Shaun Micallef turns news hound

AS a former lawyer who gave it up to become a comedian, there's something remarkably fitting about Adelaide-born Shaun Micallef's latest project.

AS a former lawyer who gave it up to become a comedian, there's something remarkably fitting about Adelaide-born Shaun Micallef's latest project.

Billed as a "weekly round-up, branding, inoculation and crutching of all the important news stories of the week", Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell combines reportage, analysis, discussion, arguments - and, of course, comedy.

The concept, says Micallef, came from 1976 satirical film Network, written by Paddy Chayefsky and starring British-born Australian Peter Finch as newsreader Howard Beale.

"There's a wonderful speech that Howard gives where he basically goes mad; he just goes insane and he has a rant and he threatens to blow his brains out on air to increase the ratings," Micallef says.

"They cut to the control room and no one is paying attention so they just go to a commercial at the end of it.

"It's a wonderful speech and it's funny how all the things have come true that Paddy Chayefsky wrote, all these outrageous ways of getting ratings on news programs.

"You need really only watch A Current Affair to see that it has actually all come true and we just accept it now.

"It's a reference to that but also 'mad' as in crazy; although I must say, I'm not the one being mad.

"I'm actually calming everybody down at the end of the week - that's my job."

For Micallef, best known for hosting Ten's game show Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation, the opportunity to return to writing and creating as opposed to merely presenting was a welcome one.

"I was pretty much a hired gun on that program," he says, "although a lot of ideas ended up coming from our writers' room.

"But this is a chance for me to produce and be the head writer, which I haven't done since Newstopia (Micallef's satirical news show which ran on SBS in 2007 and 2008)."

Mad as Hell will be fed by the week's news events. The show's format will also include a cast of guests and actors posing as journalists, including Micallef's comedic partner, Adelaide's Francis Greenslade.

But, he insists, Mad as Hell is more than just another news sketch program.

"It won't be like Chaser (billed to return later this year)," Micallef says.

"We won't be pranking people. It'll be far more professional than Chaser, it'll be far more disciplined and grown up than Chaser.

"Otherwise we'll be treading on their toes and they have a lot of power at the ABC and they'll just close us down," he says with a laugh.

"Chas (Licciardello) will come and burst in on our set and it will be embarrassing. They'll get free footage from us and it'd be awful, so I want to make sure we're friends with those guys."

Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell, Friday, 8pm, ABC1