Will Warnie’s controversial series mean it’s over and out for Aussie celebrity biopics?
Howzat? Really crap. Nine’s pilloried ‘Warnie’ hastens the decline of the Aussie TV celebrity miniseries after a run of lacklustre biopics in recent years. These were the good, the bad and the ugly.
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Nine’s much-touted television miniseries Warnie has all but sounded the death knell for biopics, critics say.
The controversial show, which came up appallingly short in its delivery, was universally ridiculed as a tacky, tone-deaf and unnecessary tribute to the late King of Spin.
And it is the latest biopic to yield a lacklustre audience — averaging a metro tally of 528,000 and 434,000 viewers on its two respective nights — in the format television networks turned to a decade ago to counter the advent of streaming.
Warnie, which was contentiously commissioned just six months after Shane Warne’s death, began clumsily, with a “narration from the grave” and showing clips of the Australian icon himself on the Parkinson show.
TV Tonight’s David Knox said that just served to highlight how physically unalike actor Alex Williams is to the titular character.
“Embracing (a) drama will be directly linked to whether you accept the actor in the title role, especially given the opening Parkinson shots chosen remind you visually of the man himself. A bit odd,” he said.
“Alex Williams has an impossible task to bring to life a man we know so well, in a miniseries which doesn’t offer enough new insight.”
Knox was just one in a chorus of scathing reviews.
The Guardian’s Luke Buckmaster was far harsher, saying the whole thing felt like it “has been hurried down the assembly line, without much thought put into it”.
Knox agreed that “dramatising the life of someone who was a modern media star” known to everyone left the biopic fraught from the start.
“It’s hard to know if Warne’s biggest scandals were sanitised so as not to offend family, or to fit a timeslot. But if there were any revelations not already in the public domain they escaped me,” he said.
“The series … also failed to find an ending. Arguably the most dramatic sequence, his death in Thailand, was ignored altogether.
“Shane Warne is so iconic that the audience probably felt some ownership over his legacy too.”
Viewers responded in droves on social media to the injustice they felt was done to that legacy.
“Three hours or so of an unknown actor narrating the imagined thoughts of the late Shane Warne! Poor acting, unknown cast, shocking script. How insulting to dish up this drivel about one of the world’s best cricketers. Also baffling how his former employer in Nine could commission this rubbish,” one wrote.
“Absolute disgrace from Channel 9 to do something like this so soon and so disrespectful to an Australian Sporting icon Hang your head in shame,” another viewer posted.
And another: “Channel 9 should never have commissioned such a crass production! Warnie was and still is respected and loved by most cricket lovers for his talent as a cricketer and for just being himself. Great guy that didn’t need to have this trash muddy his reputation!”
The poor ratings and reception for Warnie caps a recent run of Aussie TV biopics that have underperformed.
Audiences have had a love-hate relationship with the genre, with a slew of successes immortalising real-life Australian characters on screen.
These productions were commercial television’s initial solution to their dwindling audiences in the face of the seemingly unstoppable march of streaming services.
It started strongly in 2010 with Channel 10’s Hawke telemovie. Richard Roxburgh played former Prime Minister Bob Hawke and Asher Keddie was his lover Blanche d’Alpuget. More than 1.6 million viewers tuned in to watch the dramatised booze-fuelled, womanising rise and fall of one of Australia’s most popular prime ministers.
Keddie was again front and centre, playing Ita Buttrose in ABC’s Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo. Keddie was nominated for a Logie for mastering that famous lisp, received critical acclaim and the show drew 1.3 million viewers.
Kerry Packer’s War about the rebel World Series Cricket in the 1970s, was a boundary smashing success with 2.097m capital city viewers for Nine. Seven’s INXS: Never Tear Us Apart with Luke Arnold immortalising Michael Hutchence – averaged 1.974 million viewers and 1.767 million.
Samuel Johnson won a gold for his 2016 portrayal of Molly Meldrum in Seven’s Molly, and acclaim from viewers too – attracting 1.79 and 1.53 million eyes and Peter Allen: Not the Boy Next Door, with Joel Jackson (1.33 and 1.21 million) was also a hit.
Ten’s Brock – with Matt Le Nevez as motor racing champion Peter – was potentially the first biopic to go wide of the mark, which rated a solid 964,000 viewers first ep, but crashed to 694,000 with part two, indicating the love for telemovies was on the wane. And it was followed in quick succession by Hoges (with Josh Lawson who was a distinctive looking bloke playing another distinctive looking bloke. And they are distinctly different. Plus that terrible wig) and then Olivia Newton John: Hopelessly Devoted To You with Delta Goodrem as her mentor ONJ. Critics and viewers were split between whether Delta was too Delta to be Olivia, or fabulous in the role.
Warnie’s average metro audience was 528,000 and 434,000 and – even accounting for an across the board decline in FTA viewership – it begs the question ‘in the golden era of streaming and a plethora of choices for viewers, has the two-part biopic completely lost its shine?’
Knox suspects Warnie will ward free-to-air networks off the genre for some time.
However, he feels it doesn’t have to spell its complete demise, suggesting instead that producers think outside the box. And take their time crafting the story.
“Bio-dramas don’t need to be cradle-to-grave tales trying to cram everything in,” Knox said.
“Surprise us – why not focus on a chapter of someone’s life as Renée Zellweger did in Judy, or take a larger-than-life approach like Young Rock or Weird: The Al Yankovic Story?”
BIOPICS: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY
As Nine’s Warnie reinforced this week, biopics rarely succeed. Invariably, they are designed to push an “official” and pared-back version of history, dulled by performances that are merely impersonations.
There have been some exceptions though. Here’s some of the best (and worst):
THE GOOD
Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo
This brilliant 2010 ABC miniseries about the creation of the iconic Australian women’s magazine Cleo, and the powerful business alliance of publisher Ita Buttrose, played by Asher Keddie, and emerging media baron Kerry Packer, played by Rob Carlton has been named in best TV shows lists since. It spawned a sequel – Magazine Wars – covering the 1990s Sydney-based rivalry of Dulcie Boling (Rachel Griffiths) and Nene King (Mandy McElhinney), the editors behind the popular magazines New Idea and Woman’s Day.
The King
Stephen Curry won a Logie and an AACTA for his portrayal of Graham Kennedy in this 2007 Foxtel telemovie tracing the legendary Australian TV personality’s rise to fame through radio, television and film. It also featured Stephen Hall as Bert Newton, with Garry McDonald, Shaun Micallef and Steve Bisley. While, critics argued Kennedy, or Gra Gra as he was affectionately known, wouldn’t have approved of such a biography, it was well-watched and received great reviews.
Molly
With his craggy features, Samuel Johnson – who won the 2016 Gold Logie for the role – was born to play Ian “Molly” Meldrum. Seven’s two-part biopic told his story ingeniously, and perhaps with a touch of sly irony: via a series of flashbacks following Meldrum’s terrible accident at home in 2011, which left him with severe injuries. Plus there was all the music. Countdown’s influence on a generation of Australian music – both for better and worse – is incontestable and Meldrum was at the centre of it for more than a decade.
THE BAD
Brock
It wasn’t awful by any means, Brock’s life certainly provides rich fodder for TV, and Ten’s two-parter – starring Matt Le Nevez in the titular role – charts Peter’s meteoric rise from young larrikin tearing up country roads to Australia’s top racing driver, with nine Bathurst and nine Sandown victories. And then it veered into in Brock’s personal life – the marriage splits and affairs, financial struggles, tragic death in a car rally in 2006 and legal tussle over his will. While Le Nevez was praised for his performance, it failed to ignite viewers’ excitement.
Olivia Newton John: Hopelessly Devoted to You
Most agreed Delta Goodrem was the obvious choice to play the grown-up version of our beloved Olivia in Seven’s 2018 biopic. But only aurally. The problem: she’s just so recognisably Delta that despite her reasonable acting ability and supreme vocal power, she had her work cut out to fully own the role. Viewers weren’t kind, taking to social media with comments such as “Olivia must be cringing,” one fan wrote on Twitter. “So bad.”
THE UGLY
Hoges
Network Seven’s widely panned 2017 miniseries on Paul Hogan – Australia’s beloved knife-comparing, shrimp-barbecuing entertainer – had the potential to be massive, but instead was a major disappointment. Josh Lawson’s performance (and horrendous wig), which leaned heavily on Hogan’s comedy characterisations, left critics underwhelmed and wondering whether this two-part series would put a dent in Australian audiences’ fascination for biopics.
House of Bond
This told the story of the America’s Cup hero (played by Ben Mingay) turned corporate fraudster, and in 2017, audiences didn’t find the jailed businessman, who died in 2015 quite the loveable rogue Channel 9 was hoping, “I walked out after 10 minutes,” Eileen, who was married for 37 years to the late Alan, revealed at the time, after attempting to watch the two-part series with her daughter, Jody, and their legal team.
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