Dannii Minogue and Tina Arena reveal secrets behind Young Talent Time

After becoming BFFs on the set of Young Talent Time, Dannii Minogue and Tina Arena share what really happened on the set of the iconic TV series.

Playing pool and Pac-Man – not exactly what you imagined went on behind the scenes of Young Talent Time.

Singing superstars Tina Arena and Dannii Minogue – two of the biggest names to launch from the family entertainment show – laugh as they confide just how good they became at the ’80s video game in between all the singing and homework.

“I still love that game – interestingly I have not digressed at all from it,” Arena adds.

The pair – who became firm friends from the first day Minogue joined the YTT team and shared a microphone with Arena – talk over the top of each other excitedly as they share their favourite memories and magic moments after their exclusive shoot ahead of the 50th anniversary special airing on Ten tonight.

Dannii and Kylie Minogue on Young Talent Time.

Minogue wishes she still had the silver costume from when she and sister Kylie famously sang Sisters are Doing It For Themselves.

“They’ve got to be in the archives somewhere – maybe we should go sniffing around,” she said.

Arena recalls once wearing an outfit that had belonged to journalist Jana Wendt.

“John was really upset,” she shared. “He was all ‘she looks too old’. But I was loving it and I remember standing up to him and saying ‘I don’t want to take this off’ and he got really shitty with me.”

Minogue adds: “We would be like ‘everyone else is wearing it’ but we were little kids so it was like the conversations you would have with your parents saying ‘you’re not wearing that out’. Our show was more wholesome than what people were wearing in the streets, but we still wanted to wear it.”

Johnny Young, centre, with Young Talent Time stars (L-R) Bobby Drieson, Joey Perrone, Michael Campbell, Karen Dunkerton, Tina Arena, Jodie Loebert, Mark McCormack, Dannii Minogue and Katie Van Ree in 1984.

For a generation of Australians, no Saturday night was complete without Dannii, Tina, Vince, Bevan, Karen or Joey singing the latest hits, wearing incredible costumes before host Johnny Young wound it up with All My Loving. It was a way more innocent time.

“It was beautiful TV,” Arena said. “I think it’s important for people to go back and watch our shows where they don’t see that manipulation that we are constantly subjected to today.

“ (YTT Unmasked) will be therapy for a lot of people – I mean that in a very humble fashion – as opposed to what goes on today. I would encourage people to watch it and then go back in time to reflect on the beauty of the simplicity and, hopefully, learn some things from those times.”

The pair was overjoyed to unexpectedly bump into the show’s creator Young at the shoot, with Minogue saying even she was floored to learn how Young Talent Time eventuated.

“We had this light bulb moment of wow – (viewers) will be blown away by what (Young) did before YTT and how it came about,” she said.

Arena is fiercely protective of her former mentor.

“I’ve watched him be ridiculed by people and I can’t stand it,” she shared. “I mean, how unbelievably disrespectful. Do you realise John Young was giving the Bee Gees Barry Gibb an outlet in this country? He launched careers, wrote songs, did all sort of things – not to mention (YTT’s) contribution to creative landscape in this country. He deserves to be celebrated.”

Tina Arena and Dannii Minogue on set of the YTT Unmasked Special. Picture: Supplied

A signature Young Talent Time musical number.

Dannii Minogure, far left, with YTT host Johnny Young and their co-stars.

The women have had an almost parallel career – starting on YTT and heading overseas to discover themselves. And while they’re incredibly grateful for the platform it gave them, they did enjoy the chance to spread their wings.

“It was always such a joy to be able to hang out with Tina in London as an adult,” Minogue said. “When you’ve grown up on television you need that little time out to recalibrate and work out who you are and what’s the next step.

“It was incredibly important for us to go overseas and have that clean slate so we could start to discover who we were apart from (the show), without people looking at us going you’re the girl from Young Talent Time.

“We’d catch up and knowing that and look at each other, say hi and just spend time in our own little world.”

Arena said, there’s still this instant comprehension and understanding between the pair.

“I always know if something is not right with her and she knows when things are not right with me,” she said. “That’s our beautiful connection and we don’t have to see each other every day, but we can always pick up where we left off.”

YTT Unmasked, Sunday, 8.30pm, Ten

Originally published as Dannii Minogue and Tina Arena reveal secrets behind Young Talent Time