Sam Pang has gained the Gold Logie for the preferred individual on Australian tv. And in a showstopping shock that capped an uncommonly entertaining ceremony, he was introduced with the award by a tattered and torn Sharon Strzelecki – Magda Szubanski in her first public look since her extended most cancers battle – wearing Australia Zoo fatigues and in search of all of the world like she’d simply emerged from a tussle with a crocodile.
“I grew up watching tv on the ft of my dad and mom – they wouldn’t let me on the sofa,” Pang joked in his acceptance speech. “However if you’re watching tv on this nation, you by no means suppose you’re going to be on it.”
Talking within the media room backstage, he mentioned it was a selected honour to obtain the highest award on an evening when Deborah Mailman and Andrew Denton have been being inducted into the Logie Awards Corridor of Fame.
“I’ve change into shut with [Denton] over the previous couple of years, after which for Sharon to be there, it was all surreal,” mentioned Pang.
In a world that generally feels hopelessly shrouded in gloom and battle, the 66th TV Week Logie Awards landed as one thing as welcome because it was sudden – a heat embrace that did its best to embody Australia in all its breadth, strangeness and variety. And Pang’s win, which makes him the second non-white individual to take dwelling the highest gong, supplied its good finish.
That is the seventieth yr of tv on this nation, and whereas there are those that’d fortunately write its obituary, Sunday night time’s ceremony confirmed there’s life within the outdated canine but, and a great deal of love for it, too.
The selection of Robert Irwin as host was impressed. Groomed virtually since delivery to carry out within the highlight, he shouldered the unenviable activity of fronting Australian TV’s favorite piñata – everybody likes to take a swing – with grace, humour, and a tight-fitting single-lapel tuxedo whose buttons appeared designed to pop open on the merest ripple of a well-honed torso. Wardrobe malfunction? Provided that the fasteners didn’t pop as deliberate.
He danced, he joked, he shed his tux for the extra acquainted khaki bushwear, he draped an unlimited snake across the tensed neck and shoulders of the by no means not-tense Luke McGregor, he did the worm on stage with Peking Duk. Sure, Pang was a troublesome act to observe, however together with his distinctive model of enviro-showbiz razzle-dazzle, Irwin made this present his personal.
He stamped his mark from the start, with a pre-recorded skit that included Russell Coight, Glenn Robbin’s caricature of an Irwinesque determine. Then, because the ceremony correct kicked off, Irwin delivered a heartfelt acknowledgement to nation, virtually definitely the first-ever acknowledgement of that kind to grace a Logies. On an evening on which Mailman basked in a standing ovation and the palpable love within the room, Goolagong gained finest miniseries, its star Lila McGuire was voted hottest newcomer, and so many different nominees have been First Nations individuals, it was greater than becoming.
Earlier than the bleaters at Sky, now often known as News24, begin crowing about cultural elites, take observe that this Logies made house for everybody. After RFDS gained finest drama – pipping the world-class Slender Highway to the Deep North, which began the night as probably the most nominated program however ended it with only one win, for Simon Baker as finest supporting actor – Emma Hamilton tried to place her finger on why the present issues.
“Telling regional Australian tales is extremely necessary,” the actor who performs Dr Eliza Harrod mentioned backstage. “Australia is an unlimited nation, and a number of the tales that get instructed on display screen are centred on the coast. It’s lovely to have the ability to reveal the spectacular panorama and the beating coronary heart of this nation, each with rural communities and First Nations communities, and everybody who makes up the material of the overwhelming majority of this nation.
“It’s a privilege and an honour to deliver these tales to life. I really feel like I’ve grown as an individual telling these tales, and I’m certain I’m not alone.”
Lisa Millar expressed comparable sentiments after Muster Canine gained for finest structured actuality program.
Her duties as host of that present and Backroads, each for the ABC, meant she was on the highway in rural and regional Australia for 125 days a yr. “It’s actually beautiful to get out of the cities and rediscover how individuals really feel in regards to the ABC and really feel in regards to the applications,” she mentioned.
Muster Canine resonated, she steered, as a result of it’s a little bit of an antidote to the grimness of the information. “It’s one thing individuals can change on with their households and sit there with their children. It makes them really feel completely satisfied, it lifts their spirits, and I’m so grateful that I get to be part of that.”
With A Nation Observe additionally being inducted into the Corridor of Fame, the cynical may observe that the give attention to the areas may need owed one thing to the actual fact Logies host Seven is especially robust in these markets. However this didn’t actually really feel like an evening for cynicism.
“I simply wish to spend as a lot time as I can pumping positivity out on the earth,” mentioned Irwin backstage after successful the award for hottest presenter.
Even Pang, whose biting humour had been a spotlight of the previous three years, was gained over. “He’s doing an exquisite job,” he mentioned when requested if he had any notes for the brand new child. “It’s totally different, clearly, to those I did, however he’s simply gifted and great and we’re all having fun with it.”
For all the nice and cozy glow, there was an inescapable disappointment in regards to the night time, too. The passing of Sam Neill final month and of Johnny Younger final week each landed laborious, and the In Memoriam section jolted with reminders of others gone previously yr: James Valentine, Mel Schilling, Derryn Hinch, David Stratton, John Legal guidelines, Rhoda Roberts, Terence Donovan and so many extra.
Even there, although, there was a observe of optimism to be discovered within the phrases of Neill, as relayed by his longtime buddy Heather Mitchell.
“He took each alternative to open his coronary heart and share his life and his expertise with all of us. He gave us braveness and hope, and really superb wine,” mentioned Mitchell.
“To cite Sam: ‘I do know it’s straightforward to spiral down and suppose what’s the worst factor that may occur, however I encourage you to spiral up and suppose what’s the perfect factor that may occur. Lookup. It’s blue.’”