Willesee to file for Sunday Night
The television return of Mike Willesee, set to file stories for Sunday Night, is a coup for Channel Seven.
- Published by David Knox
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The television return of Mike Willesee, now aged 69, is a coup for Channel Seven.
The respected current affairs host and interviewer is set to file stories for Sunday Night after approaching Head of News and Current Affairs Peter Meakin in November.
Willesee remains a household name in Australia after his years associated with This Day Tonight, Four Corners, A Current Affair, Willesee and This Is Your Life. He last hosted ACA regularly in 1993.
“I was remembering all these great stories and interviews and it occurred to me that I don’t have to stop doing them,” he told News Limited.
“I’ve always loved this work – interviewing and being on location – and I want to do it again.”
Willesee’s knack for interviewing and storytelling is classic, famously imploding John Hewson’s GST proposal when he questioned him over the price of tax on a birthday cake. In 2002, he was inducted into the Logies Hall of Fame.
But there was also the night he fronted ACAÂ while intoxicated.
Sunday Night Executive Producer Mark Llewellyn said: “We will send him to war zones, if he wants to go, have him interview prime ministers or princes, movie stars.”
Sunday Night returns 6:30pm Sunday on Seven.
Corrected.
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- Tagged with A Current Affair, Four Corners, Logie Awards, Sunday Night, This Day Tonight, This is Your Life, Willesee
14 Responses
I dont think he is very respected anymore. His docos on “miracles” in the Catholic Church are highly suspect.
Bored in retirement?
One place they might consider using him is the 6pm News Sydney bulletin. Since Ian Ross retired they’ve lost significant ground.
“…and movie stars”. Can’t wait to see what “hard questions” he’ll ask movie stars that are on the show, advertising theird latest movies. 🙂 Good luck to him though.
there’s also the famous clip of him with a mouthful of cigarette smoke when they came back from break. He exhales behind his hand and utters words to the effect of “kids, you shouldn’t smoke.” priceless.
Ah, nothing new in TV. Just one big recycling bin.
Has anybody got got the clip of Mike intoxicated on air. I remember watching it on the night…and would love to see it again…but I think Mike might have destroyed any recordings of it at the time at channel 9. But here is a clip of Mike working for Seven in 1981.
youtube.com/user/oztvheritage?feature=mhee#p/search/0/BZs-_T12RbM
So once again Seven’s winning strategdy of hiring the poeple, that once made Nine great, prevails again…
A bit of class.
Is this the best 7 can do? Is there no “credible” journalist with a body of recent work out there for them to hire? And more to the point – has gen x or y even heard of him? One thing for sure – he’ll need some damn good producers doing the leg work.
Mike might be able to give this show an splash of credibility it needs.
Great to see him back doing what he does best, welcome back and good luck
David, I think it was Derryn Hinch who said I’m Derryn Hinch and I’m sober, after Mike’s intoxicated appearance. Hinch was hosting a rival program at the time.
This should be good, Can’t wait.