Skippy: Australia's First Superstar

From deep within the Australian bush, some 40 years ago,

came a call of the wild that was to reverberate around the world.

It was the sound that would echo for generations to come.

SKIPPY TUTS

Skippy was my favourite.

He always saved the day.

Good on you, Skip.

Every night after school, two vegemite sandwiches

and Skippy on the TV.

Go home, Skippy, get Dad!

She has got to be the most intelligent Australian

I have ever encountered.

Skippy? Hold on, Skip, I'm on my way back.

Oh, it was good. Educating for the kids.

She's not just a kangaroo, she is a champion.

91 episodes sold in 128 countries,

watched by over 300 million viewers a week.

This is the remarkable story of how a crime-fighting marsupial

became a superstar,

establishing an Australian identity that was embraced the world over.

The land Down Under had arrived,

courtesy of a kangaroo whose legacy lives on and on.

I can imagine him being old and a fat cigar in one hand and a Scotch

in the other and talking about his days on TV.

What's that, Skip? You don't like to talk about it?

But for us you will make an exception?

Good on you, Skip.

On 16th September 1956, something new

and revolutionary arrived in Australia.

'Good evening and welcome to television.'

A conservative, colonial country suddenly had a window

on to the rest of the world.

# You dreamboats You lovable dreamboats... #

But the view was mainly of America

as US programmes flooded the airwaves.

Australian producers couldn't get a look in.

So, the shrewd ones targeted the American market.

A pioneering Australian feature film maker, called Lee Robinson,

headed to Hollywood on a research mission where he discovered

the popular children's series, Flipper.

-Flipper could find that box.

-Flipper?

Flipper featured a widowed marine park ranger

and his two sons who befriend a very clever dolphin.

'..it's at the bottom.'

Robinson came back from the States with a feeling

the international market had space for another kids' TV show,

perhaps with a strong Australian flavour.

But what could it be?

At his local pub, Robinson threw some ideas around.

-What style are we going to have?

-Leave that to me.

And he soon hit upon the answer.

I think Lee had a certain genius.

He understood marketing.

He knew that the kangaroo was an icon.

He knew that it was appealing, the head of a kangaroo

is very appealing so the idea that you put it in a family situation,

instead of the family dog, was the brilliant marketing idea.

Robinson and film-maker friend, Dennis Hill,

joined forces with actor, producer, John McCallum,

forming Fauna productions.

..Spend the rest of it on the pilot.

Together, they made the risky decision to finance

the first pilot episode themselves.

We had designed a series that we said we weren't even

going to bother to sell in Australia.

I said it would be so Australian and so laden with the elements that

we have always looked in the feature pictures

to have there as our selling factors for overseas buyers,

that the Australians would give it the big thumbs down.

But the big question, how to film an entire series based on a kangaroo.

He's a kangaroo handler...

In a North Sydney pub, Lee Robinson and Jill Robb

met Scotty Denham and his son, Australia's leading animal trainers.

The three of them got on like a house on fire and they were

all chatting each other up, "It'll be fine, no worries, mate.

"We can get any number of kangaroos.

"They are easy to train, don't worry about it."

And I'm hanging back in the distance thinking,

"Is this really...are we really going to set a series

"around a wild animal?"

And I couldn't help looking at his waist line which kept moving.

And he could see me looking at him, the minute he opened his shirt

he had a big python wrapped around his waist.

I remember thinking, "This is going to be one hell of a ride!"

Now, what are we going to call it?

Now, the kangaroo star needed a name.

What have you got? Chuck it at me.

Many names were considered.

-Jumpy...

-Jumpy.

-Hoppy...

-Hoppy. Hoppy sounds good.

-Springy...

-Springy, Springy, Springy.

It's not fun, we need something kid-like.

They were all rejected before finally they agreed.

The star of the show was to be called Skippy.

Skippy, the bush kangaroo!

Welcome to the Magic Of Music.

But before they cast a single actor,

or kangaroo, they needed a theme tune.

This job went to Eric Jupp,

an established composer with his own TV series.

He said he had to think, "Well, it's a children's programme

"with animals, a young boy, it has to be simple and yet memorable."

One day he was at a party with the Fauna people and they asked him,

"Eric, have you got anything together for us?"

He played what he had put together and they loved it from the beginning.

As soon as we heard it, we knew, that is it.

The children would... It was very recognisable.

You're a winner, mate. You are Mozart!

It was simple, it was bouncy and, of course...

THEY HUM SKIPPY THEME TUNE

ALL: # Skippy, Skippy

# Skippy the bush kangaroo

# Skippy, Skippy

# Skippy our friend ever true. #

With the name and the music now in place,

it was time to push on and make the pilot episode.

Take one. Action.

Hey, Mister.

Alongside Skippy, the show featured a young boy called Sonny Hammond,

a role destined to change the life of whoever got the part.

It went to nine-year-old South Sydney boy, Garry Pankhurst.

I think Sonny was very similar to myself.

He was outdoor loving, outgoing, liked getting into mischief,

was game to try anything once type thing,

and I think I naturally just fitted into the role

and I suppose I did look quintessentially Australian

by the fact that I was comfortable in my environment.

Skippy! Skippy!

SKIPPY TUTS

Go home, Skippy, get Dad. Hurry.

Yes, I'll wait for them here.

The other main role went to seasoned actor,

Ed Devereaux, who played Sonny's father, head ranger, Matt Hammond.

That explosion was a jet plane. The air force think the pilot

-parachuted into the park.

-Are you coming?

You go with him, Mark, I'll work along the river.

Young theatre actor Tony Bonner was cast as the handsome

flight ranger, Jerry King.

Tony Bonner, oh, what a legend.

The pilot? Everyone fell for him.

Oh, he could propel my propellers.

Are you reading me?

The character interested me as he was a helicopter ranger

and I haven't played that kind of character before

so the personal side of it interested me.

To be honest, the family, fuzzy, sweet, softer aspect of the show

was not my primary interest.

His car's broken down,

he can't get to the show, is that it, Skip?

Come on, Skip, we haven't much time.

Sonny's older brother, Mark Hammond, was played by 18-year-old Ken James.

I was prepared to do anything and my own stunts.

I remember coming back to

Fauna Productions back in Sydney one day after a long day on set,

and the editor greeted me at the door saying, "You are crazy.

"You are mad." I said, "What have I done?"

He said, "I have just seen the rushes of you jumping out of a helicopter

"into the water where sharks are

"and being pulled through the water by a jet."

I said, "Yeah."

But also, our director said, "If you do your own stunt,

"I'll do a close-up."

The pilot episode was hilarious, traumatic,

terrifying, exhausting, you name it.

I remember thinking,

"Christ, if every episode's going

"to be like this, I'll be worn out!"

I hardly know which one of you to thank first.

We were pleased to help out. The pilot's safe,

and he'll be all right.

You're a lucky man, Mr Hammond, to have two such fine boys.

The pilot episode came to the first of many happy endings.

But the series had yet to get off the ground.

The producers needed a backer with deep pockets or perhaps

a Packer with deep pockets.

I don't think Australians care whether they watch

Australian programmes or they watch Turkish, Egyptian, African.

What they want is something that amuses them. Now...

Media mogul Frank Packer, owner of Australia's first commercial

TV station, TCN-9, was one of the few people

who had the clout to do something with the Skippy pilot.

I knew Frank fairly well.

We used to play golf now and then. And I liked Frank.

He was an old brigand, of course, but he was a jovial fella.

But a very, very keen businessman.

And he said, "Why don't you bring

"a copy of the pilot over and let's have a look at it?"

The three directors of the company, Bob Austin,

John McCallum and myself were there,

and Frank is looking at the pilot and the sound went off.

And I said to Frank, "Mr Packer, can we stop it

"and I'll get the sound fixed?"

He said, "No, it's all right. I can see what's happening."

So it went on for about three or four minutes with no sound,

and then it got right again and it went

about another five or six minutes and then the picture went out.

And it happened to go out while dialogue was going on, and I said,

"We'll stop it and fix it."

"No," he said, "I can hear what's going on."

And he really only saw about half the picture

or heard half the picture.

At the end, he said, "I like it.

I'll take as many as you make. How much do you want for it?"

So I told him. I thought of a figure, and he said, "All right."

There was a handshake - no signature at all.

And he said, "None of this option business.

"I'll pay an initial fee, and that's it."

Well, now, he didn't know and I didn't know that he'd play

Skippy for 25 years, which he did.

Action.

I don't care who gave you permission.

There'll be no cages erected here.

In May 1967, Lee Robinson

finally got Skippy The Bush Kangaroo into full production.

We started off planning it as a children's film, but the Americans

were the first to say, "Stop thinking in terms of

"children's film. This is prime-time entertainment."

Quick, Sonny!

It was set in the fictional Waratah Park, a beautiful piece of bushland,

35 kilometres north of Sydney.

Did you know I got lost on the way in? I took the wrong turn!

For the first time in 40 years,

five members of the original crew are revisiting the set

to reflect on the peculiar challenges

-of working with a marsupial star.

-Ah, there she is!

She must be 45 years of age now.

I wonder if she'll remember us.

There's the grandson of Skippy.

Yeah, the grandchild. No doubt. Over here.

Over there.

That's got to be a grandchild of Skippy.

That was always the way.

You had the image of this lone kangaroo

sitting out there with nothing behind but West Head.

And all you could see was this clear frame and one roo,

and he was going, "Look this way. Look that way."

The ears were going... HE WHISTLES

And everybody said, "Isn't that beautiful?"

And you'd pull back and see there's 29 people standing around

with catering tins they got from the caterers, banging, making noises,

trying to get the animal to look this way, look that way, you know?

What's that, Skip? Those bloody tins did your head in?

You think you might have a mild case of post-traumatic stress disorder?

While Flipper had been able to play

on the idea that dolphins are intelligent,

until Skippy bounced into view,

kangaroos did not enjoy the same reputation.

On the pilot, we knew nothing, really, about how they would behave.

And we only had one roo, which has a brain the size of a pea.

You know? They're dumb. Very dumb.

-Dumber than sheep. They are dumber than sheep.

-Dumber than sheep.

I don't think kangaroos are the cleverest animals, no.

As I said, conditioning is a big thing. And, yeah, I'd imagine

being on the set of Skippy would have been one big effort.

I've been working with kangaroos for about eight years now.

Just living with these guys day-to-day, it's hard enough

trying to keep them in their own pen and look after them,

let alone trying to make them do stuff for cameras.

Scotty Denham, the animal handler, was originally a dog trainer,

and he told me early on, "You can't train a kangaroo."

So, basically, the kangaroo was put in its sack, its Hessian bag,

where it was happily sat there, and brought out just for the shot.

So it was a bit dazed more often than not

when it came out of the Hessian bag. That's what we would do.

It was still dazed enough not to know what was going on,

so it wouldn't run off, cos kangaroos will normally run off.

They'll just go for their life.

Skippy's unbridled inclination to bolt for the bush

was the source of one of the biggest secrets of the production.

Skippy would be different colours.

One minute it was brown and the next minute a little bit silver.

I know my kangaroos.

We had to have about ten Skippys. We kept that a secret.

There were nine Skippys,

because the star Skippy had a lot of stand-ins.

There was always about 14 Skippys up at the little zoo thing

at the top of Waratah Park.

And one minute the kangaroo would be anorexic

and then the next minute the kangaroo would be plump.

We'd lose them quite a lot. Generally, what would happen,

you would bring one of the "extras"

in, you might say, and they would then go for a race.

And we'd all be chasing them, eventually.

What's that, Skip? The cast and crew couldn't really keep up with you?

Because you were a method actor?

With 39 episodes to make for the first series,

Lee Robinson set out the Skippy philosophy in a writer's bible.

The first point was Skippy is not a pet

and it can come and go as it pleases.

That was the first concept.

'The parents left it on the bank...'

Another concept was that policemen will always be our friends.

Well, the sooner we get started the better.

A third vital point, I remember, was that mate-ship must always

predominate, as against authority.

You know, Dad,

even if they are crooks, having good mates is very, very important.

And the key to it

was that the little boy had all this wonderful country

to roam about in, and the whole concept

was always to have the feeling that he was free

to roam the country, he knew the animals and so on.

Freedom and a wildlife element were part of it.

Come on, Skippy!

Skippy is the intermediary, as it were,

the guide to the natural environment by becoming something

that is a native animal and on our side at the same time.

In some ways, Skippy does represent

the return of the lost child, so that the bush is now giving

something back to the settler, and perhaps for the first time.

But not everyone was sold on the idea for the show straightaway.

-Skippy!

-Even some of the writers had their doubts.

Skippy!

When I first heard that the star was a kangaroo,

I thought it was a bit silly, but, um...

cos I didn't go for Flippers and talking horses

and all of those things that were on television.

But kangaroos then were considered to be pests, and I always thought

that was terrible, so I just thought, "Oh, well, the kids'll go for this

"and it'll make them think twice about their native animals".

And whatever Skippy did after that was OK by me.

You won't last long, Mr Koala, if you go walking around on the road.

One of the things that set Skippy apart

from other marsupial actors was her no-nonsense straight talking.

SKIPPY TUTS

Skip, what did you say?

That sounds pretty strong language, Skip.

Better not let Dad hear you talking like that.

Come on, I'll race you back.

One of the first things I remember doing in the sound department

in those days was getting Dennis Hill, the producer,

up into the studio to a microphone

to sort of show us how you make the Skippy sounds.

'This is an original recording of Skippy's talk by Dennis Hill.

'Take one.'

SQUELCHING

TUTS AS SKIPPY

'I don't think we used those.

'We had those two...'

MAKES POPPING SOUND

TUTS

I've never heard a kangaroo going tut-tut-tut.

I've heard a lot of tourists!

-SKIPPY TUTS

-Where did you find it, Skip?

Skippy's unique conversational ability became her trademark

and vital to many a story.

Has it got anything to do with the schoolteachers, Skip?

Did they kill it?

TUTS

It was one thing writing a script with a talking kangaroo

but quite another to film it as if it were speaking.

The crew had to be inventive.

-Rubber band.

-Rubber band. I wasn't going to mention that, but we put...

That was a last resort.

Trying to get the rubber band off, like this.

Always give him a bit of something to chew on. And then he'd start chewing.

As well as rubber bands, some tastier treats were also tried,

like crushed-up biscuits, pieces of chocolate

and even chewing gum.

The best thing, ultimately, was just the grass.

Something tough she'd have to chew on, not something green,

fresh off the ground, something she'd have to work on.

So she put it in her mouth, a little bit,

she'd be gnawing away, which was enough mouth movement

to be convincing to put the tut-tut on.

She preferred doing action stuff, when she didn't have dialogue.

Alongside her impressive oral ability,

Skippy had another asset in her animal armoury,

an astonishing manual dexterity.

-I had them by the elbows.

-Now play the drum kit.

They have elbows, so you would get behind them,

and they'd be only shot there.

Whoever was operating it could go like that.

-Yeah, with the live roo.

-Yeah, a live roo.

And somebody'd be holding the real arms back like that,

and you'd have the other arms like that.

Or you could use the live roo

if it was a docile one and just get up under the elbow there.

As long as the camera kept framing from there down,

as long as you could just move the elbow,

they'd be going like that.

They were very successful at playing the piano, they were very successful

handling the controls of a helicopter.

You can see they're pretty much all nail. There's not a lot more to them.

And making a phone call.

As far as untying knots and stuff like that, I've never seen it happen!

Speaking into the...you know, and dialling a number on the phone.

That's about all their claws are good for, scratching.

That's about it!

They made the series. That's what we had,

and we had people dedicated, enjoying doing it.

We had a lot of fun doing it.

The main attraction of Skippy now is to fall about laughing

when you use the bottle-opener paws used as schematic devices.

Part of it is, I guess,

also that television itself wasn't that sophisticated at the time,

and so people were...

not that far away from the time when drama had been live

and all sorts of peculiar things might happen on screen.

But you just had to get over that and concentrate on the story.

Golly!

It's a flying saucer!

So I think that the willing suspension of disbelief

was more willing in those days,

because people knew that they were supposed to be watching the story!

I suspended disbelief until someone had a paw on a stick.

See, isn't that disappointing? That takes all the magic away.

Like a back scratcher.

There was definitely an episode where he operated the radio.

This amazing kangaroo could do everything, and I believed in him.

-TUTTING

-What's that, Skip?

You're fed up with being called a he?

You were always flashing your pouch?

-God, I always thought it was a he!

-He had a pouch.

No, Skippy was definitely a boy, but I think he had gender issues.

-Do they not all have pouches?

-She?!

-He had a pouch.

-No!

Skippy's a male-sounding name.

Oh, she did, actually, yes. She did.

Skippy will always be a man to me.

But I didn't think about those things when I was a kid, yeah!

It is only females that have pouches - or one very odd male, yes!

Skippy was a woman. I could tell.

Had a little pouch.

And if Sonny had a mobile phone, that's where it'd be.

Well, come on, let's humour the little lady.

Except for Skippy, the series had an almost wholly male cast.

I guess you must be Mr Hammond.

-All right, fellas, I didn't hear the whistle blow.

-Now, about the job.

In Australia, the rugged outdoors was seen as a place for men.

The girl's got some kind of examination coming up...

It wasn't until episode nine that the producers decided to experiment.

-She's going to live here.

-What?!

-Oh, no!

-A girl, here?

And so, into this testosterone-rich environment

arrived pretty blonde teenager Clancy Merrick.

Erm, your father must be pleased about getting that job.

Yes, it means a lot to him.

'My father worked for the BBC in London,'

and then he applied for the job as head of drama for the ABC

and got it, so we were all... I was 15, my sister 13...

taken to Australia, with very bad grace.

We didn't want to go. My friends... "Don't want to go to Australia!"

Why would we? We were happy here.

We didn't want to go and we just sulked all the way on the ship.

I'm not welcome and not wanted. I've known it ever since I came here!

It's only because you're a girl, Clancy. If you weren't a girl,

-it'd be different.

-Well, I can't help being a girl.

'Well, Clancy, to me, was just - like me, really -'

an ordinary girl who'd come out to live in

this strange and wonderful place in the middle of nowhere.

Seeing Clancy out there in nature was just my dream.

-I remember Clancy. She was a babe.

-SHE LAUGHS

Clancy? She was the epitome of the girl next door.

Rather plump girl with plaits, I think.

Skippy was good with brain surgery and saving us from the nuclear bomb,

but I think Clancy did it for me most, yeah.

Lady of means seeks companionship of quiet educated gent.

Not only was Clancy a girl,

but she also spoke in a clipped English accent.

It means she wants to find a husband.

It was completely fine then, because I don't think the Australian accent,

apart from real ockers out in the country, was as pronounced.

I think everyone then wanted to sound as though they were English.

In Australia those days, women still wore hats and gloves to go to lunch,

and it was also the time when Jean Shrimpton came

and caused a fuss at the Melbourne Cup by wearing a miniskirt.

From that moment all the girls in Australia wore miniskirts!

What's all this?

The combination of Clancy, the boys,

the helicopter and Skippy, of course, hit the mark perfectly.

Audiences loved it for all sorts of reasons.

Hello, Matt Hammond speaking.

That telephone on the dashboard of the station wagon.

What more could you want as an Australian child?

That is all I ever wanted when I grew up.

You'd run out into the bush looking for Skippy!

And where's Tony Bonner?

-It was real to us.

-Oh, yeah, he was a bit of a spunk...

-Mum!

-Sorry!

Surprisingly, Skippy caught on internationally

before it did in Australia.

In Britain, it first aired on ITV in the Midlands

in the autumnal gloom of October 1967.

Where's its mother, Skip? Koalas don't leave their babies about.

I think all the kids watched it at that time, and most of the programmes

were either English programmes or American ones.

This was one of the few that didn't come from England or America.

So there was a certain exotica about it.

So as a kid, yeah, it just looked different.

One ex-pat Australian academic came upon Skippy by chance

in a cold, wet Britain.

It was one of those dead moments, and I kicked on the television,

and there was Skippy.

And I watched it absolutely hypnotised,

because it was very sunny and there was a cobalt-blue sky,

grey vegetation, ruddy-brown rocks,

and that was what I was staring at,

just staring at it,

because I don't think I even realised how homesick I was

until I saw those tree shapes.

And thereafter, I used to hunt it over the schedules,

and I used to watch it with the sound turned off,

because the sound is hysterical.

Every time something sinister happens, it goes...

Boomp! Jarrrr...ding!

HE LAUGHS EVILLY

There were all kinds of things about it that were unbearable,

but the landscape and the light...!

Ironically, the natural filmic charm of this Australian landscape

was being recorded by English directors.

There was a feeling we couldn't do it ourselves,

we had to have English directors.

Australians weren't good enough, or they weren't experienced enough.

Talk to him. Say, "Hello, Skippy." That's it.

Look as though you like him very much. That's it.

Good boy. Try and enjoy it.

Take four.

Somehow or other, the Englishness in them showed the Australianness in us,

and so it often takes someone from another country to see

the beauty of this country.

And I remember that Max Varnel used to

want to do wide shots all the time, as we used to call him Vista Varnel.

The wider the shot, the happier he was

to get that bushland in and the sky, and the red dirt and what have you.

While the leafy landscapes and bright light

were familiar to most Australians, to foreigners, they weren't.

Tourists.

One of those who felt the culture shock

-was regular guest star, Elke Neidhart.

-I'm Dr Steiner.

Alongside Clancy, she was the only recurring female character.

We've been expecting you.

My character of Dr Anna Steiner

obviously had to be very German,

that wasn't so hard.

And was based on someone being totally out of her depth,

which also was very much true to the real me, being in Australia.

-She'll end up getting lost in the bush.

-She carries a compass.

Then she's lost for sure.

The day I see a woman read a compass correctly, I'll marry her.

In Skippy, hapless females were always getting lost,

getting it wrong and even managing to shoot themselves.

GUNSHOT

That...

What can I say, I can't say a thing, it's obviously awful.

It belonged to a past era.

It was a '50s, '60s series, not a '60s, '70s series.

And for the women working at Waratah Park,

these were rather unenlightened times.

The guys were really tough to the women.

They put us down constantly, to toughen us.

It was like you had to prove that you could take it.

You had to grow a thick skin, and...and I did.

The cameraman often amused themselves

by surreptitiously filming the girls.

Women were definitely not allowed to wear jeans.

Definitely not trousers.

You had to wear a dress or skirt, and they could be mini-skirts,

that was the period of mini-skirts.

You were often quite indecently dressed

in these absolutely minute mini-skirts, myself included.

But on Saturdays, you were allowed to wear slacks.

Not jeans, not trousers, slacks.

There was an occasion when in the ladies' loo,

a sort of shack down the track,

some brown snakes had set up home in the ladies' loo

and I'm going, "I can't go to the loo",

and they said, "Just go in the bush then, just don't go in there."

It was terrible, any girl on the set, the continuity girl,

me and the make-up girls,

they were always filming us going, it was just awful.

So in the rushes, you'd see this poor girl looking round,

hoping nobody could see. Oh! Awful. Riotous laughter.

Hello, Mr Hammond.

Breakfast's nearly ready.

-Oh, Clancy, you shouldn't have bothered.

-It's the least I can do.

I also filled your car up for you. I always do that for Dad.

Clearly influenced by these types of gender divisions, Germaine Greer

was soon at work on her classic feminist text, The Female Eunuch.

Oh, no!

But surprisingly, she can empathise with poor Clancy's plight.

'I was 15, and I stayed on a farm.'

One morning I decided,

just like she does, that I'm going to cook the breakfast.

I was cooking breakfast for about 12 men, and you had to go

milk the cow, get the eggs, dah-dah-dah,

light the big two-fire stove, get the big, heavy skillet hot,

get the bacon melted in the oven,

get the guys' boots warmed in the other oven.

I can remember breaking two dozen fresh eggs

into this huge iron skillet

and then dishing up all these eggs and the bacon

and the porridge and everything.

And I felt as if I'd climbed Mount Everest.

I was so, so proud.

I have no objection to the division of labour.

It's just that women's work should be regarded

with as much respect as the men's.

First law of survival, Sonny. Never argue with a woman.

-Mark.

-95, take one.

Action.

Come on.

The women may have had a tough time on the show,

but the army of animals had it even tougher.

Remember the one where Sonny was sick?

-Oh, yes.

-And all the animals...

Who wrote that bloody thing?

It was in the room here, his bedroom's there.

The emu, the goannas, the koala bears.

Have you ever seen a koala bear go through a set of Venetian blinds?

You get back to bed. You're next!

-Remember Hector the emu?

-Oh, yeah.

We used to get him up in a wheelbarrow.

He was an emu with attitude.

We used to have to give him a drink before he came on set.

He used to stand there like... He was so drunk, he'd go...oh no!

You could see the look on his face!

But he would stay where he was put.

Not without whisky.

He had to have at least a double Scotch, at least.

That would wear off. It was all right for rehearsals.

When we get to the real takes, we'd have to give Hector another drink.

The things that were dangerous were the wombats.

They're ferociously bad-tempered, so you had to be really careful.

I remember one scene when I had a baby possum on one shoulder

and a baby koala or wombat on the other.

They were terrified of the lights, hanging on to my plaits.

They peed all over me, and we're in the middle of...

I made a huge fuss. "They've peed!" I didn't have any spare clothes,

just dry off in front of a lamp, you'll be all right.

Squirt a bit of water. I stank, unbelievable.

I also got lice from them, they all had lice.

So I remember storming into John McCallum's office and going, "Look!"

and shaking all these lice out of my head onto his desk.

He went, "Calm down, calm down." SHE SQUEALS

The next day on set, all the animals were white with louse powder.

On a one to 10 scale of difficult shooting, I always use the episode

of Skippy with the hot air balloon.

When you're dealing with hot air balloons, animals and kids.

I always used that from then on, like, "How difficult is it?

"Has it got hot air balloons?

"Has it got a kangaroo in it? A kid? Speedboat? Oh, it's not that hard."

-TUTTING

-What's that, Skip?

It was bloody hard?

But you were young and always bounced back?

-Jump!

-Here we go, Skip.

For the crew, it wasn't only children and animals

they had to deal with, but also extreme heat.

It used to be so hot in here. Remember how hot it was?

I can remember operating and going, "What the hell is that?"

And it was the boom swinger dripping perspiration on to you.

You'd go, "Oh, yuck! Stop it!"

He had a terrible time.

In those days, they had to have booms with mics on the end.

Filming in the house, this poor guy up a ladder I remember one day,

temperatures of 40 or 45, and he fainted.

I mean, it was extraordinarily hot.

Not all the time, in the winter it was all right,

but in the middle of the summer it was very...

One time I remember there were bush fires all round us,

and it was so bad that they said,

"We'd better go inside then, because we can't film outside."

Rather than leave the area, which would be the sensible thing!

Literally the sky went black. So we went and did interiors.

There's your bush fire down there.

Can you imagine having that today?

Whose permission did we get to light the bush fire?

-No-one's.

-Didn't it nearly get out of hand?

It wasn't just fires.

The crew took a generally relaxed attitude

to all the dangers of the bush.

I think we were filming in Narrabeen somewhere.

I'm in the water and I said, "What about sharks?" Because it's famous.

They said, "It's all right, we've got a guy looking out.

"It'll be OK. You'll be all right." And I thought...

As well as the obligatory Skippy heroics, the scripts had to uphold

fine Australian family values.

It was children's television, so there had to be

some sort of equitable outcome that was a moral tale for the kids.

We were all very much aware of the fact that there was

often a statement made, the closing statement for the episode.

Skippy and me.

Mark, and Dad too,

we wouldn't have thought much of you if you'd let him down.

'Some little pearl of wisdom would come forward.'

We used to vie to see who was going to say it,

it was myself or Ed Devereaux who'd deliver it.

It might help to remember in future that rules are made for a purpose.

Skippy soon became famous for what was known as the "wash-up"

at the end of each episode.

It's always been the biggest pain to writers and editors

because it's like a commentary on what you've just seen.

I think you'll find he has more friends than he realises,

now that he knows he's got to make an effort to face up to responsibility.

I always hated it.

He was my mate, Sonny but not any more.

He lied to me and mates don't do that.

Some of the lines were, I suppose in hindsight, fairly hammy.

It fairly makes me shudder when I think

where I'd be today if I'd neglected my schooling.

There's an old saying, it's an ill wind that blows no man good.

See? Hector knows what I mean.

The wash-ups should be all collected together in a book

of how to live your life!

What's that, Skip?

You never lived your life but that moralistic nonsense?

You worked hard and played even harder?

A star with such a burgeoning international reputation as Skippy

easily attracted a stream of high quality guest actors

and many a glittering career was launched at Waratah Park.

She even attracted a genuine Hollywood superstar, Frank Thring.

-You'd be Matt Hammond?

-Skippy was becoming bigger than Ben Hur.

Dr Alexander Stark.

Frank Thring played the arch villain, Dr Alexander Stark,

and he was wonderful. He'd sit there on the set and regale us with

amazing stories of Hollywood, "I cut off Tony Curtis's arm, darling".

Come here, my little beauty.

He used to scare me because he was so big. He was the one

in Ben Hur, he played Pontius Pilate and he gave the thumbs-down.

The whole world hated him.

Do you remember what Frank Thring said one day?

He said to the assistant director, "There's something in a bag

"over there and it keeps moving".

Scotty said, "Oh, that's Skippy".

He said, "My God, if that's the star's

"dressing room, what's mine like?"

And then he sauntered off with his cane down this dirt bush track

to the location and Gary and I were killing ourselves laughing at that.

That story, I've heard it round and round and round.

Everybody knows the story, it has a life of its own.

51, take four.

Action!

Allow me to introduce myself. Alfred Aloysius Mortimer,

or known to his adoring public as...

Barry Crocker, who went on to sing the Neighbours theme tune,

made a guest appearance as a magician with dubious motives.

But what are you doing in Waratah National Park?

A fair question.

I decided I'd make him very British because Australians traditionally

hate Poms. We don't really but it's part of the game that we play.

I, Alfred the Great, shall make this young lady disappear.

So I thought I'd make him a little more hateful, being English.

He's quite a nice chappie really, just that he was a thief, a shyster.

Aloysius.

No!

Ally-oop. Ta-dah!

What we tried to do was to give the world what Australia might be like.

For Skippy, it was that kangaroos jump down the main street

and you could pat a koala on every corner.

It was like a giant bush town. The city was hardly ever mentioned.

Skippy was the first series internationally to put Australian

characters and Australians settings on screen with confidence

in a way that rung bells with people around the world.

Of course I remember Skippy! We had it in Germany and watched it.

OK, I used to watch Skippy

every Thursday because that's when school is off in France.

We used to love it. We used to watch it with a whole bunch of people.

And I thought it was American.

We thought it was in Africa because we didn't know about Australia.

I never imagined it could be Australia because I didn't even know

Australia existed.

By the time the second series was into production in mid-1968,

the formula of a heroic kangaroo, endless Aussie sunshine and simple

stories with happy endings was working. Everywhere.

THEY TALK IN FRENCH

THEY TALK IN SPANISH

THEY TALK IN JAPANESE

When it became a success in Japan, and then England, Ireland, Scotland,

Wales and then took off in Europe.

Enormous success in Holland, Germany, France and Malta.

I landed in Japan in this plane, and there were all these

people at the airport. I thought, "Wow, I must have been travelling

"with somebody really famous".

All these journalists came out and I presumed it was for these major English actors.

I'm looking round and it was for me. It was absolutely staggering.

And they came through all these people to me.

We were met with limousines and taken

to meet the girl who did my voice as Clancy on Japanese television.

You think, wow!

It was huge, everywhere I went, I was recognised, everywhere.

Well, almost everywhere.

In Sweden child psychologists deemed it dangerous for children to grow up

believing animals could talk.

Children that were exposed to such perversion, they said, were likely

to grow up as misty eyed fools,

fondly watching documentaries that celebrated such nonsense.

Sweden never bought Skippy.

Norway did, Finland did and other states in the Baltic.

I phoned up the leading television station and said, why?

It's a success but you turn down every time our agent suggests Skippy.

They said, "We don't want our children thinking that animals can do

what they really can't." It was a point of view.

I said, "What about cartoons?" They said, "That's different.

"Yours is a reality film."

Sonny has no child friend.

If I were a Swedish child psychologist I would say,

that's the significant part there.

The child has no peer group interaction at all.

He is always dealing with people older than he is.

And I think that's what's really wrong.

In real life, too,

child star Garry Pankhurst was mostly in adult company.

During lunchtimes, the other crew and cast used to play poker...

for money.

And I suppose because I was one of the cast members, they couldn't

not let me play but I used to join in and play with them

and I was quite good at it, actually.

Quite often, I'd be the major stake winner for the session.

That used to irk some people.

Popular worldwide, and with a clear star of the show,

Skippy was the perfect vehicle to pioneer a marketing campaign

and cash in on merchandising, an entirely new concept in Australia.

Skippy fans were able to collect Skippy items. Some still do.

It all started with this plate.

I remember having one when I was very young.

I wanted that sort of reconnection with the show.

There was a lot of stuff done at the time,

not just in Australia but also overseas.

Books, books from Spain, books from Germany, France, jigsaw puzzles from

Amsterdam, jigsaw puzzles from England, magic slate from America,

cards from Germany, money boxes, ashtray,

T-shirts, cups, talcum powder, too, which I believe is from Avon.

At least I think it is talcum powder!

SKIPPY TUTS

What's that, Skip? You never made a cent out of those bloody plates?

You wish you'd played Darth Vader instead?

The merchandising helped build Skippy into a cult hero

and she and Sonny went on tour

throughout Australia, making live appearances in every capital city.

The freckle-faced kid and the kangaroo drew more people than the

visits of the Queen Mother and US President Lyndon Johnson combined.

When you see the crowds of people that actually make an effort

to come out and to meet you or to see you,

maybe a fleeting glimpse in the distance type thing,

we used to stop streets and cause traffic jams and that sort of thing.

It was just quite amazing.

I probably found the public adulation, I suppose,

a little bit overwhelming.

I didn't really think that my character sort of warranted

this sort of star treatment, type thing, and people's reaction to you.

Come on, Skippy. Skippy the Bush kangaroo.

Skippy the Bush kangaroo!

-Often on a Sunday night we would all be watching.

-It was Skippy.

It was an absolute scream.

I really remember lining up.

-We lined up very happily.

-I thought we were in order.

-Jump off to bed.

-The oldest to the youngest.

-Our Dad would always make us do it too

because we were a little bit older.

I can remember hopping.

Skippy, Skippy, Skippy the bush kangaroo.

The end of 1969 saw the world premiere

of Skippy and the Intruders, a feature length movie.

On TV, Skippy was being shown in 128 countries,

translated into 25 languages

and watched every week by a global audience of over 300 million.

This huge audience gave the producers a loud voice

in tackling more complex subjects such as Aboriginal stories.

It's all right, Sonny. These people will never hurt you.

Would your son be humbled, live with my people?

No.

Lee Robinson had absolute respect for Aboriginal people.

He had worked alongside them.

He admired their affinity with the land. He respected

them as people, he respected them as an ancient culture.

It was part of Robinson's background.

It was part of the way he thought.

It was part of the holistic way he thought about Australian society.

So it doesn't surprise me that he would have had Aboriginal characters

included in the Skippy storylines.

Force has many faces.

You took away my people with fine clothes, clever toys. With wonder.

Do not speak to me of force.

I cannot deny what you say, old one.

I can only promise you that it will not be so now.

In 1967, the same year as Lee Robinson was writing these scenes,

a referendum was held in Australia.

It finally gave indigenous people the same citizenship rights

as white Australians.

As the series progressed, the need to constantly turn out scripts

led to increasingly bizarre stories.

It's the scene, it's idiotic.

No self-respecting actor should be asked to appear

with animals or children.

One episode, called The Last Chance,

appeared to be a self-parody, where a film crew making a feature

in the park starring an ageing actor realised that the real star

of the film should be, of course, Skippy.

What do you think of that, Skippy? You're going to be a film star!

You can't take her out of the picture. She's the star.

-She must have her chance.

-Calm down, gentlemen.

You'll both end up with ulcers.

We both already have ulcers, haven't we?

But that is besides the point.

I don't think Ed Devereaux hid the fact that he was being

upstaged by a kangaroo all the time.

He used to make jokes about it.

But it took me a long time to wake up to the fact that

the jokes were really not jokes.

I'll be a laughing stock. Playing second fiddle to a kangaroo?

I think I understand your position.

Almost inevitably, the unexpected scale of success put pressure

on the cast and crew.

Lee Robinson was working long hours and expecting others to do the same.

To go into Lee's office on a Saturday afternoon and saying to him,

"I've got a big date tonight and I want to be out of here at 5 o'clock".

He would just raise his eyebrows at you and say, "I don't think that's

"going to be possible."

I would go, "Lee, I've done a 70 hour week already."

"Talk to me later. I'm busy."

Long hours, remote locations and tough working conditions

were taking their toll.

Midway through production on the third series, broadcasters had

stockpiled many episodes and for the time being did not need more.

And so, just as Skippy was being enjoyed by countless millions

the world over, it looked like the end of production was nigh.

I think it had a use-by date built in to its concept.

And then when you add to the fact that the hero

was a young boy, a middle-aged man or a young man in their 20s can go

on being young men in their 20s for longer than young boys can,

aged nine or 10 or whatever Sonny was.

I think when Skippy came to an end, I was very disappointed.

I was quite upset about it because even though it was hard work,

I enjoyed doing it and I wasn't fully aware of the circumstances

but it seemed to have ended just all of a sudden.

I can remember going to the final day's shooting

and people were very emotional.

The crew were hugging each other

and sort of teary and that sort of thing.

It was a difficult time when it did end and the show finished.

In September 1969, after 91 episodes,

production finally came to an end.

But it was not the end of Skippy.

She was to live on for generations

and made many cameo appearances over the following years.

You can't shoot her, she's a national treasure! Syndicated in 67 countries!

Don't worry, love. I'll let you have one of her paws for a bottle opener.

Good one, Skippy.

Um... Let's not concentrate on your opponent.

Skippy's psychotic cousin, Skipper,

pulled no punches in a powerful performance on BBC Three.

Skipper, Skipper, the kangaroo!

Comedian Sanjeev Baskar created Skipinder, a drunken

Indian version of Skippy on the hit UK show, Goodness, Gracious Me.

I'm going to sink a couple of jars and then I'm going to twat

that git over the head with the biggest stick I can find!

What's that? Oh, bollocks!

I was at a cashpoint machine in London. There was a guy behind me

and he said, "So, what have you got against Australians?"

And I said, "I haven't got anything against Australians at all."

And he said, "You hate us, don't you?"

And I said, "No, I don't hate Australians at all".

That's ridiculous. I've got Australian friends."

And he said, "What have you got against Skippy?"

And I said, "Well that's the real question.

"This is about your national emblem in some way being defaced."

Baskar risked facing further Antipodean wrath when he tried

to put Skippy into Room 101.

The thing is that, as a kid, I quite liked Skippy.

For those people who don't know,

he was the kind of Mel Gibson of his time.

-Absolutely.

-Very bright.

-Brighter than the human beings.

-Brighter, probably, than Mel Gibson.

It wasn't him, per se, but it was the notion of that programme.

I then realised, particularly putting Skipinder together,

how little of the programme relied on Skippy

and how much of it rested on Skippy.

And it was mostly just the kid

running around a lot and not really losing any weight.

I really love you, man, you're my best friend... Don't drop me.

SKIPPY TUTS

What's that, Skip?

You could drink that Punjabi piss pot under the table any day?

Friends, Romans, countrymen.

Lend me your beers.

I think you only make fun of something that people are going

to know about, and go for it.

It's fantastic. I don't mind it. I love it. I've laugh at it.

For many, Skippy represents a long gone

but never forgotten vision of home.

# ..the bush kangaroo

# Skippy, Skippy

# Skippy a friend ever true. #

Everything about it is home.

The arrogance, the optimism, the sloppiness.

Of course I recognise it all as home.

There is no chance of putting Skippy to bed.

You've only got to go to YouTube and find that Skippy is alive and well.

I'm extremely proud to have been involved in it.

I have worked with young people and when I tell them

I've work on Skippy, one woman said to me, "You are a legend."

Funnily enough, it's probably taken me 30, 35 years to really come to

grips with what Skippy meant and what my part in Skippy was all about.

Quietly, I feel very proud about it.

For me, it was a very lucky break.

-A career, at last.

-Memorable, happy and fun.

-Positive, professional.

-Iconic.

Historic television milestone.

Simple and wholesome.

A true bloody Australian.

# Hippity hop, she'll stop the traffic

# When she passes by and stop and wish that you know where she's going

# Hoppity hip, she'll skip into your heart

# You'll wonder why the world is all a-glimmer and a-glowing

# Cute as a koala and as busy as a bee

# Happy as a kookaburra laughing in a tree

# Hippity hop, she's up, she's up away, she'll wave goodbye,

# That's when you'll want the whole wide world to know

# That you love Skippy, Skippy

# Our friend, ever true. #

SKIPPY TUTS

What's that, Skip? You're exhausted after all your heroics?

Totally stuffed.

Good on you, Skip.