Grand Final to kick start 7mate

The Seven Network earlier today made a surprise announcement of the launch of its new digital channel, 7mate.

The new channel, to broadcast in high-definition on digital channel 73, is designed to target male audiences aged 16-49 – a demographic that advertisers can sometimes find hard to target.

7mate will launch on 25 September with its first program being a HD simulcast of Seven’s coverage of the AFL Grand Final before breaking off from Seven with its own program line-up.

Curiously, the ‘mate’ branding was one of a range of ‘dummy’ trademarks registered by Seven almost a year ago in the lead-up to the launch of digital channel 7TWO.

David Leckie, chief executive officer of the Seven Media Group, welcomed the new channel:

“Seven is Australia’s most-watched network and our suite of multi-channels delivers more viewers than anyone else.  7mate is the next step in building on our leadership in broadcast television. 7mate is going to be great.”

“The launch of 7mate delivers us a tremendous platform of channels targeting specific audience demographics – leveraging our primary channel’s success with women and 7TWO’s targeting of a 25+ adult audience.”

“We’re delighted to be the first commercial network to move to three channels. With 7HD we were first into multi-channelling for the commercial networks and this is another significant step for our television business.”

Some of the programs to appear on 7mate include Family Guy, American Dad, Last Comic Standing, 30 Rock, How I Met Your Mother, That 70s Show, Scrubs and Crank Yankers.

Drama series for 7mate include Caprica, Warehouse 13 and Stargate Atlantis, while reality shows will include Jersey Shore, Gene Simmons’ Family Jewels, Monster Garage and Pawn Stars.  Factual shows will include Fifth Gear, Life After People, The Boneyard, Ax Men, Mega Movers, Mega Structures, Air Crash Investigations and Shockwave.

The launch of 7mate as a high-definition channel will effectively force the main Seven Network program line-up off the high-definition signal, meaning that signature programs such as Packed To The Rafters, Dancing With The Stars, City Homicide and US shows including Desperate Housewives, Bones and Criminal Minds may no longer be available in high-definition.  This mirrors a similar change made by both ABC and the Ten Network in the launch of their new digital channels ABC News 24 and One HD.

It is unclear at this stage what arrangements have been made to have 7mate carried on regional affiliates Prime and Southern Cross Television.

Eric Walters

Ten News has tonight reported the death of former newsreader Eric Walters at the age of 73, after a three-year battle with pulmonary fibrosis.

Starting his career in the 1950s on radio in regional NSW, Walters later went to Perth where he worked in radio and television, including a stint as newsreader at TVW7, before heading overseas.

On his return to Australia, Walters was newsreader of TEN10 Sydney’s Eyewitness News in the 1970s and was again at Network Ten as newsreader of its 10.30pm newscast when it launched in 1991.

In 1977, Walters was co-host of the 0-10 Network special The National Survival Test which won a TV Week Logie Award for most outstanding contribution to community service.

He also served as a newsreader at the Nine Network, presenting morning news bulletins as well as reading the news on Today during the 1980s.  During the ‘90s he worked at the Seven Network on current affairs show Real Life.

Eric Walters is survived by wife Carol, a daughter and two sons.

YouTube: Network Ten
Source: WA TV History

Prime News signs off from Wagga Wagga

Prime newsreader Doug Hogan last night presented the final edition of Prime News to be produced from the Wagga Wagga studios, ending 46 years of television production what was previously home to local station RVN2.  Since the late 1980s, RVN has been part of the Prime television network.

From Monday, Hogan will present the Wagga Wagga edition of Prime News from more modern facilities in Canberra as part of the centralisation of news bulletin production for various regional NSW markets.

Production of the Prime News bulletin for Orange and the Central Tablelands moved to the Canberra studios last week.

Prime’s head of news, John Rudd, told ABC that the changes to Prime’s regional news production have not been to save money and the network has said that no jobs have been lost in the centralisation process.  This is despite earlier reports that suggested otherwise.

YouTube: TheChasersFan
Source: ABC Western Plains

1990: August 18-24

‘Whatever happened to old-fashioned romance?’
Being an actress since the age of nine, 16-year-old Rebekah Elmaloglou (pictured) has not had the most normal of childhoods and often yearns to be 'just an average teenager'.  Although while she let go of her childhood earlier than most, she believes young people should not rush to reach adulthood.  “There is no hurry to grow up,” she told TV Week.  “I think that a lot of teenagers miss out on so much.  They go out with each other and on the first night they are doing things that shouldn’t happen until a relationship has developed further.  Whatever happened to old-fashioned romance and innocent friendship?”  Meanwhile, her Home And Away character Sophie is about to embark on a simple 'old-fashioned' romance with Blake (Les Hill) and Elmaloglou hopes her character can be a good role model for teenage viewers.

Number 96 set to re-open its doors!
The Ten Network, battling flagging ratings, has been the subject of many rumours and reports around the television industry – only two weeks ago the network was reported to be seeking an exclusive output deal with Grundy Television.  TV Week now has it on good authority that Ten is considering a revival of Australia’s most infamous soap, Number 96, thirteen years after it ceased production.  Some network executives have believed that there is room on the network for a strong adult drama, much tougher than its current teen-based soaps Neighbours and E Street.  TV Week is informed that a group of Ten bosses have been viewing old episodes of the series with a plan to produce a 1990s version of the show.  Some of the show’s original cast may be joined by fresh faces in the revival.  When Number 96 debuted in 1972 it was dubbed ‘the night Australian television lost its virginity’ with a cast including sex symbol Abigail (pictured).  The series went on to shock and titillate its audience for the next six years with its popular mix of sex, drama and comedy.  The show won a swag of TV Week Logies, including several for best drama and a Gold Logie for cast member Pat McDonald.

Everyone’s Friend
Former Neighbours star Rachel Friend (pictured) is rapidly becoming one of TV’s hottest properties.  The 19-year-old has a lead role in the Nine Network’s big-budget mini-series, Golden Fiddles, and will soon play a ditzy hairdresser in the Ten Network’s upcoming comedy series Lipstick Dreams.  Then in December, she’s off to England to play the princess in the pantomime Aladdin’s Lamp.  “Neighbours seems a long time ago, and yet it’s not really,” she told TV Week.

Briefly…
The audience response to Seven’s Skirts might be lukewarm but that hasn’t stopped some of the show’s stars attracting the interest of producers of other shows.  Ben Mitchell, who plays Constable Bevan “Beverley” Quinn, is currently being targeted by the producers of Neighbours and has apparently already been offered a role should Seven not renew Skirts for another series.  In the meantime the producers of E Street are keen to sign up co-star Antionette Byron.

The Nine Network has had to revoke plans to move Graham Kennedy's Australia's Funniest Home Video Show to the Wednesday 7.30pm timeslot following an ultimatum from the host.  The new timeslot would have seen the show put up against Seven's comedy Hey Dad! which is produced by a close friend of Kennedy's, Gary Reilly, and the Nine Network host refused to put both shows into a ratings battle.

Former Chantoozies band member and manager David Reyne has decided to move from the music business and concentrate on acting.  The 31-year-old has already completed roles in the Seven Network mini-series Flair, the telemovie Bony, and is to star in the Nine Network mini-series Golden Fiddles.

John Laws says…
”If there’s one thing you don’t get on SBS’ Dateline current affairs program it’s a good laugh.  Dateline has a knack of looking at just about every issue from a worst-case scenario.  There is precious little middle ground as far as its reporters are concerned.  Issues are black and white.  Mostly black.  When Dateline’s hour is over, there’s just one more piece of “news” – the following week, announces host Paul Murphy, Dateline will reveal the shocking story of the plight of poverty-striken Indian peasants in war-wracked Guatemala.  Goodnight Paul.”

Program Highlights (August 18-24):
Sunday:  Mark Mitchell and newsreaders David Johnston and Tracey Curro present ATV10’s coverage of the 1990 Young Achievers’ Awards from the Hilton Hotel, Melbourne.  Sunday night movies are Starflight One (HSV7), Choices Of The Heart (GTV9) and Blue Collar (ATV10).

Monday:  ATV10 debuts a new Australian series A Waltz Through The Hills, based on the classic children’s novel which tells the story of two children living in a small Western Australian town in 1954.

Tuesday:  The debut of comedy series Let The Blood Run Free (featuring Jean Kittson and Peter Rowsthorn, pictured) on ATV10.  Meanwhile, ABC crosses to Canberra for a one-hour telecast of the 1990 Budget. 

Wednesday:  ABC’s Wednesday night special is Ladies In Line, a 90-minute documentary focusing on the successes and failures of a group of female recruits in the Australian Army. 

Friday:  HSV7 presents a re-run of the 1989 special Oz TV’s Greatest Commercials, taking a look back at some of the commercials that have been imbedded in the minds of Australian audiences.

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

ABC News 24 hits a million viewers

ABC’s new high-definition news channel ABC News 24 has clocked up over a million viewers in its first ratings survey.

The channel, which launched on 22 July, only started reporting ratings data from last Sunday.  The first week of the channel’s ratings data shows that 1.3 million viewers in the five capital cities (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth) watched ABC News 24 for at least 5 consecutive minutes during the week.

Despite the promising audience numbers ABC News 24 only reported an overall prime-time audience share of 0.5 per cent of free-to-air only households in the five cities.  This is compared to ABC’s other digital channels ABC2 on 1.7 per cent and ABC3 on 0.6 per cent.  So it would appear that ABC News 24 is attracting plenty of browsers but they are not necessarily staying tuned long enough to have a greater impact overall.  But it is only early days for the channel and at the same time it is only available as a high-definition channel, effectively blocking access to any digital viewers with standard-definition tuners.

ABC1 reported an audience share of 14.8 per cent, giving the national broadcaster a total of 17.6 per cent across its four channels.

In a media release from ABC, news director Kate Torney welcomed the results:

“To achieve a reach of 1.3 million for the first week of available audience figures is great news and assures us that people are switching on ABC News 24.  There’s obviously a news focus at the moment with the election campaign, but for a launch of a new channel we are pleased with the results.”

The Seven Network (Seven + 7TWO) won the week with 28.6 per cent, followed by Nine/GO! on 27.7 per cent and Ten/One on 20.8 per cent.  SBS managed an overall total of 5.2 per cent across its two channels.

Breaking the numbers down to individual channels, Seven (24.9 per cent) won ahead of Nine (23.6), Ten (19.1), ABC1 (14.8) and SBS1 (4.6), followed by digital channels GO! (4.2), 7TWO (3.7), ABC2 and One HD (1.7 per cent each), ABC3 and SBS2 (0.6 per cent each) and ABC News 24 (0.5).

Source: TV Tonight

Ray Martin on Talking Heads

Ray Martin makes a return to the 6.30pm timeslot in a couple of weeks – but it’s not on A Current Affair, the show that he hosted for many years, but rather as a guest on ABC’s Talking Heads.

Martin talks candidly to host Peter Thompson about his early childhood life – a life of poverty and upheaval as he and his mother were on the run from a drunken, violent father.

Although the teenage Martin had dreams of playing cricket for Australia or becoming a history teacher, his life took a different turn when he got a job at the ABC in Western Australia in 1968 and became its New York correspondent in 1969:

“I love history and I devour it now. I just can’t get enough of it but I also want to see history being made rather than report on the way it used to be 200 years ago...  I think journalism allowed me to go to places and see history being made.”

For ten years Martin had a life of relative anonymity as the New York foreign correspondent for the ABC but his profile suddenly became a lot more public when he became one of the founding members of the Nine Network’s 60 Minutes (pictured) when it launched in 1979. 

Six years of travelling the world for 60 Minutes then led to a more stable life when he took over from Mike Walsh as host of Nine’s midday timeslot in 1985.  Midday With Ray Martin was a ratings hit for the normally-quiet lunchtime slot and scored Martin his first TV Week Gold Logie in 1987.  He would go on to win another four Gold Logies during the ‘90s.

In 1994, Martin made the move back to prime-time as host of A Current Affair, a position that he held for five years and then returned in 2003 for a few more.

In almost thirty years of service to the Nine Network, Martin also became the network’s special events host – including Carols By Candlelight, federal and state elections, prime-time interview specials, including the last public interview with legendary cricketer Don Bradman, TV Week Logie Awards presentations and the Australian bi-centennial special, Australia Live.

Martin has been married to wife Dianne for over 40 years and they have two children.

“I can’t believe this fortunate life I’ve had,” he says. 

Talking Heads with guest Ray Martin. Monday 16 August, 6.30pm. ABC1

1990: August 11-17

I won’t be back!
The producers of Hey Dad! are about to face a crisis with the departure of one the show’s key cast members.  Simone Buchanan, who plays Debbie Kelly in the Seven Network series, is openly telling friends that she is definitely leaving the popular comedy.  However, show producer Gary Reilly has told TV Week that he is confident that she will stay.  “I have all the confidence in the world,” he says.  “We’re still talking, and, to be honest, it’s not time yet for serious negotiations.”

New ‘super-show’ to take on Hey Hey
The Seven Network is set to combine its two most popular game shows into a ‘super-show’ to take on Nine’s top-rating Hey Hey It’s Saturday.  Seven plans to launch celebrity versions of both Family Feud and Wheel Of Fortune and screen them back-to-back up against Hey Hey It’s Saturday.  “It’s a very exciting project, something very different,” Grundy Entertainment’s Paul Waterhouse told TV Week.  “It’s basically the same shows, but with slight changes to the formats to allow for celebrity involvement.  It will be more dramatic and more exciting.”  The decision to go ahead with the celebrity spin-offs came after the recent ratings success of Sale Of The Century’s week-long celebrity challenge.

Fast Forward’s lady of many faces reveals it’s time to… EJECT!
Fast Forward’s Marg Downey has admitted that she is pondering a new challenge after two years with the popular sketch comedy show.  “I think Fast Forward will go on but it needs fresh faces to do it,” she told TV Week.  Downey is hopeful for a drama or perhaps another comedy role.  “Something that was half straight and half comedy would be ideal,” she says.   And despite her well-known celebrity impersonations, including Jana Wendt (pictured) and the unnamed “SBS lady”, have earned plenty of applause, Downey admits that some of her impersonations have not been her best work.  “The Golden Girls is one example.  I felt my voice (as Bea Arthur’s character, Dorothy) was ridiculously low.  And I didn’t think I did Jennifer Keyte very well.”  However, Downey recently took the brave step of introducing herself to the real Jana Wendt.  “At the Logies Jana told me she sits at home with her husband (producer Brendan Ward) to analyse how well I’ve done her,” she says. 

Briefly…
Actress Paula Duncan (pictured, with husband John Orcsik) has been thumbing through the archives of TV Week to piece together a historical portraits of TV soaps and their stars, past and present.  The former Number 96, Cop Shop and Richmond Hill star is organising a TV celebrity dance party to be held at the The Dome in Sydney’s Showgrounds in October.  Some of the stars who are set to appear on the night include Bobby Limb, Lorrae Desmond, Abigail, Bartholomew John, Joanna Lockwood, Maggie Kirkpatrick, Stefan Dennis, Craig McLachlan, Julie McGregor and Wendy Strehlow.

Network Ten is about to launch its new comedy series Let The Blood Run Free, starring Jean Kittson and Peter Rowsthorn (pictured).  The new series, described by Rowsthorn as “a human cartoon”, is set in the fictional St Christopher’s Hospital and also stars Lynda Gibson as Matron Dorothy Conniving-Bitch.  Let The Blood Run Free is a production of Media Arts, the producers of The Comedy Company, and was originally set to appear on the Nine Network until executives decided the show, featuring plenty of blood and slapstick violence, was too “off the wall” and it consequently got sold to Ten.

Wheel Of Fortune hostess Adriana Xenides has told TV Week that with her upcoming role in Nine’s Golden Fiddles she is determined to prove that she is more than a glamour girl.  “I know it’s very hard for people to think of me as anything other than a TV hostess because I’ve been doing it for so long,” she told TV Week.  “It doesn’t worry me if people think of me as an airhead because I know I’m not.” 

Naomi Watts (pictured), the girl who chose a lamb roast dinner over a date with Tom Cruise in a TV commercial, is joining the cast of Hey Dad! as the girlfriend of Simon Kelly (Chris Mayer).

John Laws says…
”Its critics say a news segment is totally out of place in a show (Tonight Live) which often relies for its laughs on the ridicule of world affairs, political figures and, occasionally, even tragedy.  What saves the segment is Jennifer Keyte’s professional ability to maintain credibility in the face of the evening’s fun and games.  She has, to her credit, never allowed herself to become a “fall guy” – or should it be fall person? – for Steve Vizard’s sarcastic wit.”

Program Highlights (August 11-17):
Saturday:  HSV7 crosses live to Carrara, Brisbane, for the AFL game between Brisbane Bears and Geelong.  Sandy Roberts heads the coverage, joined by Ian Robertson, Don Scott and Bill McDonald.

Sunday:  ATV10’s daytime line-up features regular crosses throughout the day to the station’s annual Deafness Appeal Telethon, hosted by TTFM breakfast presenters Geoff Cox and Gavin Wood (pictured).  The telethon is accepting donations until 11.00pm.  ABC presents national coverage of the Sun-Herald City To Surf run in Sydney.  Sunday night movies are Brothers-In-Law (HSV7), Fever (GTV9) and Sharky’s Machine (ATV10).

Monday:  HSV7’s Monday night movie is the 1986 drama Just Us, starring Kim Gyngell, Gina Riley, Scott Burgess and Catherine McClements, focusing on the unusual love between a newspaper journalist and a hardened criminal in prison.  ATV10 begins a re-run of mini-series Tanamera – Lion Of Singapore, starring Gary Sweet, Anne Louise Lambert, Ed Devereaux and Khym Lam.

Tuesday: In A Country Practice (HSV7), Shirley’s (Lorrae Desmond) concerns about a growth on her face are confirmed and Terence (Shane Porteous) recommends surgery.

Wednesday:  ABC presents a one-hour special, Ten Days Of Glory, documenting the return of 60 World War I veterans and widows to Gallipoli earlier this year to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign.

Thursday:  HSV7’s new police drama Skirts has struggled to find an audience in its Sunday night timeslot so it is now moved to Thursdays, following Fast Forward.

Friday:  HSV7 presents live AFL between Sydney Swans and Brisbane Bears at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

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

74% of Australians now watching digital

Almost three quarters of Australian households have converted at least one television set to digital, according to the latest Digital Tracker survey released by the Federal Government.

The survey, covering the period of April to June this year, found that 74 per cent of households have converted to digital – an increase from 68 per cent in the previous quarter.

This quarter’s survey was significant in that it took into account the last three months of dual analogue and digital transmission in the regional Victorian market of Mildura/Sunraysia.  Over the course of the three month period it was estimated that digital conversion in Mildura escalated from 88 per cent to 99 per cent – leading up to the 30 June shutdown of analogue transmission.  Digital Tracker also took the opportunity to survey Mildura residents on the days immediately following the analogue shutdown – of the 300 households surveyed only two had not converted to digital TV.

Among other markets in Australia digital conversion rates ranged from 49 per cent of households in Remote Central and Eastern Australia and 53 per cent in Regional WA to 80 per cent in Tasmania and 85 per cent in Darwin.

Melbourne and Sydney also reported a rapid take-up of digital over the three month period – with Melbourne reporting an increase from 64 to 77 per cent of households, and Sydney rising from 61 to 71 per cent.

The Regional SA market, the next region scheduled for analogue shutdown, reported a 77 per cent conversion to digital.  Households in the Regional SA market – comprising Riverland, Mount Gambier, Spencer Gulf and Broken Hill – will lose access to analogue television signals on 15 December 2010.

The shutdown of analogue signals is scheduled to be completed across the whole of Australia by December 2013.

Source: Digital Ready

1990: August 4-10

Is it goodbye to the Valley?
A Country Practice star John Tarrant (pictured, with co-star Georgie Parker) has flagged the possibility that it may soon be time to move on from the popular drama.  “At the moment I don’t know if I could do another year,” he told TV Week.  “There are a lot of issues. It is not just  me wanting to keep doing the show.  It’s a matter of the producers wanting me.  They might not.  Maybe if it can be arranged, I’d feel like another six months.”  The 26-year-old has plans to pursue a stage acting career as he hasn’t worked in the theatre since leaving drama school.  Looking further ahead, Tarrant has ambitions of working in Hollywood either on screen or behind the camera.

No Sale!
Despite the Ten Network’s current financial state, that hasn’t stopped network managing director Steve Cosser trying to pull off a couple of huge television coups.  Industry reports say that Ten had been trying to lure the top-rating Sale Of The Century away from the Nine Network – and it doesn’t stop there.  Mr Cosser is also believed to have tried to secure an output deal with Grundy Television Productions for all of their product – a deal that could have seen Wheel Of Fortune, Sale Of The Century, Family Feud and even the recently-completed Bony telemovie go across to Ten in one fell swoop.  However a spokesperson from Ten insists that the reports circulating the industry are fiction. 

Bert’s British invasion!
TV Week Gold Logie winner Bert Newton (pictured) is set to return to TV with his own show – but it won’t be in Australia.  Newton received an offer from an English producer who saw him hosting his Seven Network daytime show last year and he is heading over to London in September to tape a pilot.  The show, as yet unnamed, is expected to take on the format similar to the UK’s Aspel And Co show.  “English viewers have no idea who I am or what I’ve done.  I’m a total unknown in their eyes and I think that’s a good thing,” he told TV Week.  Since the demise of The Bert Newton Show late last year, Newton has completed a stint at Cairns radio station 4CA.  “It’s been a great experience.  It’s my first time on radio in two years and my first radio job outside Melbourne.  The audience reaction has been wonderful, so either I’ve fooled them or I’m doing OK!”  But despite the possibility of a future in England, Newton would accept an offer to return to Australian TV.  “Obviously, the situation here at the moment wouldn’t hold too much promise for a show of my own,” he says.  “I’ll just wait for Kerry Packer to fix things at Nine.  When he does, I can imagine the out-of-work TV people from all over the world who’ll be ringing him for a job.  At least he’s a guy you can trust.”

Briefly…
Adam Willits, one of the original cast members of Home And Away, has decided to leave the series.  “He’s been with the show since the beginning and he wants to explore other avenues in acting,” producer Andrew Howie told TV Week.

Jude and Joy, the down-to-earth housewives who love a chat over the fence in ABC’s The Big Gig have spoken to TV Week about their lives and ambitions.  “I’m very ambitious,” Jude (Denise Scott) told TV Week.  “I’ve got a bunny suit that I made myself, and I’ve already worked at the shopping centres… as an Easter bunny, not one of those other bunnies!”  Meanwhile, much of Joy’s (Jean Kittson) energy is spent yelling at the kids or keeping track of her husband, Wal, whose wandering eye has caught sight of local glamour queen Loretta.  “She’s a big worry, that woman,” Joy says.  “She’s so glamorous, I don’t know how she does it.  Leather mini-skirts and all! Jude and I have let ourselves go just a bit – but we do scrub up all right!”  The Big Gig is set to return later this month in a new series.

The Ten Network says that negotiations to film a double episode of the US series The Wonder Years in Australia are well under way.  Should the negotiations between the Queensland Film Commission and the show’s producers, New World Television, be successful then the show’s cast will be touching down in Australia as early as September.

John Laws says…
”(SBS) has been crowing loudly about the new one-hour, once-a-week program Sports Machine as innovative, adult and hugely important – which is all very well and sounds great.  But SBS viewers with sharp memories will recall that last year the station had a similar sports program every night of the week.  A total, then, of 2-and-a-half hours coverage every week.  What do we get now?  One hour, all in one go.  Frankly, I’ve never been able to figure out why SBS axed the previous sports program.  It was a gem of a half-hour and managed to cover a host of different sports, something that rarely happens on ABC or the commercial networks.”

Program Highlights (August 4-10):
Sunday: Actor Peter Ustinov is Peter Ross’ guest on ABC’s arts program, Sunday Afternoon.  HSV7 crosses live to the Sydney Cricket Ground for AFL between Sydney Swans and West Coast Eagles.  Sunday night movies are Extremities (GTV9) and Bat 21 (ATV10).  HSV7 presents the three-hour Queen Mother’s 90th Birthday Gala.

Tuesday:  New Zealand actress Judy McIntosh (pictured) makes her debut as Dr Nicola Tanner in ABC’s GP.  In Beyond 2000 (HSV7), Amanda Keller examines China’s state policy of one child per family.

Wednesday:  Michelle Fawdon stars in an ABC docu-drama, This Time Next Time, as a crusading journalist assigned to write a feature article on the dangers of alcohol-related brain damage.

Thursday:  In The Flying Doctors (GTV9), Dr Tom Callaghan (Andrew McFarlane) is buried alive when a mine shaft is deliberately collapsed on top of him as he tries to rescue an injured man.

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

Number 96 stars reunited for birthday

The occasion of Johnny Lockwood’s 90th birthday was as good a reason as any to bring together some of his former Number 96 co-stars and to assemble at the real-life apartment building that posed as Australia’s most famous address in the 1970s.

“It’s so special celebrating my birthday in the original Number 96,” he told Woman’s Day. “This is probably the last time we shall ever get together like this. I was orphaned at 11. When we did the show back in the 1970s, these people were so important to me. Like family.”

Lockwood played the character of Hungarian-born delicatessen owner Aldo Godolfus in Number 96, dating back to the show’s beginnings in 1972.  He picked up the role after the show’s producers had spotted him playing the part of a Jewish shopkeeper in an episode of Spyforce.

Starting on Number 96 with a thirteen-week contract, the character lasted for over three years – finally coming to an end in 1975 when Aldo and three other characters were written out of the series as victims of the show’s famous ‘bomb-blast’ episode.

The celebration of Lockwood’s 90th led to a reminisce over the famous neighbourhood and the show’s impact on the viewing public.  “We couldn’t go outside without being mobbed.  Hell, even the hookers went off the streets at 8.30pm so they wouldn’t miss an episode.”

Joining Lockwood (pictured, seated) for his birthday are (from left to right) former colleagues Elisabeth Kirkby (Lucy Sutcliffe), James Elliott (Alf Sutcliffe), Jeff Kevin (Arnold Feather), Phillippa Baker (Roma Godolfus), Frances Hargreaves (Marilyn McDonald), Wendy Blacklock (Edie McDonald) and Mike Dorsey (Reg McDonald).  Lockwood’s daughter Joanna, who also starred in Number 96 as well as appearing in later shows Cop Shop and E Street, was also at the celebration.

Growing up in London, Lockwood’s showbusiness career dates back to 1935 when, at the age of 14, he joined a group called Twelve Dancing Kiddies.  By the late 1940s he was appearing at a Royal Command Performance and came to Australia in 1957 for a ten-week contract to appear in the stage production Tonight At Eight with Bobby Limb.  Australia has been his home ever since.

Various cast members of the groundbreaking series, which ended in 1977, have reunited on numerous occasions over the years – most recently several cast members assembled on the Seven Network’s Where Are They Now? in 2007, while cast members Elisabeth Kirkby and Carol Raye provided audio commentary on the recent DVD release of 32 episodes.

Source: Woman’s Day, TV Times, 17 February 1973 and 8 March 1975.