“Who the hell is Leslie Seymour?” That’s what journalist and broadcaster Ray Martin asks facetiously in his foreword to the autobiography of Les Seymour, his long-time mate, and it’s a fair question. Unless you’re a veteran journo or a media junkie, you may not have heard about cameraman extraordinaire, Les Seymour. All he’s ever done … Continue reading Leslie Seymour: The Everywhere Man — Have Camera Will Travel
Australian television
Sam the Man: A tenacious titan of television generous to a fault
Sam Chisholm, sales director and former head of Channel Nine, Managing Director of BSkyB, and television executive extraordinaire, was also known as a legend in his own lunchtime. But lunches were special to journalists and tv executives in those days. My best mate, Cliff Neville, who died in 2012, was the supervising producer of Nine’s … Continue reading Sam the Man: A tenacious titan of television generous to a fault
Dear Diary: Why hast thou forsaken me?
Sorry about the headline, but I wanted to get your attention. It comes from Psalm 22.1: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" The psalm Christ recited on the cross. My cross is much less of a burden. It's just trying to decide if it's worth going through more than 30 years of … Continue reading Dear Diary: Why hast thou forsaken me?
The coup that led to a Liberal dose of leadership blues
Journo 1: “Rudd, Gillard, Abbott, Turnbull. Isn’t it incredible? Since June 2013, four Prime Ministers.” Journo 2: “And Rudd twice. Rudd, Gillard, Rudd.” Journo 1: “Quite incredible.” Journo 2: “So much dysfunction.” Journo 1: “So much dysfunction, or is it so much lack of care in choosing your party leaders because although the system would … Continue reading The coup that led to a Liberal dose of leadership blues
Tony Abbott: No longer Mr Nice Guy
I’m beginning to worry about Tony Abbott and how his war on the ABC is affecting him (Photo above by Jeremy Piper, News Corp Australia). I don’t agree with all his policies (too many to mention here), but I’ve considered him a nice bloke since I got to know him in the late 2000s. In … Continue reading Tony Abbott: No longer Mr Nice Guy
Diving Delly: A man of steel who plays his heart out
I grew up in West Philadelphia where if you didn’t play basketball, your mates thought there was something wrong with you. You shovelled snow off the concrete courts at the playground during the winter, and played 12 hours a day during the summer. So I love basketball. But I fell out of love with the … Continue reading Diving Delly: A man of steel who plays his heart out
Remembering Steve McQueen, aka Slam
Film and television editors are a rare breed. I got to know them well when I first went into television as the foreign editor of the Seven Network in Sydney in the early 1980s. I had been a journalist for The Australian newspaper for nearly ten years, and I didn’t know a grab from an … Continue reading Remembering Steve McQueen, aka Slam
Hillary’s on the road again; Watch out for the mud
Get ready for the dirtiest US presidential campaign in history.* That’s the first thing that occurred to me when Hillary Clinton finally announced she would run for the presidency in 2016: “I’m running for president … Everyday Americans need a champion. And I want to be that champion … So I’m hitting the road to … Continue reading Hillary’s on the road again; Watch out for the mud
Sarah Ferguson’s interview with Joe Hockey: Bias is in the eye of the beholder
“One of the chief Functions of a television critic is to stay at home and watch the programmes on an ordinary domestic receiver, just as his readers do. If he goes to official previews, he will meet producers and directors, start understanding their problems, and find himself paying the inevitable price for free sandwiches. A … Continue reading Sarah Ferguson’s interview with Joe Hockey: Bias is in the eye of the beholder
Gough Whitlam: We will never see his like again
Gough Whitlam, who died today at the age of 98, was my first Australian hero. When I arrived in Sydney in 1971, I got a job teaching at Cabramatta High School in the western suburbs. I didn't know a lot about Australian politics, but one of the first things a fellow teacher at the school … Continue reading Gough Whitlam: We will never see his like again
