32-493: 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
64-593: 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." Garry McDonald Garry George McDonald AO (born 30 October 1948)
96-610: 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
128-417: 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
160-453: Is an Australian actor, satirist and comedian. In a career spanning five decades he has had many theatre, television and film roles, and has been listed as a National Living Treasure . He is best known as the seemingly naive celebrity interviewer Norman Gunston , through whom he pioneered the "ambush interviewer" technique since followed by many others. He received a Gold Logie award for the television Norman Gunston Show in which he developed
192-569: 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
224-596: The punk rock send-up "I Might Be A Punk But I Love You, Baby" and "KISS Army", a parody of the KISS single "I Was Made For Loving You". He also appeared onstage with Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney on 20 January 1976, playing harmonica on "The Torture Never Stops" - this performance was later released on the 2002 live album FZ:OZ . McDonald played Arthur Beare in
256-549: 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
288-454: 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
320-522: 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
352-640: The New South Wales south coast. Suffering from both depression and anxiety, McDonald talks openly about his condition. He is an ambassador and former board director of Beyond Blue , an Australian national depression initiative. He also serves as patron of the New South Wales branch of the Anxiety Disorders Foundation of Australia. McDonald is quoted in the press discussing a link between his own anxiety and that of his grandfather and mother. McDonald's condition first came to
SECTION 10
#1732781192769384-639: 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
416-686: 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
448-524: The character. He is also famed for his role of the hapless Arthur Beare in the television sitcom Mother and Son . Appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2003 for service to the community in the mental health field and to the arts as an entertainer, he has also been a board member of the Australian mental health organisation Beyond Blue . McDonald was born in Bondi , a beachside suburb of Sydney. He
480-426: The community by raising awareness of mental health issues and the effects of anxiety disorders and depression on sufferers and carers, and to the arts as an entertainer. His popularity among Australians is reflected in his being listed, after public nomination and vote, as a National Living Treasure , someone who has made an outstanding contribution to Australian society in any field of human endeavour. In 2015, he
512-708: The gauche and inept TV personality Norman Gunston . Gunston's first appearance was in a series of brief sketches which saw him reporting uncomfortably on a "sex-scandal drought" in Wollongong ; a drought he eventually breaks by appearing naked on camera. McDonald further developed the character in the Norman Gunston Show , for which he won a Gold Logie . Gunston's trademark look included a comb over , makeup to make his face deathbed white, and bits of tissue drying on shaving nicks. The series, which satirised many aspects of Australian culture and show business,
544-468: 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
576-421: 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
608-405: 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
640-688: 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
672-515: 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
SECTION 20
#1732781192769704-546: 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
736-428: 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
768-484: The public's attention when he reached a crisis point after a short-lived attempt to revive the Gunston character in 1993. Then again in 1997, McDonald suffered a severe episode during the launch of a new series, Rip Snorters . McDonald's condition also caused him to withdraw from the 2003 production of Patrick Marber 's Howard Katz . In 2003, McDonald was appointed an officer of the Order of Australia for service to
800-657: 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,
832-462: The satirically provocative 'ambush interview' technique which was used to great effect in interviews with Paul McCartney , Muhammad Ali , Keith Moon , Leif Garrett , Sally Struthers and Elton John . As Norman Gunston, McDonald also had a recording career, releasing a string of satirical pop parody records. Gunston's Top 40 hits included his interpretation of the Tom Jones classic "Delilah",
864-549: The television series Mother and Son , starring alongside Ruth Cracknell over six seasons from 1984 until 1994. He won several Logie Awards for his role in the show. McDonald joined the cast of the drama series Offspring in 2012 (Season 3) and was a series regular. He played Doctor Philip Noonan. Early in his career he met his wife, the actress Diane Craig , during a production of Let's Get A Divorce . They married in 1971 They have two grown children and live in Berry on
896-713: Was a featured subject on the ABC documentary series Australian Story . In 2020, he appeared on a stamp in the Australia Post Legends of Comedy series. The Australian Entertainment Mo Awards (commonly known informally as the Mo Awards ), were annual Australian entertainment industry awards. They recognise achievements in live entertainment in Australia from 1975 to 2016. Garry McDonald won one award in that time. Two portraits of McDonald have won awards at
928-418: Was a mixture of live and pre-recorded interviews, awkward musical segments – excruciatingly sung by Gunston himself in the broadest " strine " accent – and continuing comedy sketches such as "Norman's Dreamtime " (in which Norman read stories to a group of children, such as "Why Underpants Ride Up"). Using Gunston's gormless personality as a cover to break down the defences of his "victims", McDonald pioneered
960-536: Was educated at Cranbrook School . During his time at Cranbrook, McDonald developed an interest in acting and, despite family objections, went on to study at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), where he obtained a Diploma in Acting (misspelled "Actinig") in 1967. It was while working on The Aunty Jack Show in 1973, that McDonald first performed the character for which he became best-known,
992-474: 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
News Free Zone - Misplaced Pages Continue
1024-552: 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
#768231