Comedy series was a hit in Australia

Press, 7 September 1989, Page 11

Comedy series was a hit in Australia

The show which rock-, eted to the top of the ratings in Australia last year, “The Comedy Company,” starts tonight at 7.30 on Two. With characters like Kylie Mole, the 13-year-old schoolgirl philosopher, David Rabbitborough, Con Dikaletous the Fruiterer, Col’n Carpenter and Uncle Arthur, the show became the hit of the year in 1988 and is now into its second season in Australia.

In August 1987 Network Ten commissioned actor Mark Mitchell and writerproducer lan McFadyen to develop the show. McFadyen writes, performs in and produces the show.

“For months I searched for a kindred spirit that I could write and perform with and much to my surprise I found her living in the same house and in fact I had been married to her for two years,” says McFadyen. His ideal comedy-mak-ing partner, Maryanne Fahey, had been under his nose all the time. “As a child I was shy, daggy, had a big forehead and huge glasses,” says the woman who has become a household name as Kylie Mole. “I won second prize in an Irish dancing competition in grade two, but there were only three of us in the class. After that I became briefly popular when I found I was good at charades in grade five,” says Fahey. The man who developed the character of the Greek fruiterer, Con Dikaletous, Mark Mitchell describes himself as a quiet, undemonstrative,

dull sort of person. “My mother-in-law told me recently about a schizophrenic friend of hers who is utterly obsessive and who becomes totally fixated on a certain course of action. It’s funny, but I felt I had a lot in common with him.” Viewers are warned to prepare themselves for a barrage of over-the-top Aussie characters. There is the convoluted courtship of Sharon and Darren and Australia’s favourite uncle, whose chief passions in life are home movies and “a big slice of Auntie Dawn’s muesli slice.” The united consciousness of middle suburbia is represented by Trevor and Glenda who have an uncanny ability to read each other’s thoughts and

finish each other’s sentences.

No-one and nothing is sacred to the show. lan McFadyen has developed a character called David Rabbitborough, a naturalist and broadcaster who documents everyday lives from a scientific point of view. Topics such as the evolution of the Venetian blind and the ecosystem of the local laundrette are presented in a way that leaves everyone breathless, especially David.

Then there is the alltime loser Col Carpenter and the “shopping bags,” Beulah and Queenie, two expatriate housewives who detest anything which is not British. This includes Australians, sunglasses and “people with tickets on themselves.”