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Special Thanks to Shaun for providing a copy of this review to the site

 

 

Review of ‘The King’, Graeme Blundell’s biography of Graham Kennedy

 

Television in this country was only 8 months old and Kennedy didn’t even own a set when he was launched on an equally unsophisticated viewing public in the late fifties. Blundell evokes beautifully the era which gave birth to the Kennedy phenomenon, although as the chapters whizzed past I found myself thinking that the man himself becomes less and less a seemingly realistic portrait and more and more a series of impressionistic and sometimes contradictory strokes. A chimera. This is no criticism of Blundell; it is probably the only way Kennedy, who became increasingly reclusive, can be captured. And it’s probably the way he prefers it.

 

I enjoyed the book very much, but then I would. I love TV and I love Kennedy. Blundell is a fan too but this book is no gushing love letter. It’s heavy with research and interviews (although curiously no contribution was sought from Pete Smith who has been with GTV Nine since 1963 and worked with Kennedy) and is a scholarly effort, although no less readable for it. Blundell is never unseemly; we’re spared the tabloid approach regarding Kennedy’s private life, although I can’t help thinking that the love (or lack thereof) of his life, whether it dare speak it’s name or not, might be a key to at least one of the many locks that keep Kennedy from us. Still, given that Kennedy is still alive I am relieved he was spared the indignity of having that particular part of his life unearthed, in fact I probably like the book more because of it.

 

As Australian TV heads towards its 50th year it’s a little sad that Kennedy’s enduring televisual legacy is Australia’s Funniest Home Video’s, the show he hosted towards the end of his working life. His best years are the early fading ones and they are rightly revered by those who saw them, and also by those – like me - who didn’t. Though clips and bits on salutes and retrospectives give an impression of the man; youthful, brash, coping, laughing, disrespectful, manic, funny – it’s nice to have this book as it helps fill in some of the many spaces.

 

The ramshackle chaos of IMT is long gone from TV, replaced by a sort of professional glibness which is more pleasing on the eye and ear but isn’t anywhere near half as much fun. Graham Kennedy got away with a lot in these early days. Later on he managed to get away with doing very little; but no-one seemed to mind.