‘This is my tell-all moment’: Chris Lilley revives Mr G in new project

Take your shoes off and find a spot on the floor, Mr G is back. But not in the way fans might hope.

Eighteen years after Australia fell in love with Chris Lilley’s iconic (and cringeworthy) character on Summer Heights High, Greg Gregson is returning to the spotlight with a new podcast promising to “expose” the series that made him famous.

“I’ve been gagged for the past 15 years, pretty much. Sworn to secrecy,” the drama teacher says in the first episode of Mr G’s Room, available to paying subscribers on Apple Podcasts.

“I will be letting you know how I was edited to look bad, manipulated by the producers of the documentary. There’s a lot that wasn’t true. I’m here to expose Summer Heights High. This is my tell-all moment.”

The project was first teased last week with cryptic videos on social media featuring a pink yoga ball, then Lilley dancing in character. Excited comments followed, with Chrissie Swan calling Mr G her “favourite character of all time” and comedian Jim Jeffries saying he’s “never been happier”. But comments were then closed, with some speculating it was because “everyone is annoyed it isn’t a show”.

Lilley hasn’t made a TV series since 2019’s Lunatics, and much has happened. Though his work has always had its critics, certain characters such as Tongan schoolboy Jonah and rapper S.mouse – both performed in blackface – faced a real reckoning during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement. In 2020, Netflix removed We Can Be Heroes (2005), Summer Heights High (2007), Angry Boys (2011) and Jonah From Tonga (2014) from its library. The ABC, which commissioned the series, initiated a “harm and offence” audit on its content.

“Community attitudes change across time and context,” an ABC spokesperson told this masthead at the time. “We recognise that the ways in which some characters have been depicted in the past might be considered deeply objectionable or offensive today.”

The following year, Lilley revived one of his less controversial characters, private school girl Ja’mie King, in a podcast series that took her into the present day. In Ja’miezing, King was now a Gen Z uni student claiming to be “really woke”, and complaining about climate change and COVID happening when she’s at her peak hotness. The series was still going as of January this year with short episodes titled “coming out as straight”, “when your mum’s a bitch” and “queefing etiquette”. Fans have given it 4.8 stars on Apple Podcasts, from 3000 reviews, with comments unanimously labelling it “so quiche”.

Chris Lilley as Mr G in Summer Heights High.

The verdict

Can Mr G’s Room find the same success? I’m not so sure.

While there’s just one 23-minute episode to judge at this stage, Mr G just doesn’t have the same kind of outrageous one-liners as Ja’mie or material to riff on from current culture.

There’s hope in the format itself: the thought of him being unshackled from an NDA and spilling the tea on what “really” happened on Summer Heights High is promising. Podcasts are the first port of call for former reality TV contestants burned by their edit, so why not Mr G?

But there’s not much material of note in episode one, with the self-indulgent drama teacher using his platform to showcase a long “drama lesson” on terrible American accents and a song from Ikea the Musical sung from the perspective of a Taiwanese cleaner locked in a basement.

It’s certainly true to character. Of course, Mr G’s podcast would be rambling and strange and pointless, but it’s also not all that entertaining. This isn’t an issue of problematic humour or being out of step with the culture – Mr G is one of the few characters who doesn’t hold up too badly in 2025, with his Summer Heights High scenes getting regular rotation on social media and TikTok today. It’s a problem because so much of Mr G’s humour was in his physical performance – lunging and grinding across the room in whatever strange outfit he pulled out of the drama room – and the reaction that caused.

Who wants to listen to 20 minutes – let alone a whole season – of monologue cringe comedy? The real beauty of Mr G’s classroom came from the dumbstruck Year 9 students watching on in dismay. Sadly, this would-be star’s podcast debut is not his best work.

Mr G’s Room officially premieres on April 23, but the first episode is available now for paying subscribers on Apple Podcasts.

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