1990: May 19-25

‘We’re not joined at the hip’
Neighbours twin co-stars Gayle and Gillian Blakeney (pictured) might look alike and share many similar interests but still stress that they are very different.  “We’re not joined at the hip.  We’re individuals,” Gayle told TV Week.  “People think that because we look alike we’re alike in everything we do and say.”  But they do concede to have had a number of uncanny experiences – sometimes one will start a sentence and the other will finish it off.  “We can pre-empt what the other is thinking and our moods follow suit.” 

‘I’d be fibbing if I said I didn’t miss it’
Former Coast To Coast presenter John Mangos has told TV Week about his disappointment about Graham Kennedy’s decision not to continue with the show after the end of 1989:  “I idolised Graham.  He was my boyhood hero and that’s why i left the States.  There were very few job positions I would have left that job for, and one of them was the chance to work with my hero.  It took the first few months for us to find each other and after we did, we had a good thing going.  I’d be fibbing if I said I didn’t miss it.”  Since the end of Coast To Coast, co-host Terry Willesee has now moved across to the Ten Network to present Good Morning Australia with Kerri-Anne Kennerley, and Mangos has stayed at Nine to present its Sunday night documentaries with the opportunity to make his own for the network.

Oh, what a lovely war!
The Nine Network mini-series The Private War Of Lucinda Smith is not your usual wartime drama.  The two-part series, starring Nigel Havers, Linda Cropper, Andrew Clarke and Vincent Ball, is an unashamed bawdy romp about a romantic love triangle in the South Pacific in 1914-15 when the outbreak of war turns friendly rivals for Lucinda’s affections into friendly enemies.  “It’s a good old Boys’ Own adventure story with plenty of romance, comedy and sex and practically no violence – perfect, really,” according to Havers (pictured, with Cropper).  “We enjoyed ourselves immensely making it, and I think Ray Alchin (the director) has a lot to answer for.  He never took anything seriously.”

Briefly…
Former The Flying Doctors star Peter O’Brien has scored the lead role in an upcoming American adventure film, The Diamond Triad.  O’Brien was offered the role after producers saw him in the London stage production of Butterflies Are Free.

Annie Jones has just returned from the US where she appeared on a cable TV channel to promote her Oz Beauty Video, a guide to successful grooming.  Now, the former Neighbours star is preparing for her next role in an SBS series about the lives of Australian immigrants.  Jones, who used to be Annika Jasko, is the only Australian-born child of Hungarian parents who settled here in the 1950s.  She is also fluent in Hungarian and will speak the language in the new role.

Nine Network series Family And Friends is about to turn back the years as some of its characters are taken back to the Seventies as the theme for a school social.  The social is also the scene for Renato’s (Gavin Harrison) seduction of Cheryl (Justine Clarke, pictured with Harrison) in an attempt to get her away from Marco (Adrian Lee).

John Laws says…
”British TV viewers are “soaps” – and mainly Australian ones – more than ever before, according to the latest statistics.  Of 30,000 viewers polled recently, more than 65 per cent chose either Neighbours, Home And Away or Prisoner (Cell Block H) as their favourite viewing.  And in England they are saying that the recent $20 million deal for hundreds of Home And Away episodes to be screened in Britain over the next few years actually saved the Oz soap from getting the chop.  At a time when the film industry in Australia is languishing, it’s at least reassuring to know that one section of our TV industry is creating new markets and turning a profit.  Let’s hope it stays like that.”

Program Highlights (May 19-25):
Sunday:  HSV7 crosses to Subiaco Oval in Perth for the AFL clash between West Coast Eagles and Brisbane Bears, followed by highlights of the game between Footscray and Essendon.  ATV10 presents Rugby League with the State Bank Big Game, direct from Sydney.  Sunday night movies are Young Guns (HSV7) and Red Heat (ATV10), while GTV9 presents the first instalment of mini-series The Private War Of Lucinda Smith.
Monday:  ABC screens the final in the Wendy Harmer series, In Harmer’s Way.
Tuesday:  Veteran actress Queenie Ashton (pictured) is a guest star in this week’s episode of GP (ABC).  HSV7 crosses live to the Sydney Cricket Ground for the AFL State Of Origin match between NSW and Victoria, presented by Bruce McAvaney.
Thursday:  Annie Jones guest stars in The Flying Doctors (GTV9).

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.       
19 May 1990. Southdown Press.

1990: April 7-13

‘No candlelit dinners, please!’
While Georgie Parker’s character in A Country Practice, Lucy Gardiner, is at crossroads at her relationship with Matt Tyler (John Tarrant) with dreams of romantic dinners and phone calls, the actress has admitted that in real life she couldn’t be more opposite.  “I’m not romantic at all.  I’m not at all.  I am seeing someone at the moment and he would beg to differ, but I’m not romantic,” she told TV Week.  “I’m so practical that I tend to take the romance out of a situation straight away.” 

‘My countrymen would expect me to boycott this film…’
With a showbusiness background including modelling, hosting a children’s program (Off The Dish) and a game show (Perfect Match), Cameron Daddo is no stranger to criticism when he is appointed to dramatic roles.  “People scoffed and said it was crazy that I’d won roles as Huck Finn in Big River and Joe Jones in Heroes.  Now I’m up against again,” Daddo told TV Week, following him being cast as part-Aboriginal detective Bony in a telemovie being produced for the Seven Network.  The telemovie is a modern-day remake of the early-‘70s drama Boney, starring New Zealand actor James Laurenson in the lead role.  But despite criticisms that the role should be filled by an Aborigine, Daddo has found unlikely support from respected Aboriginal actor Burnum Burnum:  “My countrymen would expect me to  boycott this film because of Cameron in the lead role.  But I didn’t remotely consider this boycott because, first, I had nothing to do with the casting and, second, Cameron fits the role admirably.  The character is supposed to only have a small amount of Aboriginal blood.”

Out of Africa!
Globe-trotting Beyond 2000 reporter Amanda Keller (pictured) has been in Africa to report on the plight of elephants being poached for the ivory trade.  In an interview with Dr Richard Leakey, director of wildlife protection in Kenya, he says they are now winning the battle with the poachers.  “He believes we should protect the elephant, but he also says, by doing so, we could create problems of over-population,” Keller told TV Week.  “His solution is birth control, but I don’t know if I’d be game to give an elephant a vasectomy!” 

Briefly…
Neighbours’ twin co-stars Gayle and Gillian Blakeney (pictured) are making plans to produce a documentary on twins.  The pair have visited Melbourne’s Latrobe University, the second largest twin study centre in the world, and had gathered research material and case studies when working on children’s program Wombat.

Now back in Los Angeles after her guest appearance at the TV Week Logie Awards, actress Sigrid Thornton has made a surprising revelation about her desire for future roles.  After starring in period pieces such as The Man From Snowy River, All The Rivers Run and Far Country, Thornton would like her next role to be that of an axe murderer.  “I’m quite serious – an axe murderer sounds great.  I’d like to play an unexpected sort of character, something that is not a traditional heroine.”

Wheel Of Fortune’s long-serving hostess Adriana Xenides (pictured) has unveiled a new look after losing her long blonde tresses.  “I had been thinking for some time about having my hair cut.  My hair just wouldn’t go right for a modelling job I was doing, so I rang up my hairdresser, Robert Briscoe, and said, ‘Right, tomorrow, I want it all cut off.’”  But with Wheel Of Fortune taped so far in advance, viewers will still have to wait another month to see the new-look Xenides on screen.

John Laws says…
”Wendy Harmer (pictured) launched her new show, In Harmer’s Way (ABC), the other week, but it’s a pity the humour didn’t live up to the slickness of the title.  Her first guest was playwright David Williamson.  Nothing very exclusive about that; he’d been on the Steve Vizard show (Tonight Live) a few days earlier.  One fact that did emerge from Harmer’s “interview” with Williamson was that she finds it difficult to conduct a bright, snappy interview.  Only Williamson’s good grace and humour made it the tiniest bit watchable.”

Program Highlights (April 7-13):
Sunday:  Sunday night movies are The Last Tycoon (GTV9) and Educating Rita (ATV10).  HSV7 presents Part One of the re-run of mini-series The Long Hot Summer.  ABC presents The Riddle Of The Dead Sea Scrolls, a documentary on the controversial work of Australian Biblical scholar, Dr Barbara Thiering.
Wednesday:  ABC’s science program, Quantum, returns for a new series, followed by a concert performance from Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and James Galway, simulcast with ABCFM.  GTV9 screens an Australian-made film, Mortgage, starring Doris Younane and Brian Vriends, tracing the story of a couple who find themselves in a nightmare of deceit, incompetence and rising interest rates.
Friday:  Good Friday is dominated by the Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal on HSV7 – starting at 9.00am and continuing through to midnight, breaking only for news, Home And Away and Hinch.  The telethon includes guest appearances by cast members of Seven Network programs A Country Practice, Home And Away, Hey Dad!, Acropolis Now, Fast Forward and Skirts.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.    
7 April 1990. Southdown Press.