Commissioned to celebrate the 90th year of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation,
The ABC Of is a six-part interview series hosted by David Wenham.
It revisits the pasts of prominent Australians through moments drawn from the vast ABC archives and premieres on Tuesday 28 June at 8pm on ABC TV and ABC iview.
All six guests are icons of one field or more: legendary businesswoman and publisher,
Ita Buttrose; beloved tennis star and indigenous advocate, Evonne Goolagong Cawley; comedian and proponent of mental health, Garry McDonald; journalist’s journalist and new host of 7:30, Sarah Ferguson; former Prime Minister John Howard; and TV host, podcaster and one of Australia’s favourite stand-up comedians, Wil Anderson.
Each half hour episode focuses on a single guest and conversation. The depth of the ABC archive provides the jumping off points for discussion, taking each guest down delightful and surprising paths. At its core, The ABC Of is about how we change and how the world changes around us. It’s a series in which the viewer gets to watch someone meet their earlier self and reflect on how they’ve changed.
Steering each interview is David Wenham, a globally successful film and TV actor whose own ABC career dates back to early 1990s programs such as Simone De Beauvoir’s Babies, Come In Spinner, Police Rescue and G.P. as well as more recent series The Code and Les Norton. And no, we are not forgetting his turn as the inimitable Diver Dan in SeaChange.
For David, The ABC Of has been an opportunity to try something new and challenging, to bring the skills of acting into a new environment.
“One of the joys of being an actor,” David says, “is the opportunity it provides to research history: personal history, history of fashion, architecture, medicine, politics, societal customs. The history of anything and everything. Archival film footage brings history alive, fires my imagination and often throws up more questions than answers.
“With The ABC Of, for the first time, I have had a chance to put the questions to the subject at hand. Sitting in the interviewer’s chair has been a privilege. It has also allowed me to put into practice the best advice I have ever received regarding acting. Listen. Listen real. Think. Think real.”
Head of Factual and Culture, Jennifer Collins says “Created by Jon Casimir (Enough Rope, Gruen, You Can’t Ask That) The ABC Of is the perfect format to celebrate ABC’s 90th. Featuring an outstanding line up of guests, a much-loved host in David Wenham, and clever use of ABC archive, audiences will delight in this very special series.”
