The Games (Australian TV)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Games was an Australian mockumentary TV series about the run-up to the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
The show was broadcast on the ABC and starred noted satirists John Clarke and Bryan Dawe along with Australian comedian Gina Riley, and was written by John Clarke and Ross Stevenson. It centred on the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG), and satirised corruption and cronyism in the Olympic movement, bureaucratism within the Australian Public Service, and unethical behaviour within politics and the media. The show is unusual in that all characters were given the same name as the actors who played them, a stylistic decision to enhance the illusion that it is a documentary on the Sydney Games.
John Clarke plays John Clarke, "Olympic Supremo" and head of the "liaison and logistics team", an undefined but important subsection of SOCOG. Clarke was apparently a former Olympic champion, but ducked the question whenever asked about which event he competed in. Gina Riley plays Gina Riley, the harassed head of marketing for the team, and Bryan Dawe is Bryan Dawe, the team's pessimistic head of accounting. The series also featured actor Nicholas Bell, who played the conniving Secretary to the Minister for the Olympics, a foil of sorts for Clarke's character.
The series had two seasons of 13 episodes, the first in 1998 and the second in 2000, with the final episode broadcast just days before the Opening Ceremony of the real games. In this episode, the three stars and Bell were forced to stand in for The Seekers at the opening ceremony rehearsal to sing "The Carnival is Over". The Seekers did indeed perform this song, but at the Closing Ceremony of the Paralympics some weeks later.
A cavalcade of Australian celebrities appeared on the show, including John Farnham, Dave Graney, Frank Woodley, Barrie Cassidy, Maxine McKew and a number of others.
In one celebrated appearance, the actor John Howard appeared on a video message intended for overseas release and read an apology to Aboriginal people for crimes committed against them by the Australian government. In the episode in question, a group of overseas countries threatened to boycott the Games unless John Howard gave a public apology to the Aboriginal people. The message was accompanied by John Clarke saying "that's not the Prime Minister," to which Gina Riley replied, "he never said he was. He said he was John Howard." The confusion between the two men has become a frequent joke in Australia, exploited by the small-l liberal actor.
The Games won Most Outstanding Comedy Program at the Logie Awards of 2001.
Season 1 was released on DVD in 2005, a rumoured release of Season 2 is still to appear. Most of the episodes are available on PAL format VHS.
[edit] External links
