Australian
Screen

Clip description

John Clarke does a satirical presentation of the national news. His stories include swipes at nationalism, Australia’s relationship with the United States and sound bites from some of the best known political leaders of the day including Don Chipp (Max Gillies), founder of the Australian Democrats and a former Liberal Party Minister, explaining what his party stands for.

Curator’s notes

Simply shot, and performed in front of a live audience, the material is still astonishingly funny. The clip shows the extraordinary writing and performing talent of John Clarke (in a startling wig) and Max Gillies, here doing an hilarious Don Chipp impersonation.

The great strength of The Gillies Report was its ability to keep abreast of the issues of the day, because the program was written and produced from week to week. They were able to do this because, according to the show’s producer-director Ted Robinson, Patrick Cook had such a terrific grasp of history and politics that they could plan routines based on his unerring ability to predict the likely outcome of an Australian or international story.

In this clip, John Clarke is the newsreader who’s also John Clarke, or to quote John Clarke: 'There are two kinds of actors. There are the kind who actually pretend they’re other people. Like, if they’re doing Hamlet, they actually pretend they’re a Danish prince of that period. Then there are actors who pretend other people are them. So if they’re playing Hamlet, Hamlet comes from Palmerston North’. Palmerston is the town in New Zealand where Clarke was born, although he’s lived in Australia for over 30 years.

Ted Robinson, the series producer and director, recalls that the ABC in those days had a treasure trove of craftspeople, including seamstresses, tailors and bootmakers. Many of them were ex-Hungarian opera staff exiled in Australia after the communist takeover of their country in the 1950s. He recalls that they could conjure up a costume or an accessory at a moment’s notice, whether it be a hussar’s uniform from the early 19th century or a 1930s ball gown.