Of course Graham Kennedy will always be the king of Aussie TV and Mary Hardy the queen, both deservedly so but the best series will always be the Mavis Bramston Show. The great Gordon Chater, Barry Creyton, June Salter and Carol Raye were brilliant. The show always opened with these fabulous four singing "Togetherness" with lots of funny topical issues thrown in. The show poked fun at sacred cows, no one and no institution was safe. The show even satirised the church which was unheard of in those days. It was clever satire, sharp and clever. It was also very naughty but not as tacky as most of todays satire. Several fine artists passed through the series and nearly all of them were remarkable. I have great memories of English actor Ron Stevens.. hardly known in his own country. He got into hot water for a brilliantly irreverent send up of the Queen Mother as a guest on a TV show here called Beauty and The Beast.The show pushed issues and was far from being politically correct... thankfully. It was full of camp innuendo. Lots of stars appeared , later even Noelene Brown joined the cast for a while. She went on to do another reasonably good show The Naked Vicar but vicar was not in the league of Bramston. I recall the incredibly sexy Lucky Star on the show, his pop career was over and he made a fine fist at revue. Many of the Bramston stars came from the great tradition of revue, especially the marvellous Philip street revues. Another English star who did a season was Miriam (Rag Trade) Karlin. John Bluthall joined the last season but although a good performer was never in the league of Ron Frazer, Chater, Stevens and Barry Creyton. Creytion was brilliant, raising those eye brows to perfection. He was dam hot too. I am sadly not sure if they could do it today as the censorship is much worse these days. Not only are they uptight about a bit of earthy vulgarity but they also have political correctness to stand in the way of artistic freedom. You would think we would be more liberated but sadly not. Chater was the super talent on this great show but now its all just a wonderful memory. The many sketch shows that followed are not in the league of Bramston. Bramston was a once in a life time work of genius, be great to have some of it on DVD but because it was so topical I think few would recall what was being sent up. Gordon Chaters famous pie eating sketch is still talked about and the show probably either laiunched or secured many carreers. Its a pity a compilation was never made. Of course the show was satire and very topical so some of it has probably lost its relevance. It was braver than any show today. Apart from the earthy vulgarity it also pushed the boundaries. Sacred cows were never safe. The church was often attacked. I loved Chater but also the whole cast the ever changting cast will be loved by many of always. There was one lovely scetch when a young actress would have a chat with an old man played by Gordon Chater. It was lovely sentimental comedy. It would probably be one of the scetches that would hold up well today. he character Chater played in this he would play later in "My names MCgooley, what's yours". When Chater left the show the scetch was kept alive but this time the wonderful Britishj actor Ron Stevens would chat to the legendary veteren actress Neva Carr Glynn who played an old lady feeding birds as she sat on a park bench.
Review of The Mavis Bramston Show
