Chapter 15: The Freelance Phase

After officially quitting Sales and Management Services, I was still working for them in a freelance capacity, as all their sound track recordings were done at 50 Belgrave Road.

I also found freelance work at Radio Australia, writing and producing and recording programmes like “This Australia”, “The Australian Tradition” and “It’s A Curious Country” and recording hundreds of short (approximately 5 minute) interviews generically labelled “A.T.T.A.I.s” which if my memory serves me correctly stood for Australian Topical Talks And Information.

All this ceased when the Federal Government drastically cut A.B.C. funding and all the “freelancers” bit the dust overnight.

But by that time, I was back at GTV9, where I had begun my television involvement twenty-eight years earlier.

Now, in 1984, I was freelancing with the “Ossie Ostrich Video Show”, which starred Daryl Summers and his ostrich friend Ossie who was operated by Ernie Carroll.

I was writing and producing a series of short comedy films featuring two wonderful performers, Doug Tremlett and Jim Burnett. These films were shot by Noel Jones (one-take Jones we called him) and the editing and sound track production was done by Lemac Films.

A genius named Murray Tregonning did all the sound track mixing.

It was all fun but hard work. In 1984 and 1985 we produced 180 five-minute comedy spots.

Then just as the “winds of change” began to blow in our direction, in December 1985, along came “Me and My Girl”, which ran for six weeks in Melbourne and six weeks in Sydney — three months of sheer joy.

After “Me and My Girl”, back to the freelance quest for those odd jobs which help to pay for lunch, which is what I am still doing at the time of writing — 1999!