327 – Blinky Bill Is On A Podcast

327 - Blinky Bill Is On A Podcast

Blinky Bill Is On A Podcast?

This week, we use the Fringe show, Blinky Bill Is On The Loose, as a reason to revisit the wonderful Koala character created by Dorothy Wall.

Michael Mills (who wrote the songs and oversaw Musical Direction), Chloe Bremner (who performed in the show and on the soundtrack), and Professor Chris Daniels (who captured the vision and decided this was a worthy project for Koala Life to support), all join Steve for a wonderful discussion under the gum trees and next to a cafe at Adelaide Botanic Garden.

We also talk to Dorothy Wall’s granddaughter, Janet Badgery, about her impressions of her iconic grandma.

And we talk to Robyn Moore, the dynamic voiceover maestro who created Blinky Bill’s voice for the 1990s animations and has since maintained her connection to the legacy.

The SA Drink Of The Week is Eight At The Gate 2016 Shiraz Cabernet.

And in the musical pilgrimage we have a song from the musical, itself.

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Running Sheet: Blinky Bill Is On A Podcast

00:00:00 Intro

Introduction to the show.

00:03:16 SA Drink Of The Week

The SA Drink Of The Week is a 2016 Eight At The Gate Shiraz Cabernet.

00:06:30 Blinky Bill Is On The Loose

This is the feature interview of the podcast with Michael Mills (who wrote the songs and oversaw Musical Direction), Chloe Bremner (who performed in the show and on the soundtrack), and Professor Chris Daniels (who captured the vision and decided this was a worthy project for Koala Life to support).

You can listen to a buy the songs from Blinky Bill Is On The Loose here.

The theatre production was a major production by Kobugs, an offshot of Michael Eustice’s Theatre Bugs.

00:43:31 Janet Badgery

Most of us have grown up, having been read stories by our parents and grandparents. However, not many of us can say that our grandma was not only reading us a story she wrote herself, but a story that was read by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of kids across Australia over many generations. I talk, of course, about Dorothy Wall’s granddaughter, Janet Badgery.

Janet, was was your first realisation that there was more to Dorothy Wall than “just being your grandmother”?

Did you ever talk about Blinky Bill with her and, if so, how did such conversations come up?

Why do you think it became so popular?

Did your proximity to Blinky Bill make you popular at school with students and teachers?

If you had to identify with one of the characters, who would it be?

What did Dorothy think of the 1990s’ animation work and Robyn Moore’s voicing of Blinky Bill?

There is an old-fashioned sense about Blinky Bill. Did Dorothy ever yearn to modernise the look and feel or was there something about that 1930s artwork style that was bound into it’s DNA?

And what did you enjoy most about Blinky Bill Is On The Loose?

00:53:34 Robyn Moore aka Blinky Bill

There aren’t many people living in Australia who’ve never heard Robyn Moore’s voice. It’s been everywhere. But one of the most endearing and enduring roles she’s ever voiced has been that of Blinky Bill. We’ll hear how she came to be charged with the responsibility of bringing life to the voice of this iconic Aussie, along with his female friends.

How did you become so enmeshed in Blinky’s life?

How did you go about building Blinky’s voice? Were there any particular cultural clues?

How long were you actively involved in Blinky Bill media content creation?

Blinky is known for going off on adventures and turning up where least expected. Your role of voicing Blinky Bill seems to share the same DNA. Can you share some of your own adventures?

For adults reading the books, are there any tips for voicing Blinky?

01:16:18 Musical Pilgrimage

In the musical pilgrimage, we have a song from Blinky Bill Is On The Loose called the Bilby Bop, and performed by Michael Mills and Chloe Bremner.

Here’s this week’s preview video

SFX: Throughout the podcast we use free SFX from freesfx.co.uk for the harp, the visa stamp, the silent movie music, the stylus, the radio signal SFX, the wine pouring and cork pulling SFX, and the swooshes around Siri.