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Clip description
Carol Raye and June Salter sing a song about being Australian versus being English.
Curator’s notes
The lampooning of Mavis Bramston (see clip two) is an apparent rejection of the Australian cultural cringe. However, Raye and Salter’s song seems to embody it. After running through a series of similes that render the British Raye as ‘highbrow’ and the Australian Salter as ‘lowbrow’, it culminates in a final chorus that declares ‘we belong together’. Looking at it now, it is hard to tell whether this is an ironic celebration of an Australian larrikin spirit or a way of embracing the show’s actual English performers after tearing the phony English star, Mavis, to shreds.
Despite its joke at the expense of cultural imports, The Mavis Bramston Show has two English stars and was influenced in part by the popularity of topical satire on British television at the time. Co-host Gordon Chater was English, although he could hardly be considered an import having lived in Australia since 1946, and after working on productions including the satirical Phillip Street Theatre revues that influenced Mavis Bramston.
A production consultant as well as host, Raye was a more recent arrival, recruited by Channel Seven after she migrated in 1964 to help develop a new late-night program. She suggested a topical satire in the vein of the English That Was The Week That Was (1962–63).
June Salter plays up her Australian accent in this act. At the time it was common for television performers to tone down their Australian accents, replacing them with an English-inflected hybrid. Barry Creyton provides an example in the news segment (clip one).
