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ROD MULLINAR AS "STAR" MORNING HOST, BASIL HANNIGAN |
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In his mid 50s Basil Hannigan is well preserved, tall, with an impressive frame.
He started in radio as a teenager just before the war (the second one) and became the foundation of CHAT-AM’s original success. He was high rating, highly paid and living the high life.
But now it’s the 80s, and Basil is starting to slip. The new breed of DJ’s have taken rock and pop to the FM band, and left Basil and AM behind. But there are a few tricks in the old dog yet.
On-air, he’s a gentle, conservative charmer with his easy-going, easy-listening style. But off-air he’s become a devious, lecherous greedy master of the game with only one ambition - to hold on to his morning show!
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MULLINAR ON BASIL HANNIGAN |
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"He’s an old fashioned radio Jock, probably been around since after the war. He’s got old-fashioned ‘wireless manners’. He’s very right wing, he’s very vain and he’s not terribly bright. His main feature is that he has a beautiful voice, but he’s really a dinosaur.
"I like playing the crass side of Basil because it contains all that irony and satire about what the 80s actually did to society. What Basil represents to me is those who scam - which is just one of the reasons I found this whole series so very interesting."
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"It was attitudes like Basil’s which created a lot of trouble now for our children and ongoing society issues. In the media almost everything was contra and chequebook. There was always a lunch on the credit card which was tax deductible of course!
"My kids were brought up in the 80s. They’d sit in front of the television in the early mornings and watch Spandau Ballet. I know a lot of kids whose lives have suffered because of their parent’s inappropriate behaviour during the 80s.
"People got sucked in because the banks would lend money to anyone for anything. Everyone paid the price afterwards - people lost their houses, lost their businesses and it was only the top arseholes who actually managed to survive. It was an unreal time and really shows what happens when people don’t think and just go for profit at a very low level and what it does to the general public."
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ROD MULLINAR - MINI BIOGRAPHY |
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Rod Mullinar's feature film credits include Dead Calm (starring Nicole Kidman and Sam Neill), The Surfer, Promises To Keep, Letter To A Friend, Thunder Ball; Eureka, Raw Deal, Patrick, Thirst, Pyjama Girl, Partners, Breaker Morant, Now And Forever and Breakfast In Paris.
Television credits include Halifax, Marlin Bay, Bony, Mission Impossible, Flying Doctors, The Sullivans, Inside Running, G.P., The Creeks, Run From The Morning, Beyond Reasonable Doubt, Obsession, Rush, A Time For Love, Bluey, Cop Shop, Homicide, Ryan, Rafferty's Rules, the telemovie, Taxi, Eureka Stockade, Five Mile Creek, and For The Term Of His Natural Life.
Theatre credits include The Girl Who Saw Everything for the Sydney Theatre Company; Double Act, Morning Becomes Electra, Man Who Came To Dinner for The Melbourne Theatre Company; Otherwise Engaged for the Old Tote Theatre, Sydney and In Celebration for St Martins Theatre.
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