John Doyle (comedian)
Encyclopedia
John Partick Doyle AM
(born 1953) is an award-winning Australian actor, writer, radio presenter and comedian.
in 1953 into a music-loving, Catholic household with three sisters and a brother. His mother was a business woman and father a railway fettler. He was an altar boy for a time but lost interest in Catholicism with the introduction of contemporary changes in the Mass among other things. Doyle graduated from the then Newcastle Teacher's College in 1973 with a Diploma of Teaching (Secondary English/History). He completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Newcastle (NSW) in 1978, before joining the Hunter Valley Theatre Company. He continued to perform while teaching at Glendale High School near Newcastle. He resigned from teaching after seven years and moved to Sydney
, where he worked with the Sydney Theatre Company
.
created the characters of "Rampaging" Roy Slaven and HG Nelson
. Loosely based on classic TV sporting commentators such as Rex Mossop
, Doyle created Slaven as a larger-than-life persona, an utterly opinionated, impossibly talented "sporting everyman" who has represented Australia
in every field, won innumerable Melbourne Cup
s on his ageless mount Rooting King, is on intimate terms with every sporting celebrity (including many top racehorses), as well as film and music stars, politicians and other leaders of society around the world, yet who retains the "common touch" and stands for Australian manhood, fairness, and honesty. Slaven is the name of a well known family from Doyle's home town, Lithgow.
Roy Slaven first appeared on Triple J
's breakfast show every Friday during 1985. It was at this time that Doyle met Flinders University
arts graduate Greig Pickhaver, while both actors were working as minor characters on an SBS
TV series. Pickhaver had similar comedic skills and interests, and had also developed a sporting commentator character called "HG Nelson" while appearing on the Melbourne radio comedy program Punter To Punter in the early '80s. An amalgam of just about every Aussie sports commentator and race caller who ever lived, HG, like Roy, has seen and done it all and is utterly passionate about truth and honesty in sport.
The team of "Roy and HG" was born when This Sporting Life
premiered on Triple J in early 1986. The four-hour (later three-hour) comedy show, improvised live, soon became a cult hit. Over that time Doyle and Pickhaver perfected a unique style that satirises the world of sport and the athletes, the entertainment scene and celebrity in general, in a manner that is simultaneously ruthless and affectionate. As well as their weekly radio show, the duo also made satirical radio "calls" of major annual sporting events including the rugby league
State Of Origin
series, the League and AFL Grand Finals (known as the Festivals of the Boot, Parts I and II) and the Melbourne Cup
, as well as occasional outside broadcasts of TSL performed before live audiences.
For several years in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Doyle hosted the two-hour mid-afternoon shift on ABC radio station 2BL
in Sydney, earning a loyal following among listeners and demonstrating that he was not only extremely knowledgeable on a huge range of subjects, but was also a superb interviewer. He took over many existing program segments and made them entirely his own, and his regular conversations with guests such as cooking expert Barbara Lowery, Sydney Opera House media liaison officer "Commodore" David Brown (whom he nicknamed "The Salty Sea Dog"), gardening expert Angus Stewart
(nicknamed "The Doctor Of The Dirt"), pop music expert and "Sydney Morning Herald" journalist Bruce Elder
(nicknamed "The Professor of Pop") and Sydney Morning Herald TV Guide editor Tony Squires
, became regular highlights of the show.
Like Graham Kennedy
, Doyle specialised in subtly (or blatantly) undercutting the "straight" presentation of such stock segments, and he often veered off on tangents that he found funny or diverting, or introduced ideas which he thought might be likely to get a "rise" from his guest. One memorable thread was his long-running obsession with the source of a supposed "mystery noise" that was reputedly disturbing patrons in the Opera House Concert Hall, and he regularly badgered long-suffering Opera House publicist David Brown for an explanation. The inadequacy of the women's toilets were also a frequent subject of discussion, or more correctly, interrogation, and the "whats on at the Opera House" segments stretched from around 10 minutes to a whole half hour, through most of which David Brown's characteristic laugh was a highlight.
Although his "Slavenesque" sense of humour often showed through on the 2BL shift, Doyle and Pickhaver were assiduous about keeping their real-life identities and the Roy and HG characters separate (they were rarely photographed) and although Pickhaver often appeared on The Afternoon Programme as HG Nelson, Doyle never performed overtly as Roy, or referred to him in any way. During this period Doyle kept up a hectic work schedule, presenting the Afternoon Programme two hours a day, Monday to Friday, as well as his regular four-hour stint on Saturdays on This Sporting Life and also, at one stage, the first weekly half-hour TV version of the show.
in the acclaimed Network Ten
television miniseries Bodyline
.
In the early 1990s, "Roy and HG" successfully transferred to ABC-TV; the first version, also called This Sporting Life, was moderately successful, but suffered from being essentially a TV "talking head" version of the radio show. They reinvented the concept by marrying it with a broad parody-cum-tribute of Australian variety entertainment. The result, Club Buggery
ran for two series (one as The Channel Nine Show); it became a cult hit, and the duo won a Logie Award
.
After moving to the commercial Seven Network in the late 1990s, they scored record TV ratings and gained international notoriety during the Sydney 2000 Olympics with their hit late-night Olympic commentary show The Dream. The show became so popular that the Australian Olympic Committee included the duo in the Closing Ceremony.
They have also appeared on the Seven Network with The Monday Dump and The Nation Dumps and have repeated their success with The Dream in two subsequent series commentating on the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and the 2004 Olympics in Athens. The two have also appeared together on the television shows The Channel Nine Show and Planet Norwich.
Over the last decade Doyle has also developed a very successful parallel career as a writer of serious television drama. His first major effort as a TV dramatist was the highly acclaimed ABC-TV miniseries Changi
, an adventurous exploration of the experiences of a group of young Australian soldiers interned in Changi POW camp
during World War II.
The series was partly inspired by Hogan's Heroes
and was originally conceived as a situation comedy; using the dramatic technique of magic realism
, Doyle developed the script into a deeply moving yet often humorous examination of the experiences of young men at war and the effects it has on their later lives.
More recently he wrote the drama series Marking Time
, which examines contemporary racial and cultural tensions in Australian society, seen through the prism of an Australian country town and focusing on the relationship between two teenagers — an Anglo Celtic Australian boy named Hal and a Muslim
immigrant girl named Randa.
In 2006, Doyle appeared in "Two Men In A Tinnie", a documentary of his own making involving a trip down the Murray-Darling river system of Australia with his longtime friend, biologist Dr Tim Flannery
. The program focuses on the degradation of the once mighty rivers and gives many different insights as to the causes. John and Tim have reprised their collaboration in 2008 with "Two in the Top End" as they explore northern Australia.
In 2008, his play "Pig Iron People" was produced by Sydney Theatre Company at the Sydney Opera House Drama Theatre.
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
(born 1953) is an award-winning Australian actor, writer, radio presenter and comedian.
Early life
Doyle was born in Lithgow, New South WalesLithgow, New South Wales
Lithgow is a city in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia and is the centre of the local political division City of Lithgow. It is located in a mountain valley named Lithgow's Valley by John Oxley in honour of William Lithgow, the first Auditor-General of New South Wales.Lithgow is...
in 1953 into a music-loving, Catholic household with three sisters and a brother. His mother was a business woman and father a railway fettler. He was an altar boy for a time but lost interest in Catholicism with the introduction of contemporary changes in the Mass among other things. Doyle graduated from the then Newcastle Teacher's College in 1973 with a Diploma of Teaching (Secondary English/History). He completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Newcastle (NSW) in 1978, before joining the Hunter Valley Theatre Company. He continued to perform while teaching at Glendale High School near Newcastle. He resigned from teaching after seven years and moved to Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, where he worked with the Sydney Theatre Company
Sydney Theatre Company
The Sydney Theatre Company is one of Australia's best-known theatre companies operating from The Wharf Theatre near The Rocks area of Sydney, as well as the Sydney Theatre and the Sydney Opera House Drama Theatre....
.
Radio
Doyle commenced his radio career in 1986, when he and Greig PickhaverGreig Pickhaver
alt=Greig Pickhaver|thumb|In May 2010Greig Pickhaver AM is an actor, comedian and writer, who forms one half of the Australian sports comedy duo Roy and HG...
created the characters of "Rampaging" Roy Slaven and HG Nelson
Roy and HG
Roy & HG is an Australian comedy duo, comprising Greig Pickhaver in the role of "H [Harry] G Nelson" and John Doyle as "'Rampaging' Roy Slaven". Their act is an affectionate but irreverent parody of Australia's obsession with sport. Their characters based on archetypes in sports journalism: Nelson...
. Loosely based on classic TV sporting commentators such as Rex Mossop
Rex Mossop
Rex Peers Mossop was an Australian rugby league and rugby union footballer—a dual-code international, and an Australian television personality from 1964 until 1991.-Rugby union career:...
, Doyle created Slaven as a larger-than-life persona, an utterly opinionated, impossibly talented "sporting everyman" who has represented Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
in every field, won innumerable Melbourne Cup
Melbourne Cup
The Melbourne Cup is Australia's major Thoroughbred horse race. Marketed as "the race that stops a nation", it is a 3,200 metre race for three-year-olds and over. It is the richest "two-mile" handicap in the world, and one of the richest turf races...
s on his ageless mount Rooting King, is on intimate terms with every sporting celebrity (including many top racehorses), as well as film and music stars, politicians and other leaders of society around the world, yet who retains the "common touch" and stands for Australian manhood, fairness, and honesty. Slaven is the name of a well known family from Doyle's home town, Lithgow.
Roy Slaven first appeared on Triple J
Triple J
triple j is a nationally networked Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners between the ages of 18 and 30. The government-funded station is a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation...
's breakfast show every Friday during 1985. It was at this time that Doyle met Flinders University
Flinders University
Flinders University, , is a public university in Adelaide, South Australia. Founded in 1966, it was named in honour of navigator Matthew Flinders, who explored and surveyed the South Australian coastline in the early 19th century.The university has established a reputation as a leading research...
arts graduate Greig Pickhaver, while both actors were working as minor characters on an SBS
Special Broadcasting Service
The Special Broadcasting Service is a hybrid-funded Australian public broadcasting radio and television network. The stated purpose of SBS is "to provide multilingual and multicultural radio and television services that inform, educate and entertain all Australians and, in doing so, reflect...
TV series. Pickhaver had similar comedic skills and interests, and had also developed a sporting commentator character called "HG Nelson" while appearing on the Melbourne radio comedy program Punter To Punter in the early '80s. An amalgam of just about every Aussie sports commentator and race caller who ever lived, HG, like Roy, has seen and done it all and is utterly passionate about truth and honesty in sport.
The team of "Roy and HG" was born when This Sporting Life
This Sporting Life (radio program)
This Sporting Life was a culturally iconic Triple J radio comedy programme, created by award-winning actor-writer-comedians John Doyle and Greig Pickhaver, who performed as their characters Roy and HG. Broadcast from 1986 to 2008, it was one of the longest-running, most popular and most successful...
premiered on Triple J in early 1986. The four-hour (later three-hour) comedy show, improvised live, soon became a cult hit. Over that time Doyle and Pickhaver perfected a unique style that satirises the world of sport and the athletes, the entertainment scene and celebrity in general, in a manner that is simultaneously ruthless and affectionate. As well as their weekly radio show, the duo also made satirical radio "calls" of major annual sporting events including the rugby league
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
State Of Origin
Rugby League State of Origin
State of Origin is an annual best of three series of rugby league football matches contested by the Maroons and the Blues, who represent the Australian states of Queensland and New South Wales respectively...
series, the League and AFL Grand Finals (known as the Festivals of the Boot, Parts I and II) and the Melbourne Cup
Melbourne Cup
The Melbourne Cup is Australia's major Thoroughbred horse race. Marketed as "the race that stops a nation", it is a 3,200 metre race for three-year-olds and over. It is the richest "two-mile" handicap in the world, and one of the richest turf races...
, as well as occasional outside broadcasts of TSL performed before live audiences.
For several years in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Doyle hosted the two-hour mid-afternoon shift on ABC radio station 2BL
2BL
2BL may refer to:*2BL , an Australian radio station 702 ABC Sydney*Block 2BL, a Russian rocket stage....
in Sydney, earning a loyal following among listeners and demonstrating that he was not only extremely knowledgeable on a huge range of subjects, but was also a superb interviewer. He took over many existing program segments and made them entirely his own, and his regular conversations with guests such as cooking expert Barbara Lowery, Sydney Opera House media liaison officer "Commodore" David Brown (whom he nicknamed "The Salty Sea Dog"), gardening expert Angus Stewart
Angus Stewart
Angus Stewart is an Australian horticulturist, gardening author and TV presenter on Gardening Australia. He is especially interested in Native Plants, and has been heavily involved in breeding of Kangaroo paws....
(nicknamed "The Doctor Of The Dirt"), pop music expert and "Sydney Morning Herald" journalist Bruce Elder
Bruce Elder
Bruce Elder is a journalist, writer and commentator. He is currently a full-time journalist with the Sydney Morning Herald specialising in travel and popular culture. His other areas of expertise include film, television, and popular music. He has written extensively around Australia and has a...
(nicknamed "The Professor of Pop") and Sydney Morning Herald TV Guide editor Tony Squires
Tony Squires
Tony Squires is an Australian media personality, currently presenting the sport report on Seven News in Sydney. He is perhaps best known as the presenter of the comic sport news show The Fat, which ran on ABC television from 2000 to 2003....
, became regular highlights of the show.
Like Graham Kennedy
Graham Kennedy
Graham Cyril Kennedy, AO was an Australian radio, television and film performer, often called Gra Gra and The King of Australian television.-Childhood:...
, Doyle specialised in subtly (or blatantly) undercutting the "straight" presentation of such stock segments, and he often veered off on tangents that he found funny or diverting, or introduced ideas which he thought might be likely to get a "rise" from his guest. One memorable thread was his long-running obsession with the source of a supposed "mystery noise" that was reputedly disturbing patrons in the Opera House Concert Hall, and he regularly badgered long-suffering Opera House publicist David Brown for an explanation. The inadequacy of the women's toilets were also a frequent subject of discussion, or more correctly, interrogation, and the "whats on at the Opera House" segments stretched from around 10 minutes to a whole half hour, through most of which David Brown's characteristic laugh was a highlight.
Although his "Slavenesque" sense of humour often showed through on the 2BL shift, Doyle and Pickhaver were assiduous about keeping their real-life identities and the Roy and HG characters separate (they were rarely photographed) and although Pickhaver often appeared on The Afternoon Programme as HG Nelson, Doyle never performed overtly as Roy, or referred to him in any way. During this period Doyle kept up a hectic work schedule, presenting the Afternoon Programme two hours a day, Monday to Friday, as well as his regular four-hour stint on Saturdays on This Sporting Life and also, at one stage, the first weekly half-hour TV version of the show.
Television
In 1984, Doyle appeared as English bowler George "Gubby" AllenGubby Allen
Sir George Oswald Browning "Gubby" Allen, CBE was a cricketer who played for Middlesex, Cambridge University, MCC and England. Australian-born, Allen was a fast bowler and hard-hitting lower-order batsman, who captained England in eleven Test matches...
in the acclaimed Network Ten
Network Ten
Network Ten , is one of Australia's three major commercial television networks. Owned-and-operated stations can be found in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to cover most of the country...
television miniseries Bodyline
Bodyline (miniseries)
Bodyline is an Australian 1984 television miniseries which dramatised the events of the 1932–1933 English Ashes cricket tour of Australia....
.
In the early 1990s, "Roy and HG" successfully transferred to ABC-TV; the first version, also called This Sporting Life, was moderately successful, but suffered from being essentially a TV "talking head" version of the radio show. They reinvented the concept by marrying it with a broad parody-cum-tribute of Australian variety entertainment. The result, Club Buggery
Club Buggery
Club Buggery is the title of an Australian television series of the 1990s. It was created and performed by Australian comedy duo Roy and HG and broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation network in 1996 and 1997.-Development:The series was an offshoot the duo's long-running,...
ran for two series (one as The Channel Nine Show); it became a cult hit, and the duo won a Logie Award
Logie Award
The TV Week Logie Awards are the Australian television industry awards, which have been presented annually since 1959. Renamed by Graham Kennedy in 1960 after he won the first 'Star Of The Year' award, the name 'Logie' awards honours John Logie Baird, a Scotsman who invented the television as a...
.
After moving to the commercial Seven Network in the late 1990s, they scored record TV ratings and gained international notoriety during the Sydney 2000 Olympics with their hit late-night Olympic commentary show The Dream. The show became so popular that the Australian Olympic Committee included the duo in the Closing Ceremony.
They have also appeared on the Seven Network with The Monday Dump and The Nation Dumps and have repeated their success with The Dream in two subsequent series commentating on the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and the 2004 Olympics in Athens. The two have also appeared together on the television shows The Channel Nine Show and Planet Norwich.
Over the last decade Doyle has also developed a very successful parallel career as a writer of serious television drama. His first major effort as a TV dramatist was the highly acclaimed ABC-TV miniseries Changi
Changi (television)
Changi is a critically acclaimed six-part Australian television miniseries broadcast by ABC TV in 2001. It originally aired from 14 October 2001 to 18 November 2001.-Overview:...
, an adventurous exploration of the experiences of a group of young Australian soldiers interned in Changi POW camp
Changi Prison
Changi Prison is a prison located in Changi in the eastern part of Singapore.-First prison and POW camp:...
during World War II.
The series was partly inspired by Hogan's Heroes
Hogan's Heroes
Hogan's Heroes is an American television sitcom that ran for 168 episodes from September 17, 1965, to March 28, 1971, on the CBS network. The show was set in a German prisoner of war camp during the Second World War. Bob Crane had the starring role as Colonel Robert E...
and was originally conceived as a situation comedy; using the dramatic technique of magic realism
Magic realism
Magic realism or magical realism is an aesthetic style or genre of fiction in which magical elements blend with the real world. The story explains these magical elements as real occurrences, presented in a straightforward manner that places the "real" and the "fantastic" in the same stream of...
, Doyle developed the script into a deeply moving yet often humorous examination of the experiences of young men at war and the effects it has on their later lives.
More recently he wrote the drama series Marking Time
Marking Time
Marking Time was an Australian television mini-series, consisting of four one-hour episodes. It first aired on 9 and 10 November 2003 on ABC-TV...
, which examines contemporary racial and cultural tensions in Australian society, seen through the prism of an Australian country town and focusing on the relationship between two teenagers — an Anglo Celtic Australian boy named Hal and a Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
immigrant girl named Randa.
In 2006, Doyle appeared in "Two Men In A Tinnie", a documentary of his own making involving a trip down the Murray-Darling river system of Australia with his longtime friend, biologist Dr Tim Flannery
Tim Flannery
Timothy Fridtjof Flannery is an Australian mammalogist, palaeontologist, environmentalist and global warming activist....
. The program focuses on the degradation of the once mighty rivers and gives many different insights as to the causes. John and Tim have reprised their collaboration in 2008 with "Two in the Top End" as they explore northern Australia.
In 2008, his play "Pig Iron People" was produced by Sydney Theatre Company at the Sydney Opera House Drama Theatre.
Personal life
John Doyle is the Patron of http://www.autismspectrum.org.au Autism Spectrum Australia. John's affiliation with the organisation comes as a result of his younger sister being diagnosed with autism when she was ten. Doyle is also an atheist.Published works
- 1989: Pants off, this sporting life, by Roy Slaven and H.G. Nelson
- 1990: This is the south coast news and I'm Paul Murphy, by Roy Slaven, illustrated by Bill LeakBill LeakBill Leak is a cartoonist and painter, primarily of portraits. He is the daily editorial cartoonist on The Australian newspaper. He has won the Walkley Awards nine times....
- 1994: Boys and balls, by Brian NankervisBrian NankervisBrian Nankervis is an Australian comedian. He was originally best known for his character of Raymond J. Bartholomeuz, an eccentric beat poet. The character was popular during the 1980s and 1990s in regular appearances on Hey Hey It's Saturday...
; in the press box: Roy Slaven and H.G. Nelson
- 1996: Petrol, bait, ammo & ice, by H.G. Nelson, with a foreword by Roy Slaven; illustrated by Reg MombassaReg MombassaReg Mombassa is the pseudonym of Chris O'Doherty, a New Zealand born artist and musician. Resident in Australia, he is as well known there for his musical exploits — founder and former member of the popular Australian band Mental As Anything and member of Dog Trumpet - as he is for his art...
- 2001: Changi
- 2006: Two men in a tinnie, with Tim FlanneryTim FlanneryTimothy Fridtjof Flannery is an Australian mammalogist, palaeontologist, environmentalist and global warming activist....
- 2008: The pig iron people
Honours
- John Doyle was awarded a City of Newcastle Drama Award in 1981. His film credits include BlissBliss (1985 film)Bliss is a 1985 Australian film directed by Ray Lawrence, co-adapted by Lawrence and Peter Carey, author of the original novel Bliss from which it is adapted....
in 1985 and BabeBabe (film)Babe is a 1995 Australian-American film directed by Chris Noonan. It is an adaptation of the 1983 novel The Sheep-Pig, also known as Babe: The Gallant Pig in the United States, by Dick King-Smith and tells the story of a pig who wants to be a sheepdog...
in 1995.
- Doyle's outstanding contribution to Australia's cultural scene, through theatre, radio and television was recognised with the granting of an honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Newcastle in 2001. He delivered the 2005 Andrew Olle Media LectureAndrew Olle Media LectureThe Andrew Olle Media Lecture was established in 1996 by the presenters and staff at 702 ABC Sydney to honour the memory of ABC Radio broadcaster Andrew Olle, who died in 1995 of a brain tumour.The Andrew Olle Lecturers have been:...
.
- Doyle became a Member of the Order of Australia (AM)Order of AustraliaThe Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
on 16 June 2010 for service to the media as a presenter and entertainer, and as a supporter of a range of charitable organisations, particularly the United Nations Children's FundUnited Nations Children's FundUnited Nations Children's Fund was created by the United Nations General Assembly on December 11, 1946, to provide emergency food and healthcare to children in countries that had been devastated by World War II...
in Australia.