Annette Sharp: Brian Walsh was a creative talent, an unstoppable force and an A-list gentleman
The entertainment industry is in mourning following the shock death of executive, promoter and entrepreneur Brian Walsh. Annette Sharp recounts a recent unpublished interview with Walsh as he looked back at an extraordinary life.
Entertainment
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It is about 45 years since Brian Walsh packed two 16mm Bell & Howell film projectors and a stack of surf movies into the back of his Volkswagen Kombi and hit the road, his imagination drawing him west towards the little windswept surf towns scattered between Sydney and Western Australia.
The tube-riding classics he conveyed still come readily to mind: Tubular Swells, Free Ride, Highway One, Morning Of The Earth … the retired amateur film projectionist lists, recalling the pleasure his movies brought to crowds of sunburnt grommets dreaming of becoming the next Mark Richards or Wayne “Rabbit” Bartholomew.
The impeccable kingmaker of Australian television never looked the surfing type. There was no sign of a wetsuit tan under his tidy corporate suit. No roof racks on his executive car.
But then it wasn’t a sweet break that prompted him to give up his university semester holidays and drive 3000 kilometres west into the setting sun in the summers of the late 1970s. It was something the then-budding impresario found far sweeter — the sight of a hundred ecstatic upturned faces enjoying a film night together.
An audience rapt, being entertained.
For four decades it was the love of entertaining people that drove him in a distinguished career in programming, publicity and promotions.
It also sustained him, in 1995, as he set about selling the idea of subscription television to a sceptical Australian public as one of the founding fathers of Foxtel.
“For me, the only instinct has ever been to entertain — to be the facilitator of television or movies,” Walsh said in one of his final interviews.
“Nothing gave me a greater thrill than standing down the back of the community hall showing those surf movies knowing people were enjoying it.”
After studying communications at ANU, Walsh scored a job at dominant AM radio station 2SM in the 1970s, where he made a name for himself as a gun publicity and promotions manager.
He credited the period — spent pasting movie posters on telegraph poles, slipping flyers under windscreen wipers, setting chairs and projectors up in community halls, and sourcing potato chips and soft drinks for a rustic candy bar — as introducing him the primary tools of his trade: His ears.
“Showing surf movies around Australia taught me the importance of being close to the market,” he said.
“As a promotions manager for radio you’re out there mixing with the punters and I literally had to do everything. That’s where I learnt the basics of entertainment.
“There was no avoiding the feedback and criticism. It was invaluable and made me gain a new appreciation of the thing I knew we needed to reach our key audience — audience feedback.”
As a child who obsessed about movies and television, an eight-year-old Walsh created imaginary picture theatres in the family home in Kingsgrove, Sydney, in which he’d rehearse his future fantasy career.
“I used to cut the ads out of the newspaper and I’d schedule, you know, Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, and then I’d have a fictitious TV station and I’d create schedules for TV channels,” Walsh recalled, later producing a well-handled old scrapbook in which was posted a 1968 dream schedule.
“Skippy, Bewitched, Mavis Bramston … Diamond Of The South I called the channel, so as you can see it was in me from a very young age.”
After five years at 2SM, Walsh made the jump into television as promotions and publicity director of Channel 10 in the early ’80s.
It was there, in 1985, that Walsh suggested Ten bosses pick up Channel 7’s recently axed flop soap Neighbours, which Walsh knew he could successfully market to the UK with a revamped young cast.
In 1989 he quit Ten to start his own business, The Promotions Department.
Among early clients would be Channel 9’s Wide World Of Sports and the ARL.
It was during this period Walsh hit upon one of his trademark brilliant promo ideas after Tina Turner’s Australian manager Roger Davies approached he and then rugby league boss John Quayle with the idea of using a track off Turner’s latest album for a new ARL ad campaign. In a career of stellar achievements, a proud Walsh would describe the partnership and use of song Simply The Best as “a notable” accomplishment.
In 1991 a call from television executive Sam Chisholm presented him with a job opportunity in London.
Chisholm, who quit his top job at Nine to relocate to the UK to run British satellite broadcaster BSKYB, was in need of a marketing guru.
For the next four years Walsh worked closely with Chisholm, who he later described as a mentor.
In 1995, following his return to Australia, Chisholm invited Walsh to come on board as consulting Director of Programming, Publicity and Promotions on a new yet-to-be-named venture, then still a tightly kept secret.
It would later, with Walsh’s input, be named Foxtel, a subscription television service jointly owned by News Corp (publisher of this newspaper) and Telstra.
A huge fan, Chisholm, now deceased, would at the end of his life describe Walsh as “indefatigable”.
“The amazing thing about Walshie is his energy. He is indefatigably enthusiastic,” Chisholm said.
“You’d have to say he’s an instinctive child of the television medium. He does understand exactly what the best way is to get the message through and is something of an impresario to boot.”
In the years that followed, Walsh’s role expanded to Executive Director of Television, a position which saw him oversee the creation of Foxtel’s entertainment channels, program acquisitions, and the promotion and marketing of the Foxtel brand.
Yesterday’s accidental surf promoter would become a fierce champion of the nation’s actors, producers, directors and television writers.
Actor Noni Hazlehurst, star of Foxtel’s A Place to Call Home drama series — a series Walsh helped save from Channel 7’s chopping block in 2014 following some prodding from his sister, a nurse based in Young — has described Walsh as utterly “unique” in the industry.
On Friday Hazlehurst, who also served on the AACTA Board with Walsh for several years, paid tribute to the TV boss.
“Brian was truly one of a kind. His astute judgment, boundless enthusiasm and fierce advocacy for our industry created a vast legacy of remarkable, award-winning television content that has impressed and touched people all over the world,” she said.
“He was the Hector Crawford of his generation, and thousands of us in the industry owe him a huge debt of gratitude. Not just for providing us with the opportunity to participate in projects we could be proud of, a rarity in itself, but especially for his example of showing humility, kindness and empathy towards his fellow human beings.”
The widespread grief, now being felt following Walsh’s untimely death, won’t come as a surprise to the people who loved him. He was consistently called out at award shows and showbiz functions.
A humbled Walsh previously said recognition was “extremely gratifying” for himself and Foxtel, which had once been an industry outsider.
“It is terrific to have it acknowledged that your belief and faith in ideas is vindicated,” he said. “You never really know. You’ve got a pretty good instinct about what will make television that resonates but you never really know until you get the show on air and see what the reaction is.”
Other gambles have included lifestyle programs Real Housewives of Melbourne, Real Housewives of Sydney, Australia’s Next Top Model, The Great Australian Cookbook, Love It Or List It, and quality dramas Top Of The Lake starring Elisabeth Moss and Nicole Kidman, Love My Way, and Wentworth. Recent hits include Colin from Accounts and Love Me.
What’s remarkable about the drama Walsh and his commissioning editor Penny Win signed off on, was they were predominantly female-driven stories with some, like A Place to Call Home, made largely with an older 55-plus female-skewed audience in mind, an audience neglected by the traditional free-to-air television networks.
Walsh has never underestimated the power of women on screen or off.
His ability to spot great talent is second to none.
Lisa Wilkinson has credited Walsh with giving her start on television, as a panellist on Foxtel’s Beauty And The Beast series in 1996.
A decade earlier it was another woman who set his pulse racing, then little known Neighbours actress Kylie Minogue whose career received a huge push from Walsh after he spotted her marketing potential for the UK, where Neighbours was a huge hit.
Walsh, who in 2015 acknowledged he was a “proud gay man”, is survived by his three sisters, Maureen, Jeanette and Bernadette Walsh, and his nieces and nephews.
The Walsh family on Friday said they were “deeply saddened and shocked at the loss of our beloved brother Brian”.
“There are no words to say just how heartbroken we are. He had an extraordinary life. We will always remember him by his love of family, his generosity and the value he put on a life not wasted but full and well lived.
“His greatest gift was bringing joy to people including through the industry he was so passionate about and all those he collaborated with over so many years.
“We were so proud of him and we know Mum and Dad would have been too.
“We are overwhelmed by the outpouring of love for Brian.”
TRIBUTES POUR IN
Australia’s brightest stars have remembered entertainment industry titan Brian Walsh as a legend, friend and mentor.
Nicole Kidman: “We are absolutely devastated, he was family to us and we are still in deep shock.”
Hugh Jackman and Deborra-lee Furness: “Deb & I are devastated to hear of the passing of our dear, dear friend Brian Walsh. For over 30 years, we have shared our lives professionally and personally.
“He championed both Deb and I at the very beginning of our careers … He made a huge difference to the lives of so many and we will never forget him.”
Lachlan Murdoch: “Brian was a good man, a great friend, and a television genius. His passing is a tremendous loss to all those who loved him, and to the industry he helped shape over the last 40 years.”
Jason Donovan: “You were more than just a friend or work colleague. You were like a brother to me, like family! Humble, modest, loyal, funny … Always looking out for others … I learnt so much (from) you mate.
“Pioneer of Australian talent with a genuine passion for the industry and all that work within it, you believed in Australian stories. So many memories over the years. Neighbours, Nunawading to London … You believed in me at times when I didn’t believe in myself!
Fly high Walshie! Gonna miss ya mate.”
Russell Crowe: “Brian Walsh has been a huge influence in Australian media and television. Truly a ‘go to’ person who could get things done. He was a gentlemen, a believer, an innovator and a powerhouse.”
Guy Pearce: “I’m in shock & utterly devastated at the news of losing my long time friend & mentor Brian Walsh. Your compassion and support will never be forgotten mate, nor will your guidance as we journeyed down Ramsay St and beyond. Love you Walshie. May you travel peacefully sweet friend.”
Marta Dusseldorp: “A legendary maker, believer, nurturer and lover of stories. Australian stories. I am blessed to have called him my friend, how much you will be missed Brian.”
Sam Neill: “Rest in peace, Brian Walsh.
“Like so many, I am floored by the sudden death of Brian Walsh and in awe of a lifetime of inestimable service to film and TV in Australia … I knew him as a kind, good man.
“Deeply saddened.”
Maggie Tabberer: “Walshie was known first of all because he was brilliant at his job! As a friend, I adored him, he used to make me laugh all the time. He was generous and I know he loved me too. We only had coffee together last week. What a loss to the industry and to all those that knew him. …. Bugger, l’ll miss him.”
Steve Liebmann: “The industry will sorely miss him. He was always available to give advice and guidance and arranged work experience for a number of young people I was helping. His contribution to our industry is immeasurable. I doubt there will ever be another Brian Walsh. Like so many others, I will miss him.”
Angela Bishop: “The Australian TV industry has lost a titan. Brian Walsh used his passion, imagination and showbiz flair to get Aussie audiences excited about everything from dramas like Vietnam, Neighbours and Wentworth to rugby league. It’s hard to believe he’s gone.”
Foxtel Group chief executive Patrick Delany: “At the Foxtel Group, Brian was a long-time mentor, a confidant, a colleague and an unwavering friend to so many. Today, we are grieving Brian’s passing. Our condolences go to his family and to those closest to him.”
News Corp Aust executive chairman Michael Miller:
“Legend” is an often overused term but Brian was exactly that, and the roll call of the shows and stars he has worked with – listed in Patrick’s note – is a testament to his impeccable vision and sterling career.”
Rob Collins: “Remembering Brian Walsh and the time he made an Aboriginal man the Foxtel ambassador. Grateful to have known him. Adding a small drop to the outpouring of love for this man.”
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