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Originally Posted by The West article by Rachel Donkin Paul McDermott is back. In fact, he’s on the phone, doing a string of interviews to promote the much-hyped return of Good News Week. Unfortunately, when we chat, McDermott is in a less than cordial mood, blaming his disaffected manner on a sore throat brought on by a long morning of interviews.
“I’m getting a bit dry, that bloody girl from South Australia wouldn’t stop talking,” he complains of the previous reporter.
Although McDermott is a frustrating man to interview, he oozes charisma on screen and it was his sparkling persona that made Good News Week such a success the first time around.
He and the crew behind GNW will be hoping he’s still got that Midas touch as the show embarks on a second coming of sorts, with Channel 10 commissioning the 90s hit for another season amid uncertainty about American series because of the US writers’ strike.
But despite the good news coming after the short-lived success of his variety project, The Sideshow, McDermott denies he’s worried, even a teensy bit, that he might be flogging a dead horse with the revival of GNW.
“No, it’s all been great. It’s been an extraordinary roller-coaster since we announced it and we’ve been pleasantly surprised by the reaction,” he says.
He is similarly hostile to the suggestion that another season of GNW on commercial TV might have less sting.
“Certainly, it was sharp on the ABC. I thought it was even sharper when it went to Channel 10,” he says stiffly. “It will be sharp and it will be as acerbic as it once was. Age has not mellowed us.”
But diehard fans of the satirical current affairs-based game show, seen as a forerunner to everything from The Glass House (now axed) and The Chaser’s War on Everything to music-themed panel show Spicks and Specks, have reacted to news of the show’s return with varying levels of enthusiasm.
“It’s not GNW without (former captains) Julie (McCrossin) and Mikey (Robbins),” one fan complained on a viewer blog.
McDermott is unconcerned.
“I think it’s wonderful that there’s a whole new group of Australian comedians and performers out there who haven’t had that opportunity to show themselves on television,” he says, adding there have been “discussions” with both McCrossin and Robbins about appearing on the new series.
In fact, two team captains have just signed on but Ten is still “waiting for the ink to dry” on the contracts, so he won’t reveal their identities. “But people will be chuffed if they’re regular watchers of the program, they’ll see some very familiar faces,” he teases.
As for the intended targets of that famous acerbic wit, McDermott is less enthusiastic.
“Well I don’t know what’s going to happen, I’m not a psychic,” he says. “But everything is open season. I’ve got no idea what’s going to be happening in Iraq but we’ll be talking about that and, yeah, we’ll be talking about the Rudd Government.”
The producers will try to lure a few members of Rudd’s Cabinet on set, of course, and might even pull off the coup of the decade by getting John Howard into the studio. Well, maybe that’s a bit of a stretch.
“We’ve been trying to get him, which would be a great way to come back, wouldn’t it?” McDermott says. “No response though, funnily enough. When we did GNW back then, we’d badger Howard’s office the whole time to try to get him on. It’s part of the sport of it.”
The politicians seem to have lost their sense of humour since those days in the early 90s, which is a shame, he muses.
“You can be shown in a completely different light when you’re on a show like Good News Week compared to something where you’ve got to give a sound bite to a news crew,” he says. “You’re allowed to talk about the topic, illustrate your point.
“Part of it, the most entertaining part, is the informative part where someone like Natasha Stott Despoja would speak passionately about a topic, and hopefully we can find other politicians that have her honesty and integrity on the program.”
Fans will look forward to watching the next-generation GNW pin-up girl, although Stott Despoja will be hard to beat.
Good News Week premieres on Channel 10 at 9pm, February 4, then 8.30pm every Monday. |