Critical Mass For Spencer

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday May 25, 1998

ANDREW CONWAY

TROUBLE in the lab at the ABC's science program, Quantum, with reports that the team is not thrilled with its presenter, Adam Spencer. Spencer, mathematician, Triple J presenter and regular on Good News Week, started hosting in March. But we hear whispers in the ABC canteen that morale at the program has plummeted. Matters hit an all-time low on April 23, when Spencer interviewed Dr James Watson (Frankenstein to Dolly the sheep) and the station and Internet site were swamped with complaints. But Spencer is here to stay, according to June Pritchard, the ABC's commissioning editor for science, talks, religion, social history, Jana Wendt, cooking and Media Watch (seriously). Pritchard says she appointed Spencer to create a younger demographic, and it's working. At the same time, she says he's keeping older audience members provoked and entertained. "He's an incredibly bright bloke, very funny, very smart. And the program has no loss of substance, which is exactly what I wanted ... I feel enormously optimistic about Adam and I am sorry if he has got a few people's noses out of joint."

Kelly rides again

THE production company Southern Star is delighted to announce the birth of a new project with the director Michael Jenkins (with whom it made Blue Murder). Jenkins, who also created Heartbreak High and Wildside, is at the Cannes film festival conjuring up the finance for the new features. Fanatic Heart, written by Don Watson, will look at the (terribly fashionable) Ned Kelly story from another angle. It focuses on Joe Byrne, an "opium-smoking carouser" who died from gunshot wounds during the Kelly siege. It will be shot in Australia and cast between Britain, Ireland and Australia.

Ray of sunshine

PEOPLE wandering past Channel 7 Melbourne last week were delighted when they glanced upwards to see Kerri-Anne Kennerley apparently clambering up the television tower in pursuit of Ray Martin. Of course, it all turned out to be a figment of the imagination - the imagination of Magda Szubanski, Marg Downey, Gina Riley and Jane Turner. The four women have buddied up again for the first time since Fast Forward to make their own comedy show for Seven (although Magda, Gina and Jane were all in Big Girl's Blouse). They say The Lazy Susan Show was written on "100 cups of very strong coffee, lots of Magda's cigarettes and a bit of a gossip". It will go to air at the end of this year. And, FYI, the tower sketch ended particularly badly for Ray (yes, Kerri-Anne shoved him off, but luckily Ray's part was being played by a big dummy).

Hugh 'n' Jase Show

EVERYONE wanted to hear Jason Donovan's sorry tale and now Foxtel is proud to announce it has it. Foxtel says it fended off a desperate 60 Minutes and a keen Today Tonight to secure the bad boy expat for an exclusive interview. In the first of a series, The Fox Interviews, the actor Hugh Jackman (at present in London doing Oklahoma) interviews Donovan (who is trying to scrape some bucks together by doing a British regional touring production of Rocky Horror Show) and the result is frank comment on everything from West End success to drug rehabilitation. Foxtel loved the Jackman/Donovan interview so much it has decided to make a series of colleagues-interviewing-colleagues; we can look forward to the footballer Wayne Carey putting the big questions (in a matey way) to the cricketer Shane Warne. You can catch Hugh 'n' Jase on July 14 at 8pm on Fox 8.

Ratings conundrum

GOLIATH Channel 9 and David ABC are locked in a stoush over ratings figures for the Sunday 7.30pm slot. The ABC says its new drama SeaChange beat the pants off the competition, including 60 Minutes, on its opening night. But Nine believes the old battleship outsailed the newcomer. Both sides are claiming A.C. Nielsen figures to support their cases. In Sydney, Nine says SeaChange averaged 456,000 viewers, whereas 60 Minutes had 459,000. However, let's take a look in 15-minute intervals: in the first quarter SeaChange had 472,000 viewers to 60 Minutes's 405,000; in the second quarter, SeaChange had 475,000 to 60 Minutes's 451,000 (still winning); in the third quarter SeaChange had 504,000 to 60 Minutes's 488,000 (romping in), and in the final quarter (during which SeaChange went for only five minutes), SeaChange had 374,000 and 60 Minutes 490,000. Meanwhile, the ABC says staunchly, "There's no way we haven't beaten 60 Minutes", and to bolster its case points to the household figures. Looking at the percentage of households watching at 15-minute intervals, SeaChange earned 23, 24, 25 while 60 Minutes did 18, 19 and 20. Perhaps we should congratulate both sides on having the statistics to prove who is the victor. Viewers can make up their own minds.

Out of Luck

IT MAY only be early 1998, but the networks are already scrambling to get their "millennium" retrospectives ready to air in 2000. On the very day that Seven offered Peter Luck the revolving chair behind the Today Tonight desk, Nine rang him to ask him to do its millennium show. It was four hours too late and failed to lure Luck away, even though he would again be working with the producer Paul Rudd, with whom he did Fifty Fantastic Years. Now Luck's documentary production company has been asked by Seven to do its millennium doco, which means he will be presenting and producing the rival to Rudd's efforts at Nine. "It's an epic task," Luck says.

Growing into the job

ELLE McFeast may be floundering her way off our screens but her new ABC colleague Shaun Micallef (below) is garnering rave reviews for his comedy half-hour on Monday nights. People are already talking about the hostile computer salesman (Wayne Hope from The Castle) and the ABC kids' show host (a chub loaf from the supermarket) who was unfortunately eaten by a passing labrador. But Micallef has powers beyond the comedic. In his mid-30s, he reports he has grown 21/2 inches (6cm) in the past three years which means he is now six foot four and a bit (1.9m).

A survivor of the scuppered Full Frontal, Micallef says working at the ABC is a change from commercial television. "There's been no suggestion that I have to pander to any particular demographic," he says.

"What we consciously are trying to do with this show is not to cut up each gag and hand-feed it to the audience. We made an effort to say, 'all right, let's let some of the jokes waft in or hover around in the background, or do two or three things that work on a number of levels at once, so 20 per cent of the audience may pick them up, but if they don't there's something else for them as well' ... let them find the gag."

Micallef, who is making the show with Artist Services for the ABC, says he will take the rest of the year off to spend with his newborn son.

Who knows where his career will take him from here? He has already been spotted in an episode of Blue Heelers where he played a suspiciously suave Melbourne film producer. "I have been to Mount Thomas," Micallef acknowledges, "but I really wanted to play a psycho farmer, holding hostages in the farmhouse and screaming down the phone. I wasn't allowed," he adds regretfully.