visually, she
900-564: Is just to have I fun. I hope News Free Zone builds up new faces." It was filmed in Adelaide. The series ran on every weekday for ten weeks. The show was the lead-in for the new ABC news program The National . Ratings were poor. Grahame Bond Grahame John Bond AM (born 21 November 1943) is an Australian Bachelor Architecture, actor, writer, director, musician and composer, known primarily for his role as Aunty Jack . Bond began his career in entertainment at University of Sydney in
960-486: The Aunty Jack's Travelling Show and four episodes of the subsequent series. He gave up performing just before The Aunty Jack Show , saying in a later interview: "We were very much in the vein of Monty Python, and I saw them in England and they were so superior to what we did… that was it. I told my writing partner I wanted to focus on films, I sold him my sketches and that was it. It was very difficult because he had just gotten
1020-520: The Mickey Mouse Club and The Steve Allen Show as early interests, but cited the surreal black humour of Joseph Heller 's novel Catch-22 as a major comedic influence. Peter Weir was also involved behind the scenes in the early days of the series. He had been part of the university revues they had done together in the 1960s, and had a small part in Homesdale and was credited as a writer on
1080-510: The National Archives of Australia the footage was located and restored, enabling the missing episodes to be reconstructed. The long-awaited release of the complete Series 1 on DVD took place in December 2005, and the complete Series 2 followed in April 2006. Although the master videotapes were monochrome, and the main episodes are presented in this format on DVD, much of the footage for the series
1140-535: The 1960s as a founding student member of the Sydney University Architecture Revue, which included his university friends, then architect Geoffrey Atherden (writer Mother and Son ); director Peter Weir ; composer Peter Best ; and Rory O'Donoghue . Bond graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1967 and began tutoring in design at Sydney University in the late 1960s, although his performing career soon took over and he spent much of
1200-472: The 1980s, producing some of the best Australian TV comedy series of the period, including The Big Gig and The Gillies Report . Interviewed for Mouthing Off , a history of Australian comedy, Robinson enthusiastically sang Murphy's praises: Aunty Jack's Travelling Show convinced the ABC to commission a short series, to be screened weekly. The Aunty Jack Show premiered on 16 November 1972 and became an immediate cult hit with younger audiences, although it
1260-532: The ABC's Religious Affairs Department, Weir, Bond was one of a group of people commissioned to produce a TV special, Man on a Green Bike , a fantasy that examined three different views of Christmas; this screened on ABC-TV at the end of December 1969. The 50-minute film, which is Bond's first known TV appearance, was co-written by and starred Bond and Weir, with Geoff Malone, James Dellit, and Anna Nygh. The story concerned three men, once friends sharing many adventures, who are now mayors of three cities—medieval Ackley,
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#17329141407151320-454: The ABC, particularly after the departure of Maurice Murphy, who had consistently championed and protected Bond and his colleagues from management interference. These problems culminated in a controversial incident in 1977 which led Bond and O'Donoghue to sever their association with ABC-TV. On the night of the first episode of Bond and O'Donoghue's new sketch series The Off Show , the ABC's newly appointed head of comedy Alan Bateman ordered
1380-470: The Aunty Jack spinoffs Wollongong the Brave (1974), Flash Nick from Jindavick (1974) and the ill-fated The Off Show (1977). On radio, Bond, O'Donoghue and McDonald continued their partnership with the weekly comedy program Nude Radio , which aired on the ABC's newly established rock radio station 2JJ (Double Jay) in Sydney during 1975. Bond's theatrical credits include the popular Shakespearean parody Boys Own McBeth , which toured Australia and
1440-617: The United States in the late 1970s. In the 1980s he wrote and directed the comedy musical Captain Bloody for the Elizabethan Theatre Trust . Although the series made him a star and Aunty Jack is now widely acknowledged as one of the milestones in Australian comedy, the Aunty Jack character became something of a burden for Bond; his TV career after Aunty Jack was also increasingly hampered by conflicts with conservative elements in
1500-659: The business in 1996 in order to travel. His journeys included trekking in Nepal , canoeing in Kakadu , cycling from Hanoi to Saigon , and archaeological excavations in Jordan , Cyprus and Syria . In the early 2000s Bond filmed a documentary in Papua New Guinea titled The Big Chief . In the 1990s Bond hosted the Channel Seven game show Whose House is it Anyway , and was a presenter on
1560-475: The cast was revived and returned for a special two years later to mark the inauguration of colour television in Australia on 1 March 1975. The special beat ABC's commercial rivals by beginning 3 minutes early, at 11:57 pm 28 February 1975 in black and white and then wiping to colour at midnight. Two series of The Aunty Jack Show were made in 1972 and 1973 respectively. The first series comprised seven episodes,
1620-422: The character Kev Kevanagh. Although fans long hoped that The Aunty Jack Show might be released on home video, it was more than thirty years after the show's first screening until this took place. Although there have been a number of reasons suggested, it is generally accepted that the major stumbling block was a long-running disagreement between Bond and the ABC, stemming from Bond and O'Donoghue's resentment over
1680-435: The character's aggressive attitude, her golden boxing glove and her "I'll rip yer bloody arms off" catchphrase quickly established her, and the show, as comedy icons. Aunty Jack returned in early 2006 in a live stage show titled The Aunty Jack Show and Tell , starring Grahame Bond and Rory O'Donoghue. As well as Aunty Jack and Thin Arthur, the show featured the singing tramps Neil and Errol, Country and Eastern music exponents
1740-458: The children of certain ABC executives saved the show from being cancelled. This would not be the team's last such run-in with management, however, and the tensions between the creative and bureaucratic elements in the ABC eventually came to a head with The Off Show in 1977. Bond ended the show at the end of the second season by having Aunty Jack die of a heart attack, 'mortified' by the other cast members' 'dirty' language and content. Nevertheless,
1800-411: The first disc of its kind in the world (although "Goondiwindi Grey" by Tex Morton in 1972 had also been issued in Australia as a picture disc too, but didn't hit the top spot nationally). By the time Series 2 was underway Bond was already tired of Aunty Jack so he decided to kill her off in the final episode, "The R-Certificate Show" when, shocked by the gratuitous sex and nudity, Aunty Jack expires from
1860-549: The futuristic Cadmium, and Petal Lake, a community reminiscent of the 1930s. Into their midst comes the strange figure of Mr. Maloon, a man travelling on a heavily laden green bike, whose presence disturbs and embarrasses the mayors. During 1970 Bond, Weir and co. created and performed the revue Filth at the Phillip St Revue , followed by Hamlet on Ice at the Nimrod Theatre . Bond's friendship with Weir led to him writing
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1920-422: The gang can't remove it and so they shrink to remove the moustache, but end up being swallowed and take our tour of the inside of Aunty Jack. The episode also shows a short documentary on a five-year bus driving course. The episode sees Aunty Jack haunted by her own ghost, using protection from the rest of the gang and a new fictional television show, New Faces, hosted by Norman Tavistock. The episode also features
1980-468: The gravel-voiced cross-dressing character Aunty Jack, who was based on an uncle whom he had disliked as a child. In 1972 Bond, O'Donoghue, Weir and Atherden were commissioned by the new head of ABC TV comedy, Maurice Murphy , to create a new short sketch comedy series, The Aunty Jack Show , based around the Aunty Jack character; it premiered in early 1972 with Bond, O'Donoghue, Sandra McGregor , John Derum (Series 1) and Garry McDonald (Series 2) as
2040-421: The licensing of their music rights over the series. The missing episodes were found in the early 2000s, Bond and O'Donoghue reconciled with the ABC, and the complete, restored series of The Aunty Jack Show and Wollongong the Brave were released on DVD in 2005/2006. In 1990, Bond opened his own advertising agency, Bond Strohfeldt, with clients including Daihatsu , Bridgestone , Virgin and Disney . He sold
2100-405: The light side in life". He says it was based on his "personal attention span. Some programs have one minute of plot and 27 minutes of fill in. I've always wondered why we just didn't have the minute and forget about the other 27 minutes." Apart from Grahame Bond, there are no well-known faces in the cast. "The aim is to try and develop a program that doesn't have to come off," said Murphy. "The idea
2160-684: The main performing team. Despite a rash of early complaints—notably about Aunty Jack's gender identity, her frequent use of the word "bloody" and her habit of punching everyone – The Aunty Jack Show soon found a loyal audience and became one of the most popular comedy series in ABC history. As well as writing many sketches and co-writing all the original music with Rory O'Donoghue, Bond played many recurring and occasional characters including Aunty Jack, rock'n'roll butcher Kev Kavanagh and nervous folk singer Errol. Two series of Aunty Jack were made in 1972–73 and 1973–74 and in March 1975 Bond revived Aunty Jack for
2220-500: The music for the three-part AFI Award-winning 1970 film Three To Go (in which he also had a small acting role), for which Weir directed one segment. Bond also provided the music and played a leading role in Weir's first film, the 1971 short feature Homesdale . Aunty Jack was created for a proposed ABC Radio children's radio series, The Aunty Jack Show , commissioned by Paddy Conroy (former head of ABC TV and now cable channel manager). It
2280-506: The next two decades writing and performing on TV, radio and the stage. Following the success of the 1967 Sydney University Architecture Revue "The Great Wall of Porridge", Bond and others (including Atherden and Weir) were invited to stage a professional revue for Producers Authors Composers and Talent (now PACT Centre for Emerging Artists) and Sydney's Cellblock Theatre at the National Art School , called Balloon Dubloon which (at
2340-530: The popular Seven lifestyle series Better Homes and Gardens for six years. Internationally, he is best known for his recurring role as The Ancient One in the first two seasons of the Beastmaster television series in 1999 and 2000. In 1977, he appeared as Aunty Jack on British television in Not The Aunty Jack Show for London Weekend Television . On 30 March 2006 he and Rory O'Donoghue undertook
2400-456: The presumed loss of several Aunty Jack episodes and the Off Show incident. Since Bond and O'Donoghue controlled the rights for all the original music featured in the series, their refusal to release them effectively kept the series from release until 2005. For many years there were persistent rumours—fuelled by press statements from Bond himself—that some episodes had been lost or destroyed. This
2460-428: The program to be pulled from the schedule half an hour before it was due to go to air, and he then destroyed the tape, reportedly because he was offended by a Bill Harding -penned religious parody sketch entitled "Leave It To Jesus". The remaining episodes of the series were subsequently screened as The Of Show . The only surviving artefact of the erased program is the theme song for the "Leave It To Jesus" sketch, which
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2520-590: The request of festival director Sir Robert Helpmann ) was also staged at the Adelaide Festival . In 1969, soon after Balloon Dubloon Bob Allnutt of the PACT Theatre Company—who was also working for the ABC's religious affairs department—he commissioned Bond and Weir to make a one-hour special, Man on a Green Bike , which was Bond's first TV appearance. In 1970 Bond wrote and performed in another successful comedy revue, Hamlet on Ice . In 1971, Peter Weir wrote and directed his first short feature film,
2580-466: The second six episodes. There were also two specials, one aired 8 June 1973 before the second series began in October, and a second aired in 1975 and an unaired pilot, before the series started. Each episode was built around a central theme. Regular cast : Regular cast : The episode sees Channel 9 launching a new-look Aunty Jack Show, starring Kid Eager as Aunty Jack. Aunty Jack protests and takes back
2640-717: The series. Episode 1 Aunty Jack'n'The Gong in Bloody Concert featured the core characters, augmented by a rock group. Episode 2 featured 'Country and Mediterranean' music group The Farelly Brothers and their singing sheep Jason; Episode 3 featured meat guru Kev Kavanagh and the final instalment Norman Gunston: The Golden Weeks eventually spawned The Norman Gunston Show in late 1975. At 11:57 PM on Friday 28 February 1975, Aunty Jack, Thin Arthur, and Kid Eager introduced colour television broadcasting on ABC-TV , beating another channel's first colour program by deliberately starting three minutes early. The team's last major TV collaboration
2700-533: The show. Other skits include the Gong-fu skit, set in a Chinese Restaurant and a new segment 'What's on in Wollongong'. The episode sees Aunty Jack looking back on her past as Princess Jack, royalty in Wollongong, when 'things' kidnapped her parents, where she goes on search for them. Later in the episode, Kev Kavanagh is seen in London on a butcher's grant. The episode sees Aunty Jack back when she won her golden glove for
2760-471: The sketches over the two series included the following: A compilation of colour filmed segments from the first series was edited into an 85-minute feature The Very Best of The Aunty Jack Show which was screened at the 1973 Montreux Film Festival . It was not seen by Australian audiences until it was broadcast on ABC television on 26 January 1991. The popularity of the series led to a one-off TV special, Aunty Jack Rox On with special guest Stevie Wright ,
2820-528: The special, Aunty Jack Rox On, and was replaced in Series 2 by a new cast member, Garry McDonald , a talented young actor, comedian and musician, who had recently graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art . His main role was as Aunty Jack's new sidekick, the cheeky, gum-chewing, freckle-faced Kid Eager. In one episode McDonald premiered a new character, devised by a viewer: Wendy Skelcher had taken up
2880-778: The two teams evidently shared the same love of surreal humour , Aunty Jack had existed conceptually before Bond or other show creators had seen Monty Python . Indeed, Aunty Jack's television debut took place an hour and a half before the British show was first screened in Australia on 30 December 1971 (The "Aunty Jack's Travelling Show" episode of The Comedy Game was screened at 7:30pm, Monty Python at 8:55). The Goons have also been mentioned as an inspiration, but in Johnson and Smiedt's history of Australian comedy Boom Boom , Bond himself said that he had listened to The Goons only occasionally. He mentioned Australian radio star Jack Davey , Bob Dyer ,
2940-489: The university's legendary Architecture Revues from 1964 to 1969. It was here that he met and became friends with other Sydney students including scriptwriter Geoffrey Atherden , television and film director Maurice Murphy and Peter Weir , who would go on to become an internationally acclaimed film director. Through these stage revues Bond also met his longtime musical, writing and acting partner Rory O'Donoghue , who had begun his performing career playing The Artful Dodger in
3000-423: The world heavy-weight boxing competition. Kid Eager discovers that the glove has magical powers and decides to steal it, whilst Flange Desire decides to marry Kid Eager for his money and so Aunty Jack and Thin Arthur engage him in a card game to make sure that the money goes to them instead. The episode sees Aunty Jack attempting to get rid of her feminity . It is decided that her moustache needs to come off, but
3060-401: Was filmed in colour and these are included as alternate scenes. The only episode in the entire Aunty Jack Show series not to be released on DVD was the 1973 special, 'Aunty Jack Rox On'. In 2019, TV Week listed The Aunty Jack Show at #99 in its list of the 101 greatest Australian television shows of all time, which appeared in its monthly TV Week Close Up publication. The magazine said
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#17329141407153120-454: Was given added credence by the fact that (like the BBC ) the ABC had undertaken an "economy drive" in the late 1970s and early 1980s, during which (it has been reported) substantial portions of many shows were erased. Although (according to Bond ) the original master tapes for three episodes were erased, all the original film footage shot for the missing episodes had survived and with the assistance of
3180-471: Was greeted on This Day Tonight by the cast of The Aunty Jack Show , with a reworded version of "Farewell, Aunty Jack": Farewell Robin A, We think you've had your day Though you're four foot three You don't do much for me You're short, round and fat A pudden in a hat, There's a scream as you plummet away. Following Aunty Jack , Bond did considerable work in TV, radio and theatre. His TV credits include
3240-430: Was intended to replace the long-running children's radio series The Argonauts Club , which was about to be cancelled. The new series did not go to air because ABC executives felt that the Aunty Jack character and some of Bond's songs were "inappropriate" for young listeners. The Aunty Jack character made her TV debut in Aunty Jack's Travelling Show , an episode of ABC-TV's The Comedy Game , broadcast in late 1971. It
3300-528: Was originally to be called Aunty Jack's Travelling Abattoirs but ABC executives objected to the title. The program featured Bond, O'Donoghue and Derum, with Sharman Mellick and Kate Fitzpatrick in supporting roles. This marked the start of a fruitful partnership between Bond, O'Donoghue and ABC writer, producer and director Maurice Murphy . They became the creative nucleus for a string of programs that strongly influenced TV comedy in Australia. Although frequently compared to Monty Python's Flying Circus , as
3360-481: Was partly inspired by his overbearing Uncle Jack, whom he had disliked as a child, his grandfather Ben Doyle, and Dot Strong , the ABC's last official tea lady. Bond was already an accomplished writer, producer, comedian, singer, songwriter and guitarist by the time he graduated with an architecture degree from the University of Sydney . He cut his teeth writing and performing as a founder member and leading light of
3420-448: Was poorly received by critics. Some viewers found it too confronting, and according to Murphy, the ABC received hundreds of calls after the first episode, complaining about the violence, the "bad language" and especially about the drag aspect of the Aunty Jack character. The adverse reaction was reportedly strong enough for the ABC to seriously consider taking the series off the air, but it is generally reported that impassioned pleas from
3480-549: Was released in 2006 as a bonus track on the CD reissue of Aunty Jack Sings Wollongong . Although Bond returned to the ABC briefly in 1985 to host a short-lived comedy series, News Free Zone , his unhappiness over the presumed loss of several episodes of Aunty Jack , combined with The Off Show incident, effectively ended his relationship with the ABC. As a result, the ABC was for many years unable to release The Aunty Jack Show to home video because Bond and O'Donoghue refused to agree to
3540-496: Was the abortive comedy series The Off Show (1977) which was cancelled after only a few episodes following a controversial incident in which ABC executive Alan Batemen pulled the premiere episode from the schedule half an hour before it was due to air and then erased the tape, reportedly because he was offended by the Bill Harding religious parody sketch "Leave It To Jesus". The character of Norman Gunston , originally created for
3600-428: Was unmistakable, dressed in a huge, tent-like blue velvet dress, football socks, workboots, and a golden boxing glove on her right hand. She rode a Harley-Davidson motorcycle and referred to everyone as "me little lovelies" – when she was not uttering her familiar threat: "I'll rip yer bloody arms off!", a phrase which immediately passed into the vernacular. The character was devised and played by Grahame Bond and
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