It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload, the podcast Past Deep Aline.
Welcome back guys to TV Reload. As you may know, my name is Benjamin Norris and this is your podcast to get all the inside goss on the popular TV shows you may be watching from around the world. Undeniably, our TV sets are a major part of our home entertainment, and yet very little is known about how our favorite
shows get made. So each episode, I've been finding guests that want to dive just that little bit deeper into the shows they're currently making, so that you can hear all their exclusive stories and gain access to the biggest names in Australian television. I want to thank you for downloading or subscribing to this podcast. I love hearing your feedback, so make sure you leave a review or a comment
on your chosen podcast platform. This chat, I'm joined by entertainment reporter Peter Ford, who many of you would know from decades of reporting the entertainment news on television and radio. Peter Ford is someone who has managed to navigate many changes to the landscape of Australian media. He has a keen interest in the Royals, covers the old from the Oscars and has a lot of our biggest celebrities on
speed dial. I personally have followed his career since I was a teenager, and over the years we have forged a friendship. Peter is always a phone call away with plenty of support and encouragement, and it's fair to say that he's a pretty good friend. Forty, as he is affectionately called, is currently on Sunrise in the Morning show five days a week, both on Channel seven, and he also has a big contract with Channel nine across a
number of their biggest radio programs. I will ask why he has been so private with his personal life, considering as a job publicly discussing the private lives of many celebrities. I will find out how he prepares these news stories and if there is a process to getting these stories one hundred percent accurate. We will also talk about some of those public clashes that he's had with many a celebrity, from the state Premier of Victoria to Lisa Wilkinson and
recently comedian Dan Illick. Plus, we will get plenty of exclusives from behind the scenes of being an entertainment journalist, and we will get a look into the life of a very young Peter Ford. Anyway, guys, let's bring forty into the podcast, and I hope you enjoy this very raw and honest episode of TV Reload.
Curd A, Ben, It's nice to sit down and talk to you face to face in a well socially many times, of course, but now in a work situation.
Well, after years and years of you're saying no to sitting down and doing a podcast about yourself, what's changed?
Because here we are.
I don't know, You've got you finally wore me down. I don't do a lot, and I don't mean that to sound grand in any kind of way, but I'm just not very publicity focused. I don't particularly like it or want it or need it. But I'm not trying to be grand when I say that. I'm actually very boring, which you probably will discover it. So I guess I'm shy as well. So I say no to almost everything.
And the few things that I have done over the years is usually with people I know personally, and they've been so persistent and I've come up with so many excuses to put it off, but in the end, I think, oh God, just do it, you know, So here I am.
I'm all your it is strange because for you, I mean, a large part of your life is talking about other people's personal lives, and there's very little out there for us to know about yourself.
Yeah. Well, I only discovered last week there's a Wikipedia page. I stand on heart. I had no idea it even existed. I'm too scared to look at it because I already know there's a lot of stuff in there that's not true or is grossly exaggerated, and I wouldn't even know how to begin to go about changing it. But yeah, I guess it is odd in that sense. I suppose it's also odd. You know, most people who do work on television, they enjoy publicity and they see it as
part of their job and all that. And I don't, you know, I don't go out socially. I don't go to opening nights. You never see me on a red carpet, all those things. I'm a little bit of a strange cat in many ways. And I certainly, I guess also compared to say, other people that do similar work to me, like Richard and Angela, you know, they are very high profile and they do publicity and stuff. So I work
on a different basis. So I guess ultimately I think myself as the storyteller rather than the story And in fact, this is going, this is getting into a couch stuff, lying on the couch, talking to my shrink. But many many years ago, when I was very young, when I got a job producing Burt Newton Show, actually I was very young, and a local newspaper that used to exist call TV Scene did a story about me, about this
young kid has got this amazing job and whatever. And I proudly showed this to my mum and she said, oh, do you really think it's very appropriate to be talking about yourself in a newspaper? And I thought, oh, maybe it's not. That kind of soured me for the last or thirty five forty years.
Well, it's interesting that you say that. I often write personal things on my Facebook, or I'll do interviews and my mum will also listen to them, and she'll say, you share too much information about yourself, you know, And I think that's maybe generational.
Well, you're younger, so you kind of of that mentality where you put it out there. I'm a much more private person in all sorts of ways, although oddly enough to tag to that story about my mum, who's no longer with us, is that when I was clearing up all her stuff in the nursing home, which was horrible, you know, very traumatic thing to have to do, but most of at some point have to do it. And I found these boxes of various clippings and things that
she had kept through the years. So although she always didn't want me to be in this profession, she right up until the end she was still saying. I read an article about old age university students. I said on m I think the ship has sailed. I don't think it's going to be happening now, but thank you for your constant criticism and advice.
It's interesting with parents because you're always trying to impress them. I guess what was it that your mum wanted you to do instead?
Oh anything, The priesthood would probably be number one, followed by law, followed by medicine, anything. They kind of didn't mind the concept. In the end. I think they were okay with it all, but it wasn't certainly not how they saw playing. And I guess because there was no guarantee that I was ever going to get anywhere, it wasn't and still is a business full of rejection, and in the early days I took more than my share
of that. So yeah, I guess there was probably fears for me rather than anything else where.
Did you start out because did you always have entertainment in your blood? Did you always see yourself working in this industry in some way?
Well? Yes and no. I mean I'd always had an interest in the celebrity stuff and the show business stuff, and I also always had an interest in journalism because I was literally the kid at the news agency waiting for TV week copies to arrive. There used to be another thing in Melbourn years ago called TV scene, which was pre Prior to that, it was a thing called Listener. In TV there was the Truth newspaper. They had a lot of show business stories that arrived on Mondays and Thursdays.
So I would literally be there waiting for the truck to arrive because I wanted to be first with the news. I'm talking about eleven and twelve year old kid. I mean, it's pretty weird.
Not so weird.
I started getting the TV Week delivered to my house in nineteen ninety one.
I was eleven.
Was that fascination I guess was built then because I used to be able to go and see shows. I used to hang around stage doors of theaters. I used to hang outside radio stations and get autographs. I've got autographed books of I look through them actually a few years ago, and half of the people whose autographs I have no idea who they were, no idea, but at the time I obviously wanted that autograph and I got it, and it probably meant something to me at the time.
So I want to ask you, how does young Peter go from being a little bit of a fanboy to getting into journalism.
Yeah, so that fascination was always there, but then getting into journalism was hard. I've got a box full of rejection letters and from all the big obvious places, but even sort of places that are left field, like two tam Tamworth and no, we don't want you. So that's very grounding to keep those sort of letters.
Yeah, I don't think that people who are a part of the insta famous family really understand the hard yards that needed to be made back in the day. I mean, even when I did Big Brother, I got a sense that you know, the people on that show and shows around me were all hoping for a golden ticket to a media career. I guess I'm a little bit guilty of that too.
You obviously pursued a radio career pretty much instantly, wasn't it.
Or Yeah, I'd already been doing red carpet, Yeah.
Exactly, so you were still the halfway in any way. Yeah. But for a lot of the people who and it's a legitimate path these days to get into the media or getting to become a celebrity is to obviously go on reality TV. That's the fast track now, and it's a whole different ballgame to what it was, for better or for worse, a different ballgame to what it was thirty forty years ago.
If you look at the type of celebrity that we have now though, you think about you know, comedians and reality TV people, that's a far way away from probably the people that originally fed you to work in this industry.
There's so many now, I mean, I literally can't keep up with all the celebrities, And to be honest, I'm lucky in as much as and I've just got to focus on the ones who are of interest to my audience, whether it's appearing on television every day. Obviously we have a certain audience and they have certain interests. And then on radio, so you know, thankfully I don't have to obsess too much about TikTok stars or Instagram stars or
you know. I need to be conscious as best I can of who they are, but I don't have to focus on them. That's why it's almost impossible now to go and do a red carpets. Well, I really don't do them anymore. Is because they're just too many people and you just see people you think, I've got no idea who that person is, and because they are very famous in their certain sphere or their demographic or whatever, but you just can't keep up with everybody. It's too hard now. It's funny.
I sometimes see, you know, your commentary of some of those people, like reality TV people, comedian and some of these new age celebrities, and you can be a little bit critical on them.
Is there any kind of animosity?
There?
Is there? Some sort?
I think so, But I mean some of them are not really talented. They're famous or infamous and there you know, they might be on our TV screens every night, you know, take maths for example, but that doesn't mean, they're talented, and I guess I probably, but you know, I accept that you don't have to have any qualifications to become a celebrity. You don't have to have any talent, you know, anyone not exactly. So yeah, I hope, I don't hope.
I accept that things have changed. But if you ask me, in all honesty, do I have more interest in Dame Judy Dench or the girl from Maths? So I probably would go for Dame Judy Dench, me too, thank you. Case closed.
I think it's interesting to look back at the stars that were probably around when you got started. I mean, who were the people that people were interested back then? Who were you fascinated with?
Well, it was the people you saw on free to air TV. I mean, we'd always had a culture of sports stars, football stars becoming stars as well, but yeah, it was the people you saw on free to air TV. It was the first you saw on the Graham Kennedy Show or the Penthouse Club or the Ernie Sigley Show, or the star of the current hot soapy. You know, it was pretty well defined, and there weren't that many
of them. There might have been, I don't know. If we went back, say, thirty years, there might have been I reckon thirty maybe forty people who were household names in Australian entertainment, putting music to one side. Now you've got hundreds and you see that at the logis, And I guess that's the point I'm making, is you know something. At the logis, I look at the people arriving and I don't know who a lot of them are because
you just can't keep up with it all. But so back then, it was much more defined as to how you became famous, and the bulk of those people were genuinely talented people. Talent inasmuch as they were funny, or they could sing, they could dance, or they could add. Now you don't need to necessarily have any of those things when you're.
Putting together who you're going to talk about every day? How do you qualify that these days? Do you talk to a producer? Are you producing your own self? How do you work out who Australia wants to hear about?
Yeah? Well, a lot of it's gut feel. I mean, you can do easy things like go and see what's trending on Twitter as well, and I do that, and I have to be very conscious and I do work at it to not be locked in a time zone of the past. You know, I need to be current as best I can and as much as I need to be to deliver for the audience I'm working to.
You know, I do a whole bunch of different radio stations around Australia and some days there will be some stories that are kind of universal in every radio station wants to hear about it. But then there'll be other stories that come up and I look at it and think, oh, no, Triple m in Hiabat wouldn't give us stuff about that. To GiB and Sydney will care about that, three aw will like that. You know. So you've got as best you can tailor it and curate it if you like,
for the audience you're working to. But there are certain topics that are universal and they're completely newsworthy and nobody would argue with that. TV is a little bit easier
because we know who we're working to. And so yeah, to answer your question, basically, when I wake up in the morning early, I'm really excited by the day ahead because I'm always curious about what's happened overnight, and then I've got to look at those things and not think, well that I'm interested in that, you know, but the public may not be, the audience may not be. So I've got to pick out what will work for the audience, particularly on TV, because then you've also got to have
something to show. You've got to have vision or a clip or something. So yeah, it's a bit of a job each morning trying to work out what fits where and what people will respond to. But I also do have other people who helped me, particularly with television radio, I'm largely left to my own devices. I tell them what I want to talk about and they go with it.
I think I like you a little bit more in radio because I feel like you have a little bit more license to be yourself.
Yeah, a bit more of your own spin on the story.
I can, I guess I can pick my own passion projects for radio and things I feel I want to. You know, I still have to be conscious of the audience. Mean, I can't just talk about stuff that interests me. We're going to talk about lizam An Alley all morning or something, but so I need to be conscious that. But I have working here on the morning show. I have now for the last eight years, I've had a whole series of young female producers who have been so good and
good reality check. You know when you mentioned a name and they stare at you blankly and have no idea what you're talking about. So you think, oh, okay, well I've got to be conscious of that. And then I
have a very good executive producer, Chloe Flynn. I have a director of morning television who oversees Morning Show and Sunrise, which I also do, and that Stair Since Stinson, and she's like a Spengalian And for me, when she hired me years ago, I didn't want to do any more TV, and she talked me around and because every other television show I've done they wanted me to be different. They've wanted me to what I am. They want me to be John Michael House and or they wanted me to
do it. And she said, I want you to be you. If I wanted those people, I would have hired them. So that was the most beautiful thing I ever heard in terms of giving me confidence to just go on and be myself. So yeah, I've been very fortunate in that respect. My whole life is based on a lot of luck.
They always say, it's luck, chance and circumstances. It'll get this.
Yeah.
Well, you know, I one of my great mentors was the comedian Joan Rivers, and I had a very wonderful relationship with her, and she always said to me that luck is simply preparation meeting opportunity.
It's a good way to look at it.
Yeah.
I think what's interesting about you is that you're always paid to do the work that you do, and I think that you've maintained that. I think that's interesting because there's been so many people in your industry who would love to do your job and would do it for free.
And kill me in the process and throw me into the whole Leve Doug. Yeah, look, I'm part men of the US Old to work for free, you know. I just I get calls still to this day, particularly when there's a major story breaks. You know, some radio station will ring me from Madaiser or something and so will you come on here? And I said, no, not for free,
I won't. And I feel sad sometimes saying it because sometimes they're very polite, and you know, I know what it's like to be a radio producer trying to get content and you haven't got a budget and all that stuff. But yeah, I just am too old now to start working for free. I've got nothing to prove. I'm not auditioning for anything. I don't need any more work. So, you know, very occasionally, if someone I know rings me, I'll do it as one off favor.
But you did it for me once.
Oh yeah, a regional radio and yeah, I rang you and you said, is there a budget? I said no, and you were pretty much like, well, this is a ones off one, so off enjoy.
Yeah, you're right. There are a lot of people out there who will do it for free, and good luck to them. But I've always had the feeling too, if you start working for free, they're not going to suddenly start paying it.
Well, the's hard to jump to go from exactly you know what I mean? Why would they pay you and they know you're already doing it for you.
So I always say to people when they're in that situation, and sometimes people ask for advice, and I just say, look, say to them that you know, do one or two if you have to, but that's it. And then say, look, get your sales department to go out and find a sponsor for it, and that way you can pay me. It's not costing their radio station anything.
But you know what's funny to me is, you know, with all the people that would love to do what you do, they sort of come and go. You kind of hinted at it before. Do you think maybe some of the magic goes and when they realize it's not about them. Yeah, and it is about the story that people get bored with it and they then look for ways to get attention elsewhere. I mean, why hasn't anyone ever been as successful as you in this space?
Yeah? Well, I mean there are obviously people who do similar stuff, like Richard and Angela. But in terms of, you know, the way I've positioned myself, I guess I am there's no one really to compare. But I suppose I'm odd also in that, you know a lot of people who want to start doing this stuff, they really want to be on the First Night lists. They want to have celebrity friends. You know, I don't want any of that.
I don't have one at the end of the day.
No, exactly, I've got celebrity enemies. That's what I've cot through the years. You know, I guess without sending wanky about it. I guess I'm considered myself just a really hard working journalist in the same way that I would be covering if I was covering the events in Canberra, if I was covering sport here, I would give it the same due diligence and research, you know, as I do to what I currently do.
People have tried to make you a celebrity sometimes. I mean, I know for a fact that you've been offered I'm a celebrity. Get me out of here before those sort of celebrity opportunities have come along and you've said no to them.
Yeah, well, I think it was an availability check. I don't there was nothing put in front of me this. I mean, my first question would have been how much? But actually I couldn't the availability check come back with a no anyway because both my parents were dying at the time. But I would love to do that one more weird although having seen Kerrie kind would make me think twice now I think, but although she played.
That very badly, she played that very bad.
And I love Kerry and she's a very good friend and she has been for decades, and I think she was treated appallingly by that uncouth woman more should have been done to reprimand her. You know, I hope that's not going to be the defining thing that people remember Kerry Anne for, because you know, she's so much better than that. But I'm sure even retrospect she probably thinks so, I don't think that was a great move.
What would you say is your career highlight on a story that you've broken, Not to say that it got the most amount of traction, but something that you were particularly proud of, that it was exclusive to you and you did a good job of executing it.
Well, not proud of it. Probably almost the opposite. But I guess that the one moment in my career that I thought, oh this is big and I'm about to break it was the night at Newton died, and that obviously I had a personal connection with Bert and I knew things were pretty grim, and I knew it was a matter of time. But I remember very vividly. It's one of those things, you know, when your brain almost
takes a photograph. I remember sitting in a bar at up at Hepburn Springs, was about eight o'clock on a Saturday night, and my phone rang, and I just looked down and it said Patty, and I knew instantly. Instantly I knew, and I answered it, and she said, you know, Bert's gone, and I'd like you to announce it. So she gave me a few details, and she was obviously upset,
and it was like he'd been gone fifteen minutes. And so I thought, well, I probably the best thing to do is put out a tweet, and so I composed the tweet. I really checked the spelling of it and grammar and all that stuff, and I thought this is
going to be big, but I had no idea how big. Like, I pressed the tweet, and I guarantee, within thirty seconds, my phone was going ballistic with every journal I knew, every news room, you know, wanting more details, and I didn't really have a lot more detail, to be very honest.
So I guess, in one sad way, that was a story that I won't forget because it had personal implications as well, because I felt a closeness to Bert and to Patty, and I six months earlier had broken the story that, with their permission, that he'd had his leg amputated, and that was sad enough in itself, but the reasoning behind that was that was going to buy him more time, and the hope and the belief was that he'd be able to go home and live at home and may
have had another seven eight nine years of living at home quite happily, albeit without one leg. And Paddy had downstairs totally renovated the downstairs of the house and what was the garage had been made a den with a bathroom for still accommodate the fact that he wasn't fully able, So all that was taking place, and that was the hope and the belief that was going to happen. But something went terribly wrong, and at one point it looked like his other leg was going to be amputated as well,
but that didn't happen, and sadly he died. So Yeah, I guess pressing send on that tweet, I guess it's ironic given my whole life has been working on television and radio, that that was a story that I actually broke on Twitter.
It's the modern way of breaking stories, and I think, you know, there's only a small window of time before that kind of story gets out. Yeah, I think, knowing Patty as well as I do, I think that that would have been a conversation with Bert as to who was going to release that. Yeah, and that's a testament to your relationship with some celebrities. Yeah, some not all, you know the celebrities that absolutely loath here exactly.
Yeah, well, obviously with Bert and Patty, that was a connection that goes back to when I was a teenager and got really my first big significant break. So and that you know that relationships has stayed through the years.
It is very interesting because you have these relationships with someone as big as Burden Patty and you had their trust, You have Patty's trust, But then there's so many other celebrities that absolutely loathe you with what you do, and you yourself will even admit that you've got plenty of enemies. How can you have the trust of one but not of another, Like, what is the disconnect there?
Look, I guess only they could answer that there. I know, I'm conscious that some people don't like what I do. I guess probably the belief is you report show business celebrities, you should play along with the press release, you should say everything's wonderful. You should never question what I do or and I do.
Not the news.
Yeah, well no, it's not how I work, And so I know there are people, and particularly during the Me Too movement when that was really at its peak a few years ago, a lot of people were coming after me because I believe and I'm not going to change that people are innocent until they've proved to be guilty. An allegation is just that it's got to be properly tested. I don't this stuff that went on about all women
must be instantly believed. I just think is nonsense. It's not practical, it's cruel, and thankfully that thinking, I think has subsided. But you know, that was a hard time because a lot of well there were careers that have been permanently damaged, if not ended, as a result of that, and accusations sometimes that were never proved to be true or false. So it was an interesting time to be
reporting on celebrities during that. I mean, it's those sort of stories are still ongoing, obviously, but it seems to at least past its peak, because I think there was a frenzy attached to it that made it all become mean and unfair.
There is a sense because you do offer an opinion along with the news, that sometimes you leave yourself wide open for scrutiny that can only be because you don't have the full story maybe and that you have maybe hurt someone's feelings. To avoid that, how do you make sure that you've qualified your sources and that there is due diligence done to the particular story. You know, what is the Peter Ford process to avoiding getting a story wrong or being you know, on the wrong side of history.
Yeah, well, I guess the first thing is it's a gut reaction to think, yeah, that sounds like it might be right. The easy option for me is if and when it involves people, I know that I can ring them direct and ask. The third option is then you've got to start ringing you know, publicity people or legal firms,
all that kind of hard slog. But you know, if you're doing a story that potentially can be very damaging, not to a career, not just hurtful for a day, but actually damage or destroys someone's career, you know clearly you've got to be absolutely certain of what you're doing and how you phrase it too, because we've seen that the blowback that some of those stories have had not
to me. I mean, I've had people come after me because they've been unhappy with stories I've done or comments I've made, but I've never ended up in court.
Which is pretty amazing considering how long you've been in the business. I mean, I just heard the other day the worst thing that you can do is accidentally report someone is dead, which we recently saw in the media. Surely that can happen and must have happened to you at some point.
Yeah, I played with my brain that whole story. That was really dark, very dark. I've only killed off someone once.
Okay, well tell me about it.
Be my fault, and it was a long, long time ago. Seriously it was. But it's actually it's on that Wikipedia page that I've never seen. And it's the thing. Whenever I'm in some controversy, people always got to look up Google my name and this thing comes up, and what happened. I don't even remember the name of the actress. But one morning the producer of Neil Mitscher Show three a
w Rangney and said, Vera Fanakapan's died. I said, oh, that's a shock, because she actually had been here a couple of weeks or months earlier selling sheets or something, so she was sort of in people's minds and they said, oh, you come on here and talk about it. And I did. And this is how far back it is. This is even like pre googling things or going online. So it's twenty five years or more ago. And I went on air and did this off the cuff tribute to the woman.
Because we then ten minutes they bring back I said, oh, she's not dead. I said, well, you told me she's dead. It's like trusted you.
You're going to hate this.
But you know, there was a time where you actually got in contact with me and thought that Bert Newton was dead, you know, a couple of years before it all happened, and you'd been up most of the night putting together your notes. You know, you just happened to text me in the morning privately before saying anything or you know, obviously doing some checking.
Do you remember this story?
Yeah? Yeah, I know. Look, the death thing is a weird one, and social media allows that, and we've seen numerous examples of it publically owned up to mine. But because you know, Richard has a famous one, I think which you might have too, doesn't.
Hell, I mean, we shouldn't laugh, you know.
I think it's important for me to say at this point that I've been. I have been in your audience for a very long time and have revered your work, even though at times have not always agreed with your point of view. How do you cope with the criticism because I know at times it can be fairly brutal, especially on platforms like Twitter.
Well it is. It's also hard to take criticism, particularly when it's not particularly when it's anonymous, obviously, and I don't have any problem with people being critical of me. I don't like it. I mean, who would, But you've got to have a reasoning why it can't just be you know, I didn't like what she said. And see a lot of this stuff does play it on Twitter, and I for the most part laugh at the Twitter stuff. I find it all quite amusing. And a thing last
week did actually get to me. And that's really the only time that I've been affected by Twitter in sense of mental health.
Was it a pundon? Was it just a comment on social media?
That was the reason, part of the reason why it was a comedian called dan Ilick. Okay, yep, And out of the blue, I started getting all these tweets saying I've never heard of Peter Ford. I thought, oh, that's odd, and I replied a couple and I said, I'll just
google his name. It's all there. And this kept coming up over like six seven hours, like hundreds of them, and eventually I took a bit more interest and I found out this Dan Illick had decided to set all his followers on to me, to tweet to me, to say I don't know who Peter Ford is or something, and it upset me in eye. Contacted Dan and I said, look, what's your problem? And he said, oh, you said that
about me on a Current affair fifteen years ago. And I said, well, you know, and I think I said this publicly on Twitter, I have no recollection of that. If I hurt your feelings, I'm really sorry. But at some point you've got to move on. And anyway, this went on and on, but it almost got to eighteen hours, I think, and in the end I thought, you know, I've got to try and find out what I said.
So I pulled in some strings and I actually got the script from a Current Affair, the transcript where all the editor's notes are of what grabs they use and what I said and whatever. I never said that at all. And I contacted Dan Illick and said, look, Dan, I actually posted up online. I posted up that script, and suddenly at least all his followers stopped, and he stopped to his credit. But you think, even if I had said that, are you truly hanging on to that for
fifteen years? And it was about a musical he'd written. It all started to come back to me after I saw the script. It was about a musical that he'd written or maybe co written, about the death of the journalist Richard Carlton, and a current affair of doing a story, oh shock, horror and all this, and you know, I went along with it. All. I did say something about there's nothing funny about this, or it's too soon, or whatever I said, but I didn't say what he claimed i'd said.
But it's so funny when you look at trolling on social media and how much negativity is on there, don't you think that it's not an accurate representation of what the general public think?
Well, totally, I've come to that conclusion. But certainly, when you are on the receiving end of that sort of ti rade or that sort of pylon, you feel like the whole world is coming up. I did on that occasion, and I did a couple of weeks earlier, oddly enough, or when the premiere of Victoria criticized me. But oddly enough, they are the only two occasions in what Twitter's been around fifteen years or so.
But probably you have a thick enough skin.
Yeah, it's strange to me to think that those particular instances. I mean, I guess that Dan Andrews the premiere and don't want to up the premier, and there might be a bit of ego in that one.
Well, I wasn't upset any of it. I was quite honored the premiere would take time to criticize me, but I knew the story I reported was right and he didn't like it. And of course, subsequently I was one of those classic dilemmas where you can't name your sources, so I had to wait it out. And sure enough the information came out about the details of Barry Humphrey's funeral, and my information was quite right. The Victorian government is not involved at all. So that and you got all
these crazy tweets from angry people like crazy Dan Andrews followers. No, I'm not particularly political at all. I've got no positive or negative feelings about him. Whatsoever. But all these crazy people on his behalf were coming after me, and the Dan Illiq one was upsetting because it was a person in the industry who was deliberately choreographing this to happen, and as it turns out, based on something that didn't happen anyway. Dan, only two people who've upset me seriously
on Twitter. I both called Dan, I'm going to watch out.
But the Barry Humphreys State Funeral saw you at odds with the state Premier, and I worked it out that I thought that you had a source that was closer to the truth than what Daniel Ane Andrew's had. But I think both of you spoke to someone who was in that family, and I think there was probably truth on both sides of it.
Well, yes, no, I mean the Premier himself had said a couple of days earlier that there are differing opinions within the family. You know, ultimately they're all greeting in their own way, sure, but they're doing it differently. I mean, Oscar didn't even go to his father's funeral, so you know, yes, he contacted the Premier Victoria, but his mindset is quite different, and the Premier didn't actually say what it was that Oscar had said to him in that lengthy text that
he got. And look, my only point was I'd said that Barry Barry had left very clear instructions the Victorian government was not to be involved in his funeral or memorial, and that's the family was simply carrying out those wishes. And in fact, a couple of days after that all happened, one of his closest friends, a man called Ross Fitzgerald, wrote a letter to the editor at the Sidney Morning Herald.
He's a very famous historian and author and he probably is Barry's a friend of over sixty years, and he confirmed that the Barry had left those clear instructions. So you know, that was an odd one. You don't expect to have the premiere of Victoria in a hard hat and a viz outfit attacking me.
Did you think, though, that Barry was right and to say that maybe that the government should have stepped in with the Comedy Festival Melbourne Comedy Fest.
Yeah, well that's what Barry believed.
What did you think.
I honestly don't know what the protocol is. It may not have been an appropriate thing for the premier to do. It might have been against the etiquette or whatever.
I don't know, you know, you, I think there was other things at the time.
Yeah, exactly. So, Yeah, I don't know the answer to that, but certainly Barry was of the belief that someone should have come to help him.
What about when these things go down? Do you hold a grudge at all?
I hope not. Am I going to give you a free kick after you've been mean to me?
No?
Am I that's going to go. Am I going to go out of my way to you know, get payback? No? I don't think so. This news cycle moves too quickly. All I care about is the content for that day and the next day, you know. And if it means I've got to suddenly cozy up to someone who I was fighting with the week before, I can do that. It's not a problem, you know. And I think people, most people in the industry know you've got to take the good with the bad. It's not always going to
be plain sailing. And you know, if I do criticize you one week, I'm probably going to go and praise you up for something else the week after.
I was listening to one of your radio segments, and I did talk about this before, saying that I think in radio land you allow yourself to be a little bit more yourself. But when you were talking about the Stan Grant situation at ABC and the country was all talking about it, you made this parallel which I thought was interesting for you, and that was to say that the racism that Stan has faced over the years, that racism can be paralleled or compared to homophobic comments that
people have made about yourself. I've never heard you confirm your sexuality publicly. And two, I've pretty sure that you would agree that racism is quite different to homophobia. So I kind of felt like that argument landed with a bit of a thud.
Yeah. Well, firstly, I'm not trying to put myself into Stan Grant's league. I mean, whatever stuff he's been getting is a thousand times whatever I would get. And the point I guess I was trying to make is if you go after somebody because of their opinions, that's part of what we do now, that's part of the game. But if you're going after someone simply because of the way they were born, whether that's being an indigenous person, whether it's being gay, then that's just not fair, and
it's also I think that is hurtful. Now, of course, in the case of Stan, you know, I don't know what every single thing that's sent to him, you know, I'm sure I see ten percent of what's sent to him. And some of the criticism may be fair and maybe valid, and maybe people think he is an idiot, then that's fine. But obviously he is of the belief that some of it, if not a lot of it, is purely racist based,
and I think that's disgusting. I mean, you know, just today I was reporting about the fact that he couldn't go to Cans to take up this job of being a keynote speaker because of dangers and threats to him. That's a very sad situation for Australia to be in twenty twenty three, you know, very sad. So yeah, I think when you basically play the man rather than the ball, then that's as low as you can go. And it's not an argument anyway that that is just abuse. But
you know, I don't get that much of it. But when I do, most of the time, because it's from anonymous trolls, you just laugh it off. But as for myself, you haven't heard me talk about being gay before, because I haven't in the same way that you know, you haven't talked. You've never heard me talk about anything about myself other than my dogs. Occasionally I put up dog pictures. It's the least interesting part of my life. And I
don't talk about private stuff anyway. But nor do I anyway want to go to some attempt to, you know, pretend that I'm not gay or anything like that.
I get it because that isn't really the issue, and I can relate to this as well. It isn't that you have an issue with turning up to all the old GBTI events. It's just that you don't really like any event.
Well, I just hate crowds, so I'm not going to go to anything where there's a crowd. But no, I've got that. I think those things are great. If people want to go to it and do it, that's fantastic, But it's just not me.
I think I'm less and less social and I'm less and less inclined to go to things. I think there was a point where I said to you, are you're going to the Channel seven upfronts or you know which I thought you would you're on the network. You're like, no, I go to that, And then I would be like, are you going to anyway? The whole list of media events that I would assume that you would be out, yeah, and you are like.
No, Look I went to more things when I was your age. I so like an old grandpart. But now you know if you guarantee, if you said to me, I guarantee if you go to this event tonight, you'll get two great stories that you can use tomorrow on radio and TV, I'll go. But I found increasingly the things I would go, I've got nothing out of it. I got no material to use. And I thought, if it's a choice between that or being at home watching TV with my dogs, I'd rather be at home watching TV.
Anyway. I digress.
So, but I want to talk to you about a particular famous showdown that I thought you managed, BOYD, and that was between Something really strange in Australia is that you can't be on two different networks. And for you, you were able to negotiate being on Channel seven for television and Channel nine for radio and then making those two gigs work would have been fairly interesting for you.
Yeah.
Again, Well, it's.
A good question, actually, and I am as a somewhat unusual position. I agree to be contracted to both the seven and nine network, and I worried me at first when Nine took over the radio stations, the major talkstations that I'm on, I thought, oh, no, they're going to pressure me to do this and say that. And the same when I started doing seven every morning on the morning show and quite often on Sunrise, I thought the
same thing. Well, I must be paranoid, because I hand on heart, neither of them have ever once said to me do that, or, more to the point, don't do that. In fact, they've given me several occasions they've given me exclusive stories because of those positions, but they've never once tried to tell me to avoid a story, not once, And that would be a difficult position for me if
they did. I mean, there have been some big stories around that I've chosen not to do it because I just haven't thought they were particularly interesting to the audience, or it's a little bit in or and you know, both networks that had their share of scandals and things going on, but I've been able to avoid them because I just didn't believe they are of interest to the network or to my audience.
Have you been told before though by these networks you're getting closed to the line?
No, not once. No. In fact, I used to get more of that stuff when I actually wasn't contracted to either of them. It was almost like intimidation on occasion, just going back in time now, but having become con I mean, I guess I probably I might make a judgment sometimes and think, oh, you know, I maybe I'll withhold that, or maybe I don't need to do that. But I've never once ever, just I've never not done a major story out of any kind of fear of
where my pay packet's coming from. And as I say, you know, more importantly to me, I've never, if I in any way been told to do or not do a story. And that's a credit to both of the networks. Only the only time once was I had a call from someone pretty high up last year in nine Radio. They didn't anyway stop me doing a story, but they said, just be really careful that everything you say you know is one hundred percent right, because I know these people
want to go for you. And they said, but you know, don't not do it, but just be certain otherwise we're all going to end up in the shit.
Do you have enemies though out there?
Do you think?
Oh?
I know I have people who've got but you know, people like Lisa Wilkinson, for example. There's people gag and they've got their own legitimate reasons for that. I've got no reason to tell them they're fools. I mean, they have their reasoning and the only thing I would like to think is with time, you kind of get over it. I've never destroyed anyone's career. I've called out certain stories.
You know, I've mentioned her name now, Lisa Wilkinson. I did not buy that story about her being stalked on Chapel Street for a whole bunch of reasons, and she didn't like it that I didn't go with it. That I did say, I don't think that's possible. I don't. That doesn't ring true to me to be supposedly stuck in a bar in Chapel Street too scared to leave because of a stalker. I mean, all she had to do was Channel ten is literally across the road. She had to ring them and say, can you can't send
a security guard? I want to get back. You know, it just didn't ring true, and sitting in the window of the bar, wouldn't And you're being stalked, wouldn't you ask the matre dad a movie to the back of the bab Anyway, I thought these were valid QUI Yeah.
But then you know, when you've called someone out on something that's not true and they're going to put their back up.
Of course they I mean, what's the in buzzword? Now? Their truth and everyone's got their truth. But sometimes you look at and you think, well, I know it's their truth, but it just doesn't stack up with any kind of facts or common sense. And that was one of those stories. I Mean, Lisa will say there are other occasions that I've gone after her, and probably there are, but you know, obviously the bigger you are one hundred percent, you know, I think if you're not talking about I noticed that.
I think it was a couple of people commented about me for a while, you know, because I was more prominent in the media, and so I was like, oh, this is it felt uncomfortable, and then it was someone who had been in the industry for a very long time said to me.
At least they're talking about it.
Yeah, exactly.
If they're not talking about you, then there's probably a problem. And if you know the truth, then yeah, it doesn't matter what other people think. Dear friends and family know the truth. And that's why I find it really strange when celebrities will come after entertainment journalists, because I think there is going to be times where things are a little bit you know, played out for television, bit of
TV magic in the story. I don't necessarily need think you need to throw the you know, your toys out of the pram.
Yeah, well, you know, unless something is truly malicious, and obviously if something is totally untrue, and if it's truly malicious and totally untrue, you should sue. You know, that simple as that. But yeah, look, I'm conscious there is a few other people who I'm in the bad books with as well. But that's okay, you know, it's fine. You know, I'm dishing it out. You know, I've got to take it back occasionally.
I remember you saying a couple of years ago, actually, I think you've been saying this every year for about five years, that you're going to retire. I know, and you had said to me, I'm going to move up north, and I felt like there's been a few times where you've thought about walking away from all of this. I still think you've got so much more gas left in the tank.
Yeah, I do. I usually around August September I have that feeling that, But you know what the truth is, I still love it. I still love it. I wake up in the morning. First five minutes, you're not so good, not so good. But once I'm out of bed, as soon as I'm brushing my teeth, I'm thinking, oh, I wonder what's happened. You know what's Prince Harry done? You know what shows have been axed over. I still I
can't wait to get online and see what's happening. I can't wait for the first phone call to come in, start my first radio report, which is usually about half as six in the morning. So yeah, I still get the buzz. I mean, there are like some days when there is nothing really happening and you've got to make boring things sound interesting. That's a challenge, But those days a few and far between, and it just I don't
know why. It is a I think I'm working harder than I ever have in terms of putting more effort in, but also there seems to be so many more show business stories that are now legitimate news stories, not just something that are on the gossip column pages, but stories that are on page one or page three. Plus we seem to have this incredible slew of deaths celebrity deaths
in recent years. Yeah, so every single days, there's so many great stories that I love getting my teeth into that I love to think I've still got something valid and interesting to say in reference to So whilst you probably if you see me again in August or September, I'll probably tell you again I'm moving to cans and giving it all up. But then ask me again in November and I will probably tell you I've resigned with everyone for back again.
You're back back, back against what I thought, and looking at you today, you're looking well. You're looking better than you've looked in years. So you've had a few health problems along the way. Your mom passed away by which I think was very hard, and these were really big obstacles I think for you to get over.
Do you feel that you've been able to put some.
Of that behind you, and that's a part of the reason why you're just excited as out I think that's.
Very interesting, very observant of you, and thank you. I do look great, but unfortunately, whilst God has given me that gift's given me terrible arthritis, blood pressure, insomnia. But anyway, you take the good with the bad. But yeah, look, I hopefully I still go to the gym every day, and so if you're going to be on camera, you've got to kind of you can't look like the wreck
of the Hespers. But I did have this period there of about three years where you know, both my parents died, and my sister died, my partner's parents both died, two dogs die, I had some very close friends die, and yeah, that was a rough time. And work was almost like my savior. Just coming into work got me out of that for a short period of time. I sat here an hour before my mother's funeral, went to a funeral
straight from here. I was here when I got a call this and my dad had died, and I stayed on and went on air because that was my escape and then you can focus on the real world after that. So then I kind of felt like I'd come out of that period of you know, being surrounded constantly by death. You know, people about to die. People have just died. And then we went into COVID, so which was an odd time for everybody. And I've got no complaints about it.
I mean, I lost some work, but I'm not complaining. But it was an odd time for everybody. So I just feel like this year we're kind of past COVID. I'm kind of through all the death cycle now and I can start to enjoy life again. And I am. I feel very energized by my work and also away from work as well. I'm spending more and more time up in the country.
But I think there's something really beautiful and something powerful in what you're talking about there. I think it is about connecting to something as powerful as the work that you have and being able to push through. Because I can honestly say this is the podcast so people can't see. But you know, I think you are looking better than ever,
and you know, I watch and absorb your work. I think it's better than ever think, you know, And I think that has a lot to do with your determination and your ability to hang on.
Yeah, well, I think that's good. It makes feel like I've got claws in the carpet and hanging on. But yeah, look, I decided if I'm going to do it, I'm never going to kind of just drift through it. I don't ever phone it in. I give it one hundred percent. And I want to be the best at what I do in my little sphere. And that's not knocking anybody else, but I want to be the best at the particular type of journalism that I do, you know, So yeah,
thank you. If I will one day stop, obviously at some point or other there'll be a tap on the shoulder. But I think I've got another lap left in me, whether that's two years or three years. If I wasn't working with really good people, I would chuck it in. But I'm working with great people on TV behind the scenes and on air as well. You know, Larry and Kylie are a great duo, and because Sunrise is an
extraordinary show to be on as well. And on radio, you know, I've got the pick of the best radio shows in the country, you know, the best shows in the country I'm on, so I've got I'm not working with any kind of you know, second rate people, and so I've got nothing to complain about.
So something I ask everybody who joins the podcast is what is something from behind the scenes, something that people wouldn't know about what it is that you do, kind of like a behind the scenes secret of Peter Ford and getting your stories say on to Channel seven.
In the morning. Ah, well, the biggest behind the scene secret is probably the filter on the camera, because if you've got a good filter on your camera, you can knock off a good ten years.
There's a filter on this.
Well, they don't do it. There's not actually a filter on it. You know. We make jokes about the vaseline of the expression and stuff, but they actually do it through master control where they can just make it look slightly foggy in the studio and yeah, so there are other people on this network who had it before me, and I said I want that, and so I now
have it. So the disappointing thing is a couple of years ago, a couple of weeks ago, I was down in Hobart and I had to do the show from Hobart and I couldn't have the filter there for whatever reason, and so I looked shocking and people are ring up saying, oh my god, he's got cancer, is dying, and it's like, no, that's actually the real me, you know, it's the illusion of television. So I feel have I given you enough?
I don't want you to run into Chrissy Swan and have her say, oh, I told you it was a prick, not at all.
You have definitely given me. I literally had been writing this since we spoke last week. There was questions in there that I one hundred percent wanted to know the answers to, and I've I felt like you gave me everything.
Well, you can have like an under the counter X rated edition for your followers, but thank you for asking me. You have so many wonderful writers and producers and directors and actors on the podcast. They feel very honored that you would want to include me. And you've put together the most extraordinary library of players in the TV game, particularly in the reality TV game. So you are you are creating something that is significant.
Well, thank you for saying that.
I mean, that's think if you're genuinely passionate about something, and I think that bleeds through. And I think some people have asked to do the podcast and probably thought why would I talk to this person? But then I usually will have, like I had with you conversations for a long time. You know, you build relationships with people. Yeah, but I mean it's very much like you know, the
stories that you would break. A large part of your success comes from the relationships that you've built behind the scenes.
Yeah, and look, you know, what is an important part of the industry. And as I say, you've covered so many aspects of the industry, Ultimately you've got to have height, You've got to have excitement about the product. And I guess I'm part of that. You know, I'm part of creating that hype and that excitement and certainly reporting on it. And it's a vital part of the industry.
And it took two hundred and sixty three episodes to get us here.
Yeah, but you didn't let me down.
Dreams do come true. I hope people don't think it will be so bloody grand, you know, saying but it's as I said at the very beginning, it's partly because I'm shy, it's partly because I'm pretty boring. But I'm pleased.
I said, yes, amazing, Well, thank you