The greatest TV show you will probably never see: Aunty Jack, a ten-foot tall, boxing-glove wearing, motor-cycling, moustached cross-dresser, was the star of
The Aunty Jack Show, which ran for thirteen episodes in 1972-73 on the
Australian Broadcasting Commission TV network (and was the first show broadcast on Australian TV in colour).
Many of the original episodes have been lost (but
records of them exist). Re-release on video or DVD of the remaining episodes is tangled up in copyright issues. The 1974 album
Aunty Jack Sings Wollongong was re-released on CD, and still seems to be available. It includes such classics as 'Fish Milkshakes' and 'Teenage Butcher' and the song 'Farewell Aunty Jack', which was a number 1 hit in Australia. Some samples can be found
here.
There were spinoffs from
Aunty Jack, most notably the
Norman Gunston Show, with Norman playing the prototypical terrrible interviewer and inspiring the much later
Ali G,
Dennis Pennis and many others.
I was two years old when the series aired: Aunty Jack's threat at the end of each episode, that: 'If you don't watch next week,
I'll rip your bloody arm off!' meant that I never, ever, missed it.
posted by chrisgregory
on Jan 30, 2003 -
33 comments
