The Aunty Jack Show
Encyclopedia
The Aunty Jack Show was 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 — an obese, moustachioed, gravel-voiced transvestite
, part trucker and part pantomime dame
— who habitually solved any problem by knocking people unconscious or threatening to rip their Bloody arms off. Visually, she 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 everywhere on 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 the multi-talented Grahame Bond
and 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.
graduate of Sydney University
, Bond was already an accomplished writer, producer, comedian, singer, songwriter and guitarist by the time he graduated. He cut his teeth writing and performing as a founder member and leading light of the University's legendary Architecture Revues from 1964-69. It was here that he met and became friends with other Sydney students including Geoffrey Atherden
, Maurice Murphy and Peter Weir
, who became Australia's most internationally acclaimed film director. Through these stage revues Grahame also met his longtime musical, writing and acting partner Rory O'Donoghue, who had begun his performing career playing The Artful Dodger
in 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. Rory was only 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, Grahame and friends continued working together on a wide range of projects in film, TV, radio and theatre. He collaborated on several short films and stage pieces with Peter Weir, and wrote and played in 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 Peter Weir, which in turn led to an invitation from festival director Sir Robert Helpmann to stage a reuve, Drip Dry Dreams at the Adelaide Festival and Richbrooke.
Through Bob Allnutt, a staffer at the PACT Theatre Company who also worked for the ABC's Religious Affairs Department, Weir, Bond and friends were 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 was Bond's first know TV appearance, was co-written by and starred Bond and Peter 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, 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 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
.
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 was originally to be called Aunty Jack's Travelling Abattoirs but ABC executives also found the title inappropriate. The program featured Bond, O'Donoghue and Derum, with Sherryn 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 redefined TV comedy in Australia.
, the Aunty Jack character in fact made her appearance well before Python was screened in Australia, although the two teams evidently shared the same love of surreal humour
. 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
, 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 60s, and had a small part in Homesdale, but by his own account he gave up performing just before The Aunty Jack Show. He later recounted that, after seeing Monty Python's Flying Circus for the first time, he felt that there was no way he could perform as well as the Python team and decided to stay behind the camera.
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 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 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 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 infamous The Off Show in 1977.
Two series of The Aunty Jack Show were made in 1972 and 1973 respectively. The first series comprised seven episodes, the second six episodes. Each episode was built around a central theme. The episode titles were:
Series One:
Series Two:
Bond killed off the show by having Aunty Jack die of a heart attack, 'mortified' by the other cast members' 'dirty' language and content.
's presenter and Michael Palin
's "It's" man — 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 — blonde bombshell Flange Desire (Sandra McGregor), the tremulous Thin Arthur (O'Donoghue) and the snobbish Narrator Neville (John Derum
).
There were also semi-regular appearances by nervous folk-singing duo Errol and Neil (Grahame & Rory), the obnoxious Kid Eager (McDonald), a parodic amalgam of characters like Dennis the Menace
and Ginger Meggs
, the extrovert rock'n'roll butcher Kev Kavanagh (Grahame), a character that Bond had already performed (as "Mr Kevin") in Peter Weir's Homesdale.
Derum left the show after Series 1, wishing to pursue other interests. He was replaced by a new cast member, Garry McDonald
, a talented young actor, comedian and musician, who had recently graduated from NIDA
. His main role was as Aunty Jack's new sidekick, the cheeky, gum-chewing, freckle-faced Kid Eager, but in one episode McDonald premiered a new character, devised by staff writer Wendy Heather. This character featured only briefly in Aunty Jack, but became much more prominent in the spin-off special Wollongong the Brave
and went on to become one of the most popular comedy characters in the history of Australian television—the now-legendary Wollongong media 'un-personality' Norman Gunston
. The Gunston character also appeared on the Aunty Jack Sings Wollongong LP and starred in his own hugely successful, Logie-winning Tonight Show parody, The Norman Gunston Show, which premiered in 1975.
There were some legendary sketches over the two series of The Aunty Jack Show, including:
" (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 22 weeks. It was the first single to debut in Australia at Number 1, the first Australian single to debut at Number 1 and also the first Australian single in picture-disc form, reputedly being the first disc of its kind in the world.
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 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 Jindivik.
The final outing for the classic Aunty Jack team was Wollongong the Brave
(1974), a series of four one-hour specials that showcased favourite characters from the series. Episode 1 Aunty Jack'n'The Gong in Bloody Concert featured the core characters, augmented by a rock group, with special guest Stevie Wright, former lead singer of The Easybeats
, who was then appearing in Jesus Christ Superstar
with O'Donoghue. 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 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".
Although fans long hoped that the 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 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 off home video 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 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) that 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 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 was filmed in colour and these are included as alternate scenes.
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 the Farrelly Brothers, the Ri Fol Tit Men and bodgie butcher and meat artist Kev Kavanagh.
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...
Award–winning Australian television comedy series that ran from 1972 to 1973. Produced by and broadcast on ABC-TV
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
, the series attained an instant cult status that persists to the present day.
The lead character, Aunty Jack was a unique comic creation — an obese, moustachioed, gravel-voiced transvestite
Transvestism
Transvestism is the practice of cross-dressing, which is wearing clothing traditionally associated with the opposite sex. Transvestite refers to a person who cross-dresses; however, the word often has additional connotations. -History:Although the word transvestism was coined as late as the 1910s,...
, part trucker and part pantomime dame
Pantomime dame
A pantomime dame is a traditional character in British pantomime. It is a continuation of en travesti portrayal of female characters by male actors in drag. They are often played either in an extremely camp style, or else by men acting 'butch' in women's clothing...
— who habitually solved any problem by knocking people unconscious or threatening to rip their Bloody arms off. Visually, she was unmistakable, dressed in a huge, tent-like blue velvet dress, football
Football
Football may refer to one of a number of team sports which all involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball with the foot to score a goal. The most popular of these sports worldwide is association football, more commonly known as just "football" or "soccer"...
socks, workboots, and a golden boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
glove on her right hand. She rode everywhere on a Harley-Davidson
Harley-Davidson
Harley-Davidson , often abbreviated H-D or Harley, is an American motorcycle manufacturer. Founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during the first decade of the 20th century, it was one of two major American motorcycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depression...
motorcycle
Motorcycle
A motorcycle is a single-track, two-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as long distance travel, navigating congested urban traffic, cruising, sport and racing, or off-road conditions.Motorcycles are one of the most...
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 the multi-talented Grahame Bond
Grahame Bond (actor)
Grahame Bond is an Australian actor, writer, director, musician and composer who began his career in entertainment at University of Sydney in the 1960s as a founding student member of the Sydney University Architecture Revue, which included his university friends Geoffrey Atherden , Peter Weir...
and 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.
Background
An architectureArchitecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
graduate of Sydney University
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
, Bond was already an accomplished writer, producer, comedian, singer, songwriter and guitarist by the time he graduated. He cut his teeth writing and performing as a founder member and leading light of the University's legendary Architecture Revues from 1964-69. It was here that he met and became friends with other Sydney students including Geoffrey Atherden
Geoffrey Atherden
Geoffrey John Atherden, AM, is an Australian television writer, best known for the sitcom Mother and Son. He also wrote the sitcom Grass Roots and the mockumentary BabaKiueria, and contributed to The Aunty Jack Show....
, Maurice Murphy and Peter Weir
Peter Weir
Peter Lindsay Weir, AM is an Australian film director. After playing a leading role in the Australian New Wave cinema with his films such as Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Last Wave and Gallipoli, Weir directed a diverse group of American and international films—many of them major box office...
, who became Australia's most internationally acclaimed film director. Through these stage revues Grahame also met his longtime musical, writing and acting partner Rory O'Donoghue, who had begun his performing career playing The Artful Dodger
The Artful Dodger
Jack Dawkins, better known as the Artful Dodger, is a character in the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist. Dodger is a pickpocket, so called for his skill and cunning in that respect. As a result he has become the leader of the gang of child criminals, trained by the elderly Fagin...
in a Sydney production of the musical Oliver!
Oliver!
Oliver! is a British musical, with script, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart. The musical is based upon the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens....
as well as being the lead singer and guitarist in the Sydney rock bands The Pogs and Oakapple Day. Rory was only 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, Grahame and friends continued working together on a wide range of projects in film, TV, radio and theatre. He collaborated on several short films and stage pieces with Peter Weir, and wrote and played in 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 Peter Weir, which in turn led to an invitation from festival director Sir Robert Helpmann to stage a reuve, Drip Dry Dreams at the Adelaide Festival and Richbrooke.
Through Bob Allnutt, a staffer at the PACT Theatre Company who also worked for the ABC's Religious Affairs Department, Weir, Bond and friends were 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 was Bond's first know TV appearance, was co-written by and starred Bond and Peter 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, 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
Phillip Street Theatre
The Phillip Street Theatre was a popular and influential Sydney theatre and theatrical company of the 1950s and 1960s that became well known for its intimate satirical revue productions.-History:...
, followed by Hamlet On Ice at the Nimrod Theatre
Nimrod Theatre Company
The Nimrod Theatre Company, in Nimrod Street, Kings Cross, Sydney, Australia, was founded by in 1970 by John Bell, Richard Wherrett and Ken Horler, and gained a reputation for producing more "good new Australian drama" from 1970 to 1985 than any other Australian theatre company...
. Bond's friendship with Weir led to him writing 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
Homesdale
Homesdale is a 1971 Australian film directed by Peter Weir. Homesdale is a black comedy about visitors at a guest-house acting out their violent private fantasies and games under the control of the house staff....
.
Aunty Jack's birth
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 now cable channel manager, which was intended to replace the long-running children's radio series The Argonauts, which was about to be cancelled. The new series never went to air because ABC executives felt that the Aunty Jack character and some of Grahame'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 was originally to be called Aunty Jack's Travelling Abattoirs but ABC executives also found the title inappropriate. The program featured Bond, O'Donoghue and Derum, with Sherryn Mellick and Kate Fitzpatrick
Kate Fitzpatrick
Kate Fitzpatrick is an Australian-based television, film and theatre actress.-Career:...
in supporting roles.
This marked the start of a fruitful partnership between Bond, O'Donoghue and ABC writer, producer and director Maurice Murphy
Maurice Murphy (Director)
Maurice Brendan Murphy is an Australian film and television director, producer, writer and actor . He is best known for his influential work as a director of TV comedy programs for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation -- most notably The Aunty Jack Show -- and for his 1980 feature film...
. They became the creative nucleus for a string of programs that redefined TV comedy in Australia.
Influences
Although frequently compared to Monty Python's Flying CircusMonty Python's Flying Circus
Monty Python’s Flying Circus is a BBC TV sketch comedy series. The shows were composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines...
, the Aunty Jack character in fact made her appearance well before Python was screened in Australia, although the two teams evidently shared the same love of surreal humour
Surreal humour
Surreal humour is a form of humour based on violations of causal reasoning with events and behaviours that are logically incongruent. Constructions of surreal humour involve bizarre juxtapositions, non-sequiturs, irrational situations, and/or expressions of nonsense.The humour arises from a...
. The Goons
The Goon Show
The Goon Show was a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme...
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
Jack Davey
John Andrew Davey was a New Zealand-born star of Australian radio in the 1930s, '40s and '50s.-New Zealand:Jack Davey was born John Andrew Davey on 8 February 1907 and educated at King's College, Auckland...
, Bob Dyer
Bob Dyer
Robert "Bob" Dies OBE , who took the stage name of Bob Dyer, was an American-born vaudeville entertainer, radio personality, and radio and television quiz show host who made his name in Australia. Dyer is best known for the long-running radio and then television quiz show, Pick a Box...
, the Mickey Mouse Club
Mickey Mouse Club
The Mickey Mouse Club is an American variety television show that began in 1955, produced by Walt Disney Productions and televised by the ABC, featuring a regular but ever-changing cast of teenage performers. The Mickey Mouse Club was created by Walt Disney...
and The Steve Allen Show
Steve Allen (comedian)
Stephen Valentine Patrick William "Steve" Allen was an American television personality, musician, composer, actor, comedian, and writer. Though he got his start in radio, Allen is best known for his television career. He first gained national attention as a guest host on Arthur Godfrey's Talent...
as early interests, but cited the surreal black humour of Joseph Heller
Joseph Heller
Joseph Heller was a US satirical novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His best known work is Catch-22, a novel about US servicemen during World War II...
's novel Catch-22
Catch-22
Catch-22 is a satirical, historical novel by the American author Joseph Heller. He began writing it in 1953, and the novel was first published in 1961. It is set during World War II in 1943 and is frequently cited as one of the great literary works of the twentieth century...
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 60s, and had a small part in Homesdale, but by his own account he gave up performing just before The Aunty Jack Show. He later recounted that, after seeing Monty Python's Flying Circus for the first time, he felt that there was no way he could perform as well as the Python team and decided to stay behind the camera.
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
Ted Robinson (TV director)
Ted Robinson is an Australian television producer and director.He has worked on a number of comedy TV series since the mid-1970's....
, 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 the 1980s, producing some of the best Australian TV comedy series of the period, including The Big Gig
The Big Gig
The Big Gig was a popular Australian television comedy series based on the British TV series Saturday Live. It was produced and broadcast by the ABC in the late 1980s and early 1990s and was produced and directed by Ted Robinson, who started his career as the director of the second series of the...
and The Gillies Report
The Gillies Report
The Gillies Report was an Australian satirical television series that was broadcast on the ABC between 1984 and 1985. The program was notorious for sending up politicians and media personalities of the day such as Prime Minister Bob Hawke and Opposition Leader Andrew Peacock.The show starred Max...
. Interviewed for Mouthing Off, a history of Australian comedy, Robinson enthusiastically sang Murphy's praises:
- "When I was brought in to work on the second series of The Aunty Jack Show, it was my first contact with television comedy, and I was amazed by the atmosphere of drive and energy that Maurice generated. He made it such an exciting time to be working in comedy because the creative climate under him was so open; nothing was considered too mad or bad or off-the-wall that it wouldn't be considered for broadcast. People like me were able to learn their craft 'on-air' in those days, which meant that we were able to make mistakes or even fail completely with programs and still have a job. Maurice encouraged us to take risks and experiment with comedy and I believe this resulted in some of the best and most innovative comedy ever seen on Australian television."
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 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
Drag (clothing)
Drag is used for any clothing carrying symbolic significance but usually referring to the clothing associated with one gender role when worn by a person of another gender. The origin of the term "drag" is unknown, but it may have originated in Polari, a gay street argot in England in the early...
aspect of the Aunty Jack character.
Aunty's adolescence and death
Two series of The Aunty Jack Show were made in 1972 and 1973 respectively. The first series comprised seven episodes, the second six episodes. Each episode was built around a central theme. The episode titles were:
Series One:
- "Radio"
- "War"
- "Kulture"
- "Horror"
- "Anonymous",
- "Family"
- "Sex"
Series Two:
- "The Channel Nine Show"
- "The Iron Maiden Show"
- "The Golden Glove Show"
- "The Ear Nose and Throat Show"
- "The Little Lovelies Show"
- "The R-Certificate Show"
Bond killed off the show by having Aunty Jack die of a heart attack, 'mortified' by the other cast members' 'dirty' language and content.
Aunty's regulars
While Monty Python had few recurring characters — the Gumby family, John CleeseJohn Cleese
John Marwood Cleese is an English actor, comedian, writer, and film producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report...
's presenter and Michael Palin
Michael Palin
Michael Edward Palin, CBE FRGS is an English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries....
's "It's" man — 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 — blonde bombshell Flange Desire (Sandra McGregor), the tremulous Thin Arthur (O'Donoghue) and the snobbish Narrator Neville (John Derum
John Derum
John Derum is an Australian actor for stage, film and television. He has also directed and produced for theatre companies throughout Australia and for television...
).
There were also semi-regular appearances by nervous folk-singing duo Errol and Neil (Grahame & Rory), the obnoxious Kid Eager (McDonald), a parodic amalgam of characters like Dennis the Menace
Dennis the Menace (UK)
Dennis the Menace, later called Dennis the Menace and Gnasher and now Dennis and Gnasher, is a long-running comic strip in the British children's comic The Beano, published by D. C...
and Ginger Meggs
Ginger Meggs
Ginger Meggs, a popular long-run Australian comic strip, was created in the early 1920s by Jimmy Bancks. The strip follows the escapades of a red-haired prepubescent mischief-maker who lives in an inner suburban working-class household....
, the extrovert rock'n'roll butcher Kev Kavanagh (Grahame), a character that Bond had already performed (as "Mr Kevin") in Peter Weir's Homesdale.
Derum left the show after Series 1, wishing to pursue other interests. He was replaced by a new cast member, Garry McDonald
Garry McDonald
Garry George McDonald, AO is an Australian stage and screen actor.-Early life and career:McDonald was born in Sydney and was educated at Cranbrook School and National Institute of Dramatic Art....
, a talented young actor, comedian and musician, who had recently graduated from NIDA
National Institute of Dramatic Art
The National Institute of Dramatic Art is an Australian national training institute for students of theatre, film, and television, based in the Sydney suburb of Kensington. It is supported by the federal Office for the Arts, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. NIDA is located adjacent...
. His main role was as Aunty Jack's new sidekick, the cheeky, gum-chewing, freckle-faced Kid Eager, but in one episode McDonald premiered a new character, devised by staff writer Wendy Heather. This character featured only briefly in Aunty Jack, but became much more prominent in the spin-off special Wollongong the Brave
Wollongong the Brave
Aunty Jack's Wollongong the Brave is a collection of four comedy specials derived from the Australian television series, The Aunty Jack Show. The fourth and final episode was the precursor to The Norman Gunston Show. The episodes were filmed in 1974 and were aired during 1975...
and went on to become one of the most popular comedy characters in the history of Australian television—the now-legendary Wollongong media 'un-personality' Norman Gunston
Norman Gunston
Norman Gunston was a satirical TV character performed by Australian actor and comedian Garry McDonald. Norman Gunston was primarily well known in his native Australia, and to a lesser extent, the United States during the mid to late 1970s.- Early years :...
. The Gunston character also appeared on the Aunty Jack Sings Wollongong LP and starred in his own hugely successful, Logie-winning Tonight Show parody, The Norman Gunston Show, which premiered in 1975.
There were some legendary sketches over the two series of The Aunty Jack Show, including:
- Tarzan Superape ("An origami rock opera"), which parodied Jesus Christ SuperstarJesus Christ SuperstarJesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Tim Rice. The musical started off as a rock opera concept recording before its first staging on Broadway in 1971...
- Dried Elephant Arrangements for Beginners, in which Aunty Jack visits Taronga ZooTaronga ZooTaronga Zoo is the city zoo of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Officially opened on 7 October 1916, it is located on the shores of Sydney Harbour in the suburb of Mosman...
to teach viewers the fine art of "elephanto reducioso" with the reluctant assistance of Colin the elephant - Colonel Passionfruit, a campy military commander who led his squad of gay troops through a dangerous choreographed war with the help of The Pride Of Erin Mine Avoidance Tactic #III
- Country and easternCountry musicCountry music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
singers, The Farrelly Brothers, who performed a unique version of Lucky Starr'sLeslie MorrisonLeslie Morrison , better known by his stage name Lucky Starr, is an Australian singer. He released the tongue-twisting, "I've Been Everywhere" as a single in 1962, written by the singer-songwriter Geoff Mack, which name-drops numerous Australian towns...
"I've Been EverywhereI've Been EverywhereThe song "I've Been Everywhere" was written by Geoff Mack in 1959 and made popular by the singer Lucky Starr in 1962.The song listed Australian towns...
" - but in this version the only places they had been were the NSW regional towns of WollongongWollongong, New South WalesWollongong is a seaside city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. It lies on the narrow coastal strip between the Illawarra Escarpment and the Pacific Ocean, 82 kilometres south of Sydney...
and DaptoDapto, New South WalesDapto is a southern suburb of Wollongong in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia, located on the western side of Lake Illawarra and covering an area 7.15 square kilometres in size...
(Bond's home town) - Flat 1A 968 George St (a parody of popular 'sex and sin' soap opera Number 96Number 96 (TV series)Number 96 was a popular Australian soap opera set in a Sydney apartment block. Don Cash and Bill Harmon produced the series for Network Ten, which requested a Coronation Street-type serial, and specifically one that explored adult subjects...
) in which viewers were promised "lots of bottoms and lots of breasts" - at which point two actors are shown, clad in multiple plastic 'joke' bottoms and breasts.
Aunty's legacy
The popularity of the series led to a one-off TV special, Aunty Jack Rox On, a concert tour, a #1 hit single, "Farewell Aunty JackFarewell Aunty Jack
"Farewell Aunty Jack" was the closing theme to The Aunty Jack Show, played at the end of each episode. It was re-recorded and released as a hit single in late 1973 and spent 3 weeks at number one in the charts in Australia in March 1974...
" (a version of the closing theme of the series) and a best-selling album Aunty Jack Sings Wollongong
Aunty Jack Sings Wollongong
Aunty Jack Sings Wollongong is an album released in 1974, as a spin-off from the cult ABC Television show Aunty Jack. It contains a mixture of songs, and sketches, and along with the single Farewell Aunty Jack is the only audio release from the Aunty Jack crew.-Track listing:The album follows the...
, 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 22 weeks. It was the first single to debut in Australia at Number 1, the first Australian single to debut at Number 1 and also the first Australian single in picture-disc form, reputedly being the first disc of its kind in the world.
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 a heart attack. Bond then departed for a much-needed holiday on Norfolk Island
Norfolk Island
Norfolk Island is a small island in the Pacific Ocean located between Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. The island is part of the Commonwealth of Australia, but it enjoys a large degree of self-governance...
where, jointly inspired by the convict ruins and his holiday reading, Errol Flynn
Errol Flynn
Errol Leslie Flynn was an Australian-born actor. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films, being a legend and his flamboyant lifestyle.-Early life:...
'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 Jindivik.
The final outing for the classic Aunty Jack team was Wollongong the Brave
Wollongong the Brave
Aunty Jack's Wollongong the Brave is a collection of four comedy specials derived from the Australian television series, The Aunty Jack Show. The fourth and final episode was the precursor to The Norman Gunston Show. The episodes were filmed in 1974 and were aired during 1975...
(1974), a series of four one-hour specials that showcased favourite characters from the series. Episode 1 Aunty Jack'n'The Gong in Bloody Concert featured the core characters, augmented by a rock group, with special guest Stevie Wright, former lead singer of The Easybeats
The Easybeats
The Easybeats were an Australian rock and roll band. They formed in Sydney in late 1964 and broke up at the end of 1969. They are regarded as the greatest Australian pop band of the 1960s, and were the first Australian rock and roll act to score an international pop hit with their 1966 single...
, who was then appearing in Jesus Christ Superstar
Jesus Christ Superstar
Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Tim Rice. The musical started off as a rock opera concept recording before its first staging on Broadway in 1971...
with O'Donoghue. 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
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
, beating another channel's first colour program by deliberately starting three minutes early. The team's last major TV collaboration 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".
Although fans long hoped that the 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 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 off home video 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 was given added credence by the fact that (like the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
) the ABC had undertaken an "economy drive" in the late 1970s and early 1980s, during which (it has been reported) that 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 the National Archives of Australia
National Archives of Australia
The National Archives of Australia is a body established by the Government of Australia for the purpose of preserving Commonwealth Government records. It is an Executive Agency of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and reports to the Cabinet Secretary, Senator Joe Ludwig.The national...
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 was filmed in colour and these are included as alternate scenes.
Stage show
External links
- Aunty Jack's official home information about the TV series and stage show
- Aunty Jack tribute page image and sound bites from Aunty Jack Sings Wollongong
- The Aunty Jack/Grahame Bond Ography