This week on Interview, a special treat: Madonna in the blue guest chair. Marking the release of her new album, Madame X , the pop icon sits down for a chat with Andrew in London in her only Australian TV interview.
This wide-ranging, funny, thoughtful conversation touches on:
The Madame X persona and what it means to her;
Taking risks in a safe pop world;
Her move to Lisbon and the musical inspiration it provided;
Her politics and philanthropy;
Her memories of the first time she went to a gay club;
Motherhood, her six children and the surprising places they have taken her;
Why Catholic iconography continues to draw her in;
What she would say to the Pope if they met;
And other surprises.
Oh, and the Queen of Reinvention, resplendent in her Madame X eyepatch, offers Andrew a few tips on giving himself a style makeover, one of which is a simple piece of advice that defines her whole career: “Be daring”.
ANDREW DENTON’S INTERVIEW airs Tuesday June 18 at 9pm
This week, the amazing and heart-warming story of Dr Munjed Al Muderis, whose bold new approach to surgery is helping hundreds of Aussie amputees to walk again.
Inspired by watching The Terminator as a teen, the good doctor is now in the business of fusing human and machine. He’s a pioneering specialist in osseointegration, which attaches prosthetic limbs directly to the bones of amputees.
If his groundbreaking work was not incredible enough, you won’t believe the story of how he came to be in this country. As a young medico, Dr Al Muderis was forced to flee Iraq after he refused the orders of Saddam Hussein’s army to surgically remove the ears of deserters as punishment.
He made his way here by boat, via Christmas Island and the Curtin Detention centre, before re-establishing his medical career. Now, his surgical breakthroughs are not only helping Australians, but Iraqis as well – he’s been back to his former country seven times to help the victims of the conflict he fled.
He’s the refugee gift that keeps on giving.
ANDREW DENTON’S INTERVIEW airs Tuesday June 25 at 9pm on Seven. Catch up on 7plus.
Australia loved Stephen Curry in The Castle. It loved him as Graham Kennedy in The King . From his teenage debut in Fast Forward , he’s been a constant presence on our screens, appearing in projects as different as Blue Heelers, The Secret Life Of Us, Cloudstreet , and this year’s Mr Black.
He’s also famous for a decade of Toyota ads with his pal Dave Lawson, in which the duo relived some of the greatest moments in sport.
In this revealing interview with Andrew, you’ll meet many of the Stephen Currys you may not already know: song and dance man, raconteur, exiled cub scout, larrikin, champion plate spinner, inventor of odd sports, altar boy, part-time serial killer, mooning specialist and devoted husband and father of two.
He’s funny. He’s charming. He can bullshit with the best. No wonder Australia loves him.
ANDREW DENTON’S INTERVIEW airs Tuesday July 2 at 9pm
This week, one of the toughest challenges of Andrew’s career: how do you interview a friend of 40 years, someone you’ve known since you were teenagers, someone you’ve worked with, laughed with and already shared most of your life with?
Andrew and Amanda met at Mitchell College in Bathurst (now Charles Sturt University) when he was 18 and she was 17, both fresh out of high school. They’ve worked together on TV and radio, and generally been each other’s biggest supporters.
“I immediately knew we were going to be friends,” Andrew says of their college introduction, “and we have spent the last 40 years trying to either shock each other or make each other laugh. Often, they’ve been the same thing.”
So how do you make an interview like this work? You reach into your loooooong memory list of funny and embarrassing moments and celebrate Amanda, one of Australia’s favourite women, by letting her remind us all what a smart, funny and occasionally super daggy human she is.
It’s the most fun you can have with two people and two chairs.
ANDREW DENTON’S INTERVIEW airs Tuesday July 23 at the special time of 9.15pm on Seven. Catch up on 7plus.
Love that we have some cross-channel talent interviews. I never really understood why it can happen in the Uk and US and not here. I know we are a smaller market but it creates a much bigger pool of talent to draw from.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Amanda Keller’s TV career (aside from the parts that were on Seven, like Beyond 2000) largely gets skipped over during her edition of Interview though.
We all remember first seeing Jess as that kid from Darwin on Australian Idol, the shy girl who didn’t need to win that competition to become a star. Her voice and that inner radiance did it all.
She’s since had a string of hits, sung with Snoop Dogg, supported Beyonce, and represented us at Eurovision and on Sesame Street.
She flexed her acting muscles in The Sapphires, Bran Nue Dae and The Secret Daughter . And she’s soon to bring out a new album called Hilda . All this and she’s just turned 30.
In this warm and surprisingly revealing conversation, Andrew and Jess talk about the grandmother that inspired her new songs; the pressure to represent her indigenous heritage; how she fell out of love with music; and why she was not the Mauboy sister everyone was expecting to be famous.
Andrew also gets a singing lesson from a natural talent. Fair to say, one of them has a musical future.
ANDREW DENTON’S INTERVIEW airs Tuesday August 6 at 9pm
If most Australians can agree about one thing, it’s that we’re not very impressed by our politicians.
Julie Bishop is one of the very few exceptions to the rule. A smart, stylish woman, she represented us on the world stage as foreign minister with great dignity and brought the same calm to her role as deputy leader through a decade of turmoil.
In her first long-form interview since the end of her political career, Andrew asks Julie:
What it’s like to be a foreign minister, dealing with bullies and dictators and permanent jet lag and the saddest of international tragedies;
How difficult it is to be a female minister in a cabinet where you’re surrounded by not just men, but men with often outsized egos;
How she has used her fashion choices to make subtle and unsubtle political statements;
And how it feels when you’re the most electable alternative to the recently deposed Malcolm Turnbull, streets ahead in the public polls, and your party doesn’t choose you.
ANDREW DENTON’S INTERVIEW airs Tuesday August 13 at 8.30pm on Seven. Catch up on 7plus.
