Ep 6: GILLIAN TRIGGS
Wednesday 13 November 8:00pm
Gillian Triggs is an academic, lawyer and social justice advocate. Her investigations into Australia’s human rights record plunged her into national controversy.
Julia meets Gillian at Station Pier in Port Melbourne, the place her family arrived by boat from the UK in the late ‘50s. Gillian, in a pristine Ford Anglia, drives Julia to University High School where she was educated, and now it even has a school house named after her.
We then visit the Janet Clarke Hall where Gillian resided while studying law at Melbourne University. In the hall Gillian reads, for the first time, quotes from her critics while she was president of the Australian Rights Human Commission and discusses why her actions brought her some powerful and vocal enemies.
Julia and Gillian then take a stroll through the beautiful environs of the university before chatting about how the firestorm of public life has changed her, and her optimism for the country.
Julia’s other guests in this series include: Costa Georgiadis, Magda Szubanski, Nakkiah Lui, Bill Bryson, Judith Lucy, Gillian Triggs, Ian Chappell, Bill Oddie, Shane Gould and Adam Liaw.
Ep 7: IAN CHAPPELL
Wednesday 20 November 8:00pm
Chappell, one of the most important figures of modern cricket, takes Julia back to Adelaideto the yard he and his brothers Greg and Trevor spent uncountable hours practicing theskills that got them selected to represent Australia.
Then it’s off in a classic burnt orange Chrysler Valiant to the local Glenelg Baseball Club, where Ian also made it o represent his country. He won a sports scholarship to the prestigious Prince Alfred College where he reveals hat he was in the school choir and ignored his First XI coaches’ advice that “not much is gained in anger”.Ian tells Julia of his tricky dealings with another famous Adelaide legend, Don Bradman, who he found indictive and unlikeable.
Ian and Julia enter the Adelaide Oval through the Victor Richardson gates, named after Ian’s Grandfather, and oints out where his parents’ ashes are spread nearby. He also reveals to Julia that these days he is not nterested in watching cricket unless he has to professionally.
Ep 8: BILL ODDIE
Wednesday 27 November 8:00pm
Bill Oddie is the beardie-one that a generation of us grew up watching on the anarchic comedy The Goodies.
Julia takes her life in her hands (literally) in a classic MG to retrace Bill’s childhood in Birmingham in the UK. First, we visit his childhood home and he opens up about having a mother with a severe mental illness, and reflects on his own battles.
At his old High School Bill recalls that it was here where his talents were most encouraged, and this led him to eventually performing and writing with Tim Brooke Taylor, Graeme Garden, Terry Jones and John Cleese.
After the Goodies Bill pursued his interest in natural history and bird watching, presenting many TV and radio series.
Bill and Julia finish the episode birdwatching and reflecting on the state of the environment and the world.
Ep 9: SHANE GOULD
Wednesday 4 December 8:00pm
Shane Gould is a one of a kind: a superstar swimmer who turned her back on the pool at the peak of her career in search of a simpler life.
In this revealing and intimate episode, Shane and Julia revisit one of her primary schools and the house she lived in as a teenager. Shane talks about how her success put intense pressure on her and her family.
We visit the location of her famous 100m world record swim, North Sydney Pool, and meet one of Shane’s coaches Ursula Carlisle. Shane reveals to Ursula that she may have continued swimming if she had been challenged by taking up another stroke.
Poolside, Shane explains to Julia what made her give it all away and “runaway” to Western Australia. Julia and Shane travels to Margaret River to visit the property Shane escaped to and the house she built.
Ep 10: ADAM LIAW - Season Final
Malaysian born Adam Liaw grew up in the hills of Adelaide. He takes Julia, in the universally under- appreciated 1989 Volvo 240, to his old family home and the memories come rushing back as they tour the house; the smells, the light, the radiator he burnt himself on and the bamboo stand where his grandmother said a witch lived.
We meet Adam’s father who describes the young Adam and his older brother as precocious. Both were accelerated through school, where we visit, before travelling to a favourite spot in the Botanical Gardens Adam would visit with his mother and grandmother.
He describes his decision to leave his high-powered legal career to become a MasterChef contestant. We hear how his grandmother dragged the family out of poverty by winning a small amount in Lotto, which meant her kids could stay in school and forge professional careers.