Speaker 1: Welcome back to TV Relo. This is another bonus episode
Speaker 1: featuring a quick chat with Holy Molly's favorite pirate, Ian
Speaker 1: Dixon Dicker, as we came to know him, landed in
Speaker 1: Australia with long hair, an accent, and more than a
Speaker 1: few opinions, but with a sense of humor and charisma
Speaker 1: that certainly outweighed any negatives. He was the so called
Speaker 1: nasty judge on Channel ten's Australian Idol, but resonated so
Speaker 1: deeply with audiences he quickly became one of the most
Speaker 1: sought after television personalities over the last twenty years. It's
Speaker 1: probably a good point to mention my admiration for this man,
Speaker 1: as I certainly appreciate his raw, unfiltered points of view,
Speaker 1: especially in a world where people don't often tell you
Speaker 1: their truth. Today we will talk about Holy Molly and
Speaker 1: why he said yes to dressing as a pirate for
Speaker 1: the newest show on Channel seven, but will also have
Speaker 1: an honest conversation about television and I'll find out if
Speaker 1: Channel seven has actually asked him to return to the
Speaker 1: upcoming reboot of Australian Idol in twenty twenty two. I'd
Speaker 1: like to welcome to the podcast The One and Only
Speaker 1: Ian Dixon.
Speaker 2: It's funny. I'm not knocking myself when I sign a
Speaker 2: c great celebrity.
Speaker 3: He's got about as much chance of winning this competition
Speaker 3: as I have of playing cricket for England.
Speaker 2: I've got more ambition now than I've had in about
Speaker 2: twenty five years. Tell me about Dad I Dia. What
Speaker 2: do we know about it? What they've got a nostalgia
Speaker 2: for is the body count and the blood on the walls.
Speaker 2: I was actually one of the most famous people on
Speaker 2: TV at one point. If you present me with a
Speaker 2: TV show that's ludicrous, I'm going to be interested.
Speaker 1: That's why I bought my idol.
Speaker 2: Judge decided that he would start his own music festival.
Speaker 2: No guarantee that because it was an iconic television show
Speaker 2: eighteen years ago that he's going to do the business. Now.
Speaker 1: How are you, mate?
Speaker 2: Are you well? I'm really well. Yeah, I'm about to
Speaker 2: turn fifty eight and feeling every single one of those
Speaker 2: years at the moment.
Speaker 1: And look it's still working, which is amazing.
Speaker 2: It's funny. I've kind of found my level now. Ben
Speaker 2: dressing up as a pirate and chipping golf balls over
Speaker 2: a shark infestive ball. That's kind of me, and it's good.
Speaker 2: It's only taken me eighteen years to realize my worth
Speaker 2: for Australian television. But I look at that sounds snippy,
Speaker 2: it's not at all. I've realized that I had a really,
Speaker 2: really good long run on television for someone with no
Speaker 2: discernible talents really, you know, apart from you know, maybe
Speaker 2: a quick tongue and honesty and a certain energy. I
Speaker 2: didn't you know, I don't sing, I don't dance, I
Speaker 2: don't act, but I've had a crack at all of
Speaker 2: those things. But yeah, look, I've realized that they kept
Speaker 2: me around for a long time, probably you know, a
Speaker 2: few years longer than I probably deserved. So I had
Speaker 2: no problem with the fact that the phone stopped bringing
Speaker 2: with regards to television, and I kind of changed my
Speaker 2: life anyway. Mel and I left Sydney, moved to a
Speaker 2: small dairy town in southeast Queensland and life got a
Speaker 2: lot simpler. And then I ended up just kind of
Speaker 2: stumbling back into rock and roll. And I don't know
Speaker 2: how this happened. I was meant to be playing golf
Speaker 2: and bowls and making sour though, But now I'm in
Speaker 2: the office six days a week and we've got live
Speaker 2: shows up and we've managed six bands, So yeah, I
Speaker 2: should be slowing down. But actually, do you know what,
Speaker 2: I've got more ambition now than I've had in about
Speaker 2: twenty five years. And I think when I was pretty
Speaker 2: successful on television, that's the one thing I realized it
Speaker 2: deprived me of, was my ambition. Everything was too easy
Speaker 2: and too rosy, and I just stopped being hungry. So
Speaker 2: I guess I'm grateful I've come around to that, even
Speaker 2: at the age of fifty eight.
Speaker 1: You know, you talk about being a failed celebrity, being
Speaker 1: the C grade celebrity, which I always think is really
Speaker 1: quite strange. And I also think it's a bit of
Speaker 1: a laugh because you've actually been on nearly every show
Speaker 1: in the country. Are you just trying to mock yourself
Speaker 1: before others mock you? Is that just a part of
Speaker 1: who you are?
Speaker 2: Oh? Of course, Celebrity is such an embarrassing word anyway,
Speaker 2: you know, it emasculates it and makes it bulletproof if
Speaker 2: you are give it the prefixed C grade celebrity an
Speaker 2: unseemly swelling of the ego, and we all forfell to
Speaker 2: it when we are on television and it is you know,
Speaker 2: it does give you a certain buzz and it's it
Speaker 2: is kind of addictive. But at the same time, you
Speaker 2: and I both entered television as part of the new
Speaker 2: wave of ordinary people that were allowed onto our screens
Speaker 2: through reality television. And when I grew up addicted to television,
Speaker 2: I loved it. But when I grew up watching television,
Speaker 2: people on TV were celebrities, they were stars, and people
Speaker 2: like you and I were not allowed anywhere need TV
Speaker 2: screens unless we'd done something really bad on the news
Speaker 2: and were interviewed, or we were a contestant on a
Speaker 2: game show that was the only only available avenue for
Speaker 2: us to be on TV screens. Then all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: it was deemed a great idea, probably through Big Brother
Speaker 2: in the UK or Holland as it was where it
Speaker 2: started saying that there's a massive vein that can be
Speaker 2: mined in real people being put in very unusual, high
Speaker 2: pressure situations. So yeah, we were allowed onto TV, and
Speaker 2: I think as such, the idea of celebrity has been
Speaker 2: diminished somewhat, you know, I mean, I remember people being
Speaker 2: popped out of reality shows and even my show Australian Idol,
Speaker 2: having been in the public eye for a year and
Speaker 2: a half writing autobiographies, that to me feels faintally ridiculous.
Speaker 2: And that's what I guess. I always have that in
Speaker 2: my mind when I rail against the idea of celebrity
Speaker 2: and in the grand scheme of things, I think C
Speaker 2: grade is a good level of self awareness. You know,
Speaker 2: Nicole Kidman is an A grader, Keith Urban's an A grader.
Speaker 2: I would say, you know, right now, maybe Guy Sebastian,
Speaker 2: he's probably be But I'd have to put myself under
Speaker 2: guy right now, and I'm happy to be under guy.
Speaker 2: I never thought i'd say that.
Speaker 1: We'll ask his wife if he's okay with that first time.
Speaker 2: So look, I know it's funny to grade yourself, but
Speaker 2: I think it's good to be. It's good to have
Speaker 2: some level of awareness. It's funny. I'm not knocking myself
Speaker 2: when I sign a C great celebrity. I'm kind of
Speaker 2: proud at that level. I think, you know, it's okay.
Speaker 2: I still get people still look at me and go, oh,
Speaker 2: you're you're that touchdown guy. Aren't you going well near enough?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's amazing how people's brains in Australia sometimes curdle
Speaker 1: because then they get things like that mixed up. I mean,
Speaker 1: Mark Holden's obviously the touchdown guy from that show. And
Speaker 1: I have people come up to me and ask me
Speaker 1: what it was like to be in Big Brother with
Speaker 1: Sarah Marie And I was on Big Brother, you know,
Speaker 1: like seven years after her. But people they change it
Speaker 1: in their minds.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a big blomonge for them. And look that's fine.
Speaker 2: I mean, look that's our fault. I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: we ended up as an industry put in the same
Speaker 2: show on the same channel four nights a week, you know,
Speaker 2: I mean, how are they going to pick their way
Speaker 2: through that? I mean, imagine the absolute opposite of that
Speaker 2: is Faulty Terrors that only ever made twelve episode and
Speaker 2: it's one of the giants. It's one of the absolute
Speaker 2: monoliths of TV history, and they made twelve episodes and
Speaker 2: you can pick every single one of those episodes and
Speaker 2: lines from within them. But we've created these big, blobby
Speaker 2: monsters that exist on our channels four nights a week
Speaker 2: because we think that's what we need to give the public.
Speaker 2: Plus all the other platforms. You know, it's no wonder
Speaker 2: that their brains are scrambled about.
Speaker 1: What we've delivered, oh one hundred percent. You know what's
Speaker 1: interesting about you turning up on Channel seven for Holly
Speaker 1: Molly is everyone's like, oh, this coincidentally is happening at
Speaker 1: the same time as Australian Idol coming back and being
Speaker 1: on seven.
Speaker 2: Mister Dixon, Hello that do you know what, Courtney?
Speaker 3: If the drag scene was in a state of nine
Speaker 3: one one, I reckon you're the chick to save it.
Speaker 2: I really do, and I think you're going to rule
Speaker 2: the drag scene. The question here is whether you can
Speaker 2: rule the pop scene.
Speaker 1: You'd be forgiven for thinking it's a tease for you
Speaker 1: coming back to the show. But you've, you know, publicly
Speaker 1: come out and said, you who don't really want to
Speaker 1: go back to that show unless you were really tied
Speaker 1: to it being able to manage the person that comes
Speaker 1: out of that show. Don't you think you coming back
Speaker 1: to that format and promising to then want to manage
Speaker 1: these people afterwards seems like a more realistic show.
Speaker 2: Well it does to me, but I don't think that's
Speaker 2: where television is these days. I think television is risk averse.
Speaker 2: And also when I first was on Australian Idol, there
Speaker 2: was no social media, and social media now is a
Speaker 2: twenty four hour war on flaws, so any person saying
Speaker 2: anything negative about anyone would be there'd be a flame war,
Speaker 2: you know. So I think that they like to manage.
Speaker 2: I think the networks love to manage the to and
Speaker 2: fro that he said, she said between celebrity judges, and
Speaker 2: just keep it corraled in the studio in a controlled environment.
Speaker 2: I don't really think they want some lad math like
Speaker 2: banging off about someone and just having cancel. Culture come
Speaker 2: not on the door. Look regardless of anything. I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't even know if it is coming back. It
Speaker 2: certainly seems to have dropped off all of the up fronts,
Speaker 2: so I don't know if they've had second thoughts. I mean,
Speaker 2: to be honest, they should have second thoughts because there's
Speaker 2: no guarantee that because it was an iconic television show
Speaker 2: eighteen years ago, that it's going to do the business now.
Speaker 2: I mean, we all remember what happened with Hayate Saturday.
Speaker 2: When that came back. They did a two hour special
Speaker 2: on Saturday night and it absolutely rated its tits off
Speaker 2: and everyone went whoa full series, and I think it
Speaker 2: had a really great first episode and then was on
Speaker 2: the nose. No one watched it for the rest of
Speaker 2: the series, and everyone in the network had wavy line
Speaker 2: smiles like the ABC logo, and we're really happy when
Speaker 2: it ended. There's absolutely no guarantee the idol would work
Speaker 2: if he came back.
Speaker 1: I think though, that the nostalgia factor is obviously a
Speaker 1: draw card, and I think that's why James Warburton's like,
Speaker 1: you know, let's bring this show back. Nostalgia certainly can
Speaker 1: bring people back there, but if you stupefy the audience
Speaker 1: in any way, they drop off and hey, hey it's Saturday.
Speaker 1: As an example of that was brought back is hey
Speaker 1: hey it's Wednesday, and you know you're already changing the
Speaker 1: way in which the audiences interact with it. I think
Speaker 1: nostalgia works for an element, and yes, you could bring
Speaker 1: it back and have them there on day not you know,
Speaker 1: on the first night out, But then to keep them
Speaker 1: there you have to be smarter these days. And that's
Speaker 1: where I think something that you said in the media,
Speaker 1: which I thought was powerful, was the fact that you
Speaker 1: know you'd want to manage these people afterwards. And getting
Speaker 1: back to that, these shows we've been seen like you
Speaker 1: were there right on the ground floor, and that was
Speaker 1: that no one was following these people up and helping
Speaker 1: them have a music career. They kind of the show
Speaker 1: was over and all of a sudden they were gone.
Speaker 1: But I think modernizing it these days, you need to
Speaker 1: be there and say, well, we're in for the long haul.
Speaker 1: We're not just here to get the ratings and sell
Speaker 1: the advertising.
Speaker 2: Well, that's a big call. Even back eighteen years ago,
Speaker 2: it was really tough call to try and get Grundy
Speaker 2: as they were then the TV production company, to give
Speaker 2: us the time and space to make these contestants stars.
Speaker 2: And I'm really proud the BMG Records at the time
Speaker 2: as a whole. Everyone in the company brought into the
Speaker 2: idea that we were going to launch one of these
Speaker 2: guys out of the cannon into the marketing and have
Speaker 2: records selling releases, and we did. But that was the
Speaker 2: fact that we all we had to fight long and
Speaker 2: hard in the schedule to get these guys out of
Speaker 2: TV land and to write and record backing tracks for
Speaker 2: songs that some of them were never going to release,
Speaker 2: we took a real leap of faith and as a result,
Speaker 2: Guy's single was the fastest selling single of all time
Speaker 2: and Guys Album was the fastest selling album of all time,
Speaker 2: and that still holds. And eighteen years on, he's a superstar,
Speaker 2: and so is Shannon, and you know, we got Ricky Lee,
Speaker 2: we got Jess Malboy. Lots of careers have come out
Speaker 2: of this show, and I think that's because because of
Speaker 2: the record company as much as the production company. But look,
Speaker 2: I don't know if they've got the patience for this anymore. Ben.
Speaker 2: The one thing you talk about nostalgia, I hear what
Speaker 2: you're saying, but big portion of Australian idols allure was
Speaker 2: the fact that we traveled around the country and saw
Speaker 2: all these nutjobs turning up singing when they can't go
Speaker 2: and with my heart will take me I've got yeah, Michael, yep.
Speaker 3: I'm not being rude, but that voice should come with
Speaker 3: a government warning. Was that serious attempt at being Australian idol.
Speaker 2: They're not going to do that anymore, and so we're
Speaker 2: not going to end up with all these amazing characters
Speaker 2: who weren't that great at singing. But we're lovable idiots
Speaker 2: on the TV and fodder for some ritual humiliation. That's
Speaker 2: what everyone is really nostalgic about, because with that that
Speaker 2: you're not going to get to those big moments with
Speaker 2: climb every mountain and what about me? You're not Otherwise
Speaker 2: it's just a shiny floor sceneing show that means nothing,
Speaker 2: you know, It's just like the rest. So if they're
Speaker 2: brave enough to bring back the ritual slaughter of innocence
Speaker 2: in places like Dubbo and Bunderberg, great, I think it's
Speaker 2: got a chance. But if they're going to sanitize it
Speaker 2: and just keep it squeaky clean, no one has a
Speaker 2: nostalgia for that because they can still get that now.
Speaker 2: What they've got a nostalgia for is the body count
Speaker 2: and the blood on the walls.
Speaker 1: I was talking to paul Anie last week and paul
Speaker 1: Annie was saying that it was the rawness you know,
Speaker 1: which is obviously connecting to what you're saying. She was like,
Speaker 1: if the show comes back and it's to work, it
Speaker 1: is that it's less about the staging spectacular that you
Speaker 1: might see on the voice or you and the ability
Speaker 1: to make it feel like you from home could be
Speaker 1: those people. I think that's you know, I guess that's
Speaker 1: the magic of reality television. Anthony Klea was an interesting
Speaker 1: one coming into series two because you know, obviously he
Speaker 1: was probably one of the best singers that was ever
Speaker 1: on the show, but you know he was struggling with
Speaker 1: his sexuality. Did you ever offer any advice to him
Speaker 1: at the time about you know, at that time, you
Speaker 1: probably couldn't be gay on television, you know, did you
Speaker 1: offer him advice.
Speaker 2: That's not true or you you absolutely could be gay
Speaker 2: on television. Look, I was I probably went a little hard.
Speaker 2: We all knew Anthony was gay, right, and I remember
Speaker 2: saying to him, Look, mate, we're going to be your
Speaker 2: record company, and we can help you have the life
Speaker 2: you want to live and shag who you want and
Speaker 2: keep a public persona for your career if that's what
Speaker 2: you choose, if you want to keep it quiet. But
Speaker 2: it's good that we know because you know, you wouldn't
Speaker 2: be the first person for us to do it. I mean,
Speaker 2: virtually every boy band ever was got one gay member.
Speaker 2: It's a rule. Every boy band's got one ugly one
Speaker 2: and one gay one, and that's the way it goes.
Speaker 2: So it's like it's not like it's not like it's
Speaker 2: our first fucking rodeo. But but he said, he was going,
Speaker 2: how very dare you? I am not gay? And look,
Speaker 2: he was a shame. But yeah, we gave him that option,
Speaker 2: but he wasn't ready for it. And look, do you
Speaker 2: know what, at the end of the day, it's not
Speaker 2: it's not my job to out someone. I was trying
Speaker 2: to reach out. But the fact is that Anthony, I think,
Speaker 2: had a different set of challenges for his coming out.
Speaker 2: He had a quite a conservative Italian family with an
Speaker 2: old nonna that probably, you know, he would have felt
Speaker 2: very self conscious about people come to this realization in
Speaker 2: their own time. And look, and I know I've got
Speaker 2: enough gay mates, many many gay mates. A lot of
Speaker 2: them look down on guys that won't come out. And
Speaker 2: I know there's a militancy and there's there's a real
Speaker 2: militant faction in the in the gay world. You know
Speaker 2: about guys who come to come to this late. But
Speaker 2: you've got to give everyone a chance to live their
Speaker 2: own life and get to where they want to be
Speaker 2: at their time. So you know what, we did reach out.
Speaker 2: I was probably a bit forceful on a couple of
Speaker 2: times with Anthony, and that's probably something I should not
Speaker 2: have done. You know, it's no one's business. Really. I
Speaker 2: thought I was being helpful, but Anthony really, you know,
Speaker 2: needed and deserved the opportunity to get to who he
Speaker 2: was in his time frame, not mine.
Speaker 1: You know, you and mel as in your wife sitting
Speaker 1: there watching Anthony and Tim do those YouTube videos now
Speaker 1: where they're miming to things. Have you seen any of that?
Speaker 2: No, I haven't seen any of those, actually, But I
Speaker 2: love because Tim, Tim's a matter of ours as well.
Speaker 2: Me and my partner David, We used to manage Tim
Speaker 2: as well. Tim's a really unusual gay guy. Tim's a
Speaker 2: real knock about, sort of Campbelltown guy, you know, he's
Speaker 2: a real sort of Westy and he's real sort of
Speaker 2: knock about. And I never would have put those two
Speaker 2: together in a million years. I never would have thought
Speaker 2: they'd be. But they've turned out as one of most
Speaker 2: fabulously successful power couples, you know.
Speaker 1: You know, going back to sort of the how it
Speaker 1: all started with you with being sort of villainous, do
Speaker 1: you think that honesty still comes across as being the villain?
Speaker 2: I don't see an awful lot of honesty on television,
Speaker 2: so I'm not really able to answer that. Certainly, in
Speaker 2: reality television, I see people performing a script very very well.
Speaker 2: The villains in Married at First Sight are the classics
Speaker 2: these days. They're the people that you love to hate
Speaker 2: these days, I would say. But even then, Look, do
Speaker 2: you know in Australian Idol two we had people turning
Speaker 2: up to audition knowing the script. You're never going to
Speaker 2: have the wonder of the first series ever again, Yeah,
Speaker 2: everybody knows. I like on My Kitchen Rules or Married
Speaker 2: at First Sight, everybody knows what you need to do
Speaker 2: to be that person. I mean, look at you were
Speaker 2: an odd one because you were a little bit of
Speaker 2: a little bit of a villain, weren't you. Well you were,
Speaker 2: but a lot of it, you know what there was.
Speaker 2: You know, we loved you because you know, there was
Speaker 2: a sharp tongue, cattiness and an honesty in what you
Speaker 2: did on Big Brother that really spoke to me. For me,
Speaker 2: I felt that was eminently watchable. But there was a
Speaker 2: sight of me that I still felt that you knew
Speaker 2: what you were doing, but I didn't feel it was
Speaker 2: not genuine. I just thought it was clever and smart,
Speaker 2: and I don't know that these days it's just as
Speaker 2: long as you've got the big fish lips and the
Speaker 2: big iron makeup and you can give a bitchy look,
Speaker 2: you're in. You know, it doesn't take an awful lot
Speaker 2: to be an arshole on television these days? Is it
Speaker 2: when we were lads. When we're lads, we really actually work.
Speaker 1: But I think it's about being authentic. And I think
Speaker 1: that's maybe why people are turning away from television in
Speaker 1: some ways, is that if you aren't being authentic on television,
Speaker 1: people are wise to it, so they switch off. Where
Speaker 1: I think you can be a good person or a
Speaker 1: bad person, but as long as you're being authentic, audiences
Speaker 1: will connect to you. And the closer that we've come
Speaker 1: to making TV look like Ruth Bereford's latest film and
Speaker 1: making it all so tight and squeaky clean, we lose
Speaker 1: that opportunity to feel seen on screen.
Speaker 2: I think, Look, I think you're right for me. It's
Speaker 2: if you head for the humanity in any situation, then
Speaker 2: it's going to be watchable and compelling and most the
Speaker 2: problem there for free to air television is most humanity
Speaker 2: is nuanced and complicated, and that doesn't always work for television.
Speaker 2: If you've got a really smart producer and set of
Speaker 2: editors who understand how to create that narrative and retain
Speaker 2: the authenticity, you know, you can show those nuances and
Speaker 2: those complexities and those gray areas where most of us live.
Speaker 2: But unfortunately a lot of lazy producers just regard reality
Speaker 2: as life with all the boring bits taken out as
Speaker 2: they perceive it. You know, they just give us this
Speaker 2: either massive sugar hit or a see splash of acid,
Speaker 2: nothing in between. And I don't think people live life
Speaker 2: like that. So yeah, I think when you've got great,
Speaker 2: smart producers you understand how to portray a nuance, that's
Speaker 2: when it gets really interesting.
Speaker 1: No, I don't necessarily know if we do, but I
Speaker 1: think that'll be the problem with worrying about the ratings
Speaker 1: for tomorrow versus whether or not people are going to
Speaker 1: still watch free to wear television in years to come.
Speaker 1: You might continue to chase those ratings for the short term,
Speaker 1: but whether or not that's going to pay off in
Speaker 1: the long term, I think it's going to be the
Speaker 1: is where I see the problem. But you know, that
Speaker 1: could be just me. Have they actually asked that's the question.
Speaker 1: I don't think anyone's asked you so has seven wrung
Speaker 1: you and said would you come back and do Australian idol?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: No, because that's the one thing that I'm like. You know,
Speaker 1: so many people were talking about it coming back and
Speaker 1: they were like, would March come back? With Mark Holton
Speaker 1: come back? And I had actually interviewed a few with
Speaker 1: executive producers who you know, could be working on this show,
Speaker 1: and I was like, it's really interesting. I think if
Speaker 1: they need to have one nostalgic person brought back, I
Speaker 1: think it'll be you. And I hope you say yes.
Speaker 2: It's very kind of you to say that. And as
Speaker 2: I said, I would consider it, but the only reason
Speaker 2: for me to do it would be was if I
Speaker 2: was going to work with the winner, because I still
Speaker 2: think the most powerful sentiment that I could on Idle
Speaker 2: was I'm not saying you couldn't make money out of
Speaker 2: your voice. It's just that I can't make money out
Speaker 2: of your voice, and that in that really mundane sentence,
Speaker 2: it shows that's what we're about. You know, there's a
Speaker 2: lot of weekend singers out there who are fabulous and
Speaker 2: if that's all they ever want good on yet, but
Speaker 2: it takes something really special, you know. I always work
Speaker 2: with artists with three criteria in mind likability, ambition, and
Speaker 2: talent in that order, and you get to see all
Speaker 2: three of those on a process like idle, you know,
Speaker 2: because when someone walks in a room, you get a
Speaker 2: sense of their likability, you can smell it. With regards
Speaker 2: to their ambition, you start to get an idea over
Speaker 2: the different rounds as to whether they can apply themselves
Speaker 2: and whether they've got the the real gumption to give
Speaker 2: it a go. And then finally you discover whether they
Speaker 2: have any real raw talent, you know. And I think
Speaker 2: most of those guys who've who've done well, you know,
Speaker 2: follow that code pretty closely. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, How did Holy Moly come about? How did they
Speaker 1: get in contact with you about this show?
Speaker 2: My manager David rang me up and said there's a
Speaker 2: TV show. They want you to dress as a pirate
Speaker 2: and play golf. And I went, sure, you haven't heard
Speaker 2: of what the TV show is yet, And I said, well,
Speaker 2: I don't need to know. That's perfect because it's ludicrous
Speaker 2: if you present me with a TV show that's from
Speaker 2: the outset ludicrous. I'm going to be interested. The ones
Speaker 2: that I'm going to be worried about and allman are
Speaker 2: about are those ones where you've got to pretend, the
Speaker 2: ones where you've got to pretend you really give a
Speaker 2: shit about what's happening, and and's't. It's like sex with
Speaker 2: no strings, Holy Molly, it's just good fun. And and
Speaker 2: you know you're not going to have to phone anyone
Speaker 2: the next day and tell them why there's not going
Speaker 2: to be a second date. It's perfect.
Speaker 1: Are they already asking you about the second series? Because
Speaker 1: in America they call it Holy Molly, the sequel.
Speaker 2: Holy Molly too, the sequel colon, the special colon on
Speaker 2: Hiss Part one and two? Exclamation point?
Speaker 1: Are you going to dust off the pirate outfit and
Speaker 1: come back and do it all over again?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: I might have to get it dry cleaned myself. And
Speaker 2: now were giving it a bit of a workover on
Speaker 2: Valentine's Night. So no, I think I don't even know
Speaker 2: if there will be a second series. It looks it
Speaker 2: looks kind of expensive. Look if they did, yeah, why not?
Speaker 2: Why they will not? It's you know, it's it's what
Speaker 2: It was literally very short shoot for me and a
Speaker 2: short drive. It was in Brisbane.
Speaker 1: Do you think we're still as fascinated with celebrity as
Speaker 1: much as we used to be? I mean, do you
Speaker 1: think that we've diluted that? Do you think we're going
Speaker 1: to still see people going into the jungle and eating
Speaker 1: crocodile's legs and or running around Pitt Street Mall on
Speaker 1: Celebrity Apprentice. Do you think the fascination with celebrity is
Speaker 1: still as potent as what.
Speaker 2: It used to be? No, I think I think we've
Speaker 2: completely watered down that concept. I think I think people
Speaker 2: need to actually achieve something now. People need to actually,
Speaker 2: I'm not all of that needs to be nourishing or constructive.
Speaker 2: You can do something absolutely horrendous, but you've got to
Speaker 2: do something. I think. I don't really think you can
Speaker 2: just be anymore. Can't just you can't just light up
Speaker 2: the screen and expect that to travel. I think you've
Speaker 2: actually got to produce something wonderful or horrendous, but you've
Speaker 2: got to produce something. Well.
Speaker 1: It's just been so fantastic to be able to have
Speaker 1: this chat with you. It's so amazing. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for being able to chat about this and good
Speaker 1: luck with Holy Molly.
Speaker 2: Thank you lovely to see Benny, and I'll give you
Speaker 2: a little squeeze when I see you in real life