The voice at the end of the phone is instantly recognisable. Warm, measured and undeniably positive. And the man behind the voice remains one of the most loved entertainers in Australia.
The show that made Daryl Somers one of Australia’s highest paid TV stars, Hey Hey It’s Saturday, ended its incredible 28-year run more than a quarter of a century ago, but that ending was just the beginning of a new chapter for Daryl.
He went on to win over a whole new generation of fans hosting Dancing With The Stars, only signing on in 2004 after executives agreed to change the name from the original British title, Strictly Come Dancing, to Dancing With The Stars.
Daryl then found even more success with two all new Hey Hey specials which he produced 10 years after the original show was axed – with an extraordinary four million-plus Aussies tuning in to both specials.
And now having just celebrated his 75th birthday, Daryl is re-writing the script again, creating his own new streaming channel for the millions of people who fell in love with Ossie Ostrich, Dickie Knee and Plucka Duck in the 70s, 80s and 90s.
“I guess a lot of people my age are slowing down, but I’ve never been busier,” Daryl tells Woman’s Day in an exclusive interview.
“Over the last couple of years our Facebook following has grown to over 850,000, so we are revamping Hey Hey TV to cater to the enormous interest in the show.”
60 YEARS IN SHOWBIZ
The TV legend has a lot to be proud of as he prepares to mark 60 years in showbiz since starting out all those years ago as a teenage drummer and vocalist in a high school band at Christian Brothers College St Kilda.
“I started playing drums when I was three, and I did my first gig at 15 after we formed a band to perform at CBC’s annual speech night in 1967,” he says.
The band proved to be a smash hit on the night despite the boys only having three Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass songs in their repertoire, and they were soon playing at school socials and eventually pubs all over Melbourne.
On the back of that success Daryl got his first TV break just months later when the Newbeat Brass appeared on the talent show, New Faces. “We won our heat and came second in the final, would you believe to John Williamson, an icon of Australian music and still going,” Daryl says.
With a fervent wish to develop his craft, Daryl embarked on three years of lessons with a former opera singer, before once again competing on New Faces, this time as a solo vocalist – and he won singing the Jimmy Webb ballad, Didn’t We.
“Twenty years later on Hey Hey I’m standing in the same spot in Studio 9 where I sang that song and leaning on a piano played by Jimmy Webb. That was a real moment in my career. Jimmy wrote Wichita Lineman and By The Time I Get To Phoenix and Frank Sinatra recorded Didn’t We,” he says.
PLAYING ALONG
Of course, by then Daryl had become a huge star in his own right on the back of Hey Hey It’s Saturday. He credits his mentor Ernie Carroll, Ossie’s right hand man, with helping to shape his early career.
Ernie auditioned Daryl to host a daily afternoon children’s TV show called Cartoon Corner in 1971 with Nine’s program manager Jim Mackay choosing Daryl ahead of hundreds of other hopefuls.
“I still get people who used to watch Cartoon Corner back in the 70s come up to me,” says Daryl, who reveals that he and Ernie didn’t even initially like the name Hey Hey It’s Saturday.
“When Jim named the show Hey Hey It’s Saturday, Ernie and I looked at each other and thought, that name will will never catch on.”
In the beginning Daryl shared Hey Hey It’s Saturday hosting duties with legendary Collingwood full forward, Peter McKenna, until the AFL legend failed to kick any goals after a particularly energetic morning in the studio.
“Collingwood stopped him from doing the show the following week – and he kicked 13 goals!” explains Daryl, laughing as he remembers Peter’s reaction at being replaced with a pink ostrich.
And that’s how Ossie Ostrich became one of our most beloved stars.
The combination of Daryl and Ossie – who was created, performed and voiced by Ernie – proved to be genius, and instead of just presenting cartoons, movies and competitions, the duo became the main act, and were often joined by singers like Marcia Hines.
Daryl also credits audio operator Murray Tregonning for creating the huge library of weird and wonderful sound effects, which featured strongly, and his “dear friend”, the late John Blackman, who was accidently roped into his starring role.
John, who died in 2024, was at the studio to record voiceovers for other programs when Daryl, knowing John was in the audio booth, asked him about the weather outside. “Our live banter just sort of grew from there,” Daryl says.
ICONIC CHARACTERS
With a non-working prop phone on the desk, fans will remember Daryl tentatively picking up that phone, never knowing which of John’s whacky character voices would be on the end of the line.
These characters included Dickie Knee (who eventually had a polystyrene head with black hair and a blue school cap to go with the voice), The Angel (a repurposed old Barbie doll) and a raspy voiced old woman called Mrs Macgillicuddy.
The much-loved Angel started life as a drawing of a little curly haired girl in a triangle dress, before the director’s wife put wings on a Barbie doll and John gave voice to the character, who gave updates on what it was like in heaven.
“We had no idea what Angel would have to say,” explains Daryl, who says Mrs Mac started life as a photo of a very old lady with a wrinkled face, before John also gave her a voice, and she became a regular caller from Upper Kumbucta West.
“It was all imagery and fun and we enjoyed the total ad-lib nature of it.”
The most beloved of all the Hey Hey characters, was arguably Dickie Knee, who was born one morning when Daryl hit his knee on the desk, and said, “Oh, my goodness, I’ve got a Dickie Knee”.
“Straight away John, said gidday, I’m Dickie Knee,” Daryl says, adding that Krystal, the small props guy, and make-up artist Margaret created his head out of a foam wig holder, school cap, black wig and a broom handle.
Dickie would pop up, usually to say something rude to Daryl, with rapid fire banter laced with naughty double entendres which gave the mums and dads a laugh while leaving the kids scratching their heads.
“And then that begat his sister Ophelia Knee and Dickie’s dad Syd Knee. That’s how the various characters started to grow, providing an abundance of imagery and fantasy. We were just doing our own thing and whoever was watching, was watching.”
ENDURING HIT
Even before the show was moved to a primetime Saturday night slot in 1984, it had become a surprise hit with both kids and parents, regularly attracting huge stars like Sylvester Stallone, Tom Jones and Keanu Reeves.
“There are a lot of artists who came on the show at the start of their careers, including people like Kate Ceberano and Tina Arena. Suzi Quatro appeared so often she was like an honorary cast member,” he says.
“One of my favourite guests and musical heroes was Tom Jones, and I’ve since caught up with him for many dinners. But we also had Julio Iglesias, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Jackie Chan. There was an endless list of huge stars.”
It also proved to be a springboard for regular cast members like Jacki MacDonald, Russell Gilbert, Livinia Nixon, Jo Beth Taylor, Denise Drysdale, Red Symons, Wilbur Wilde and Molly Meldrum, and for frequent guests like Rhonda Birchmore, Brian Nankervis and the late great Ricky May.
Daryl created Red Faces as a tongue-in-cheek parody of New Faces, which gave him his first break, having no idea it would become so popular that it eventually became a spin-off show in its own right.
Hey Hey was still pulling in 1.2m viewers when it was axed in 1999, but fans remained utterly devoted, and an amazing four million-plus people tuned in when Nine aired two Hey Hey It’s Saturday specials 10 years later. The huge ratings led to a new season of 20 shows airing on Nine in 2010.
Six years later Hey Hey It’s Saturday was named the most popular Australian TV show of all time in a survey conducted for the 60th anniversary of Australian television in 2016.
The new Hey Hey TV streaming platform will replace an earlier version and will feature more than 800 episodes of Hey Hey It’s Saturday, and all the spin-off shows and specials.
Daryl, who will also be recording new material for members, is yet to reveal the starting date for the new channel but promises all will be revealed later this year on the Hey Hey Facebook page.
“I want to keep that special connection going with the vast and loyal Hey Hey mob, even if I have to point out to people sometimes that I’m not 105, and I’m still here!” he says. “And yes, I’m soon going to be back on TV – only this time, Hey Hey TV!”
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