Kevin Harrington to play ‘Cliffy’
Kevin Harrington will become potato-farmer-turned-marathon-champ, Cliff Young, for the ABC.
- Published by David Knox
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Actor Kevin Harrington has won the title role in the ABC telemovie Cliffy.
Harrington, who has appeared in Underbelly, Neighbours, Bastard Boys, SeaChange and The Dish, will play Cliff Young, the 61 year-old Victorian potato farmer who beat the finest distance runners in the 1983 Sydney to Melbourne ultra marathon.
Roy Billing will play trainer and masseur Wally Zeuschner.
Harrington has already been training and losing weight ahead of filming, which starts in mid April across Albury-Wodonga and regional Victoria.
“I’ve got a place up the country and and I’ve been quietly running around (in gumboots). Luckily nobody has driven past me while I’ve been doing it because they probably wouldn’t believe it,” he told the Herald Sun.
Carole Sklan, ABC TV’s Head of Fiction said, “Few stories capture the public imagination like that of Cliff Young. Nearly 30 years after famously shuffling from Sydney to Melbourne and into Australian folklore, Cliffy continues to fascinate and inspire. We are delighted to be partnering with such an accomplished creative team to bring this iconic tale to ABC TV.”
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- Tagged with Bastard Boys, Cliffy, Neighbours, SeaChange, Underbelly
4 Responses
In 2006 my wife and I drove from Sydney to Colac to discover who Cliff’s trainer really was as the name Wally Zeuschner was unknown in the family tree.
Inquiries made at the Tourist Information Center (as I recall) and the local Public Library soon produced the book written (a small print run now out of print), about Cliff, and it quite clearly identified Wally as having another name that was not Zeuschner, it appears that a news reporter did not check accuracy, this was a dissapointment to me but I could say that the trip was worth while.
The telemovie indicated some of the story had been altered or changed for dramatic effect.
If they ever need someone to play Kevin Harrington in a movie they should enlist Seven’s Nick McCallum.
It’s great when a fine character actor like Kevin gets such a good role. With the lionshare of roles going to Roxburgh, Weaving, Mendelsohn etc, it is brilliant to see talent used so well. Roy Billing winning awards for Underbelly was another example – a guy who had been on the scene for decades and largely unheralded. Kevin’s work in Seachange was among that ensemble’s best.