Inside the Colin From Accounts season 3 launch
Last night the DAZN-owned Australian general entertainment streaming service BINGE held a launch event for the third and final season of its comedy Colin From Accounts.
I woke up on Sunday morning and realised that I hadn’t actually seen season 2, despite really, really liking the first season. I’m not sure why I hadn’t seen it. Knowing I was watching the start of season 3, I binged the whole season on Sunday (not all heroes wear capes).
It’s always pretty odd when you are so deep into a TV show, then find yourself standing alongside a lot of the actors from the show IRL.
The first two episodes of the new season also debuted yesterday on BINGE, so last night was more about the party than it was a preview of the episodes
If you haven’t seen Colin From Accounts, you’re missing out on one of TV’s best comedies of the moment. It’s a wonderfully earthy, laugh out-loud comedy that has genuine heart and soul.
Last year Colin From Accounts writer and co-star Harriet Dyer starred in a not very-good US comedy called DMV. The reason that show didn’t work is for the same reason a lot of comedies don’t really land is because the show contrived situations and character beats that were only there to service going for a joke. But this show f**king nails it with humour that comes from character. Even when the show heads into some pretty broad places (the ongoing jokes about a mens advocacy campaign waged ‘Women Against Women Against Men), it is all done from an earthy character perspective that lets the show get away with it.
I’m genuinely excited to see what Dyer does next.
In attendance were the cast of the show, producers, and various other well wishers. I got to enjoy some awkward one on one experiences talking with series star Patrick Brammall (and yes, I talked to him about my beloved series Evil), Mark Trevorrow (who has a long history with Binge parent company Foxtel, having been the face of defunct channel TV1 as his character Bob Downe for quite some time), Weirder Together co-hosts and notable in their own-right Ben Lee and Ione Skye, and Dog Park writer/star Leon Ford (who confirmed work is underway on a second season – also, he’s highly amiable in real life).
Of course, the star that I was really keen to meet was Zak, the dog actor who plays the titular Colin From Accounts (the show has nothing to do with an accounting department… it’s the name of the dog). Our encounter was anything but awkward and I can report that he is friendly and grounded in all the ways you hope a dog celebrity will be.
I played it really cool and my strategy worked… within seconds he had me on the ground, bathing me with kisses.
Here’s an assortment of other pics from the event:
RIP Bill Oddie
One of those great shared experiences that Australians of my age have is growing up in the 80s with repeats of the 70s era UK comedy The Goodies reliably on every afternoon/early evening on the ABC.
And for those kids growing up with the show (from when the show originally aired, through to when latecomers like me discovered it in repeats), two things are true:
The best episode is the one where The Goodies launched a pirate radio station in a submarine parked off the coast, but only have one record to play: A Walk in the Black Forest. They then go on to launch a pirate post office. Some people may claim that Kitten Kong is the best episode, but they are best ignored.
The coolest Goodie was Bill Oddie. It wasn’t even a competition.
In 2005-ish, The Goodies toured Australia with a live show. I remember it being pretty funny and charming, but collapsing at the end with a performance of The Funky Gibbon, a song that had apparently been a radio success for them back in the day. Even the crickets at QPAC in Brisbane were hearing crickets that night.
After the show, I joined a mass of fans at the stage door to meet them after the show. Memorabilia was signed and chats were had. Remember how I said that Bill Oddie was the coolest of them? That absolutely still held true. Though, my favourite was Graeme Garden.
Graeme was a bit stand offish and Bill Oddie was more interested in talking to the young women in the group than me. And I respect them both for this. So, I found myself talking for longer than I expected to Tim Brooke-Taylor. As a kid he was always my least favourite Goodie, but he was funny as hell when we spoke that night and I came away a big fan (in rewatching the show as an adult, I have a better appreciation for Tim Brooke-Taylor – he was incredible…).
Despite Oddie not giving me the time of day (this was not a criticism… he made a valid choice), I will always remain a fan of that guy. He had so much swagger.
Bill Oddie has passed away at the age of 85. Reading the news last night was extremely sad, I felt as though I had lost a touchstone to my childhood.
Worth a read is the BBC obit, which focused on his earlier career with the Footlights before moving on to be known for his passion for birding.
While some of the old Footlights team went off to form Monty Python, Oddie - together with Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor - created The Goodies.
It featured three characters on their “trandem” who pedalled about offering themselves for hire with the tagline “We Do Anything, Anywhere, Anytime”.
This spawned a series of comical situations, much slapstick and the use of fairly primitive special effects, mainly sped-up film.
One of the memorable episodes was Kitten Kong, in which a giant feline toppled the Post Office Tower. A version of this episode won the Silver Rose at Montreux TV Festival in 1972.
The Great Bird Race, for Channel 4 in 1983, was followed by a number of programmes for the BBC including The Great Kenyan Bird Safari and Oddie in Paradise.
In 1985, the BBC ran a 50-minute Nature Watch special: Bill Oddie - Bird Watcher, in which he travelled to many of the areas where he loved to watch birds.
By the beginning of the new century, he was one of the BBC’s best-loved presenters with shows like Birding with Bill Oddie and Bill Oddie Goes Wild, which took birdwatching to new audiences.
Northumberland Wildlife Trust chief Mike Pratt paid tribute to Oddie’s “influential” and entertaining presence as a naturalist, serving as the charity’s patron for nearly 30 years.
“Bill was a fantastic inspiration to my generation of young conservationists from the 1970s onwards,” said Pratt.
“He made being a naturalist fun and exciting, and led me and many of my counterparts into campaigning and taking action to save wildlife.
“We will miss his support for what he genuinely cared about - life in all its forms.”
News Desk
Paramount CEO David Ellison emailed staff to tell them he remains “highly confident” the Warner Bros. Discovery merger will complete. Read: THR
SAG-AFTRA‘s national board has adopted a resolution opposing the Paramount-WBD merger, backing the states’ lawsuits — but stopping short of joining the WGA in court. Read: Deadline
Peacock will be bundled free with YouTube Premium in a major tie-up, giving US Premium subscribers access to the NBCUniversal streamer. Internationally they will get NBCU’s reality app Hayu. Read: Variety
Netflix is licensing the first four Power series from Lionsgate — the flagship plus Ghost, Raising Kanan and Force from November. Read: Deadline
CBS has set its fall dates, with scripted staples Marshals, Tracker, NCIS and the new NCIS: New York and Cupertino (a show I am desperate to see) rolling out over six days from 4 October. Survivor starts 23 September. Read: THR
Amazon‘s Blade Runner 2099 was always conceived as a one-and-done limited series, says showrunner Silka Luisa. Read: Dark Horizons
Morgan Spector will play Robert Langdon in Netflix‘s series based on Dan Brown‘s The Secret of Secrets, from Lost creator Carlton Cuse. Rebecca Hall is apparently being eyed for the female lead. Read: Futon Critic
Two months after taking over Stephen Colbert‘s 11:35 slot, Byron Allen‘s low-cost CBS comedy block still trails Kimmel and Fallon, but retains its audience far better, holding 53% of its opening-hour viewers (versus Colbert’s 40%). Read: LateNighter
John Wells has re-upped his overall deal at Warner Bros. Television, marking 40 years with the studio. He has three series on air, including The Pitt. Read: TV News Check
Prime Video has licensed 100-plus CJ ENM Korean dramas for India in a multi-year deal spanning 26 new series. Read: THR
Netflix is staging a live darts event, Beat Luke Littler, on 30 October. Read: Deadline
The Royal Shakespeare Company‘s Game of Thrones prequel play The Mad King has cancelled its first week of previews, drawing ticket-buyer anger. Read: The New York Times
Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee is developing Wildwood for FX and 20th Television, a spiritual successor set in the summer of 2000 following Irish college girls at the New Jersey shore — her first project set outside the UK. Read: Deadline
Christopher Nolan‘s The Odyssey leaked in full on X, where a low-res copy was watched nearly 50,000 times in under two hours before Universal had it taken down. Read: ScreenCrush
The BBC is reportedly paying around £500k to demolish the set of axed Scottish soap River City. Read: Radio Times
John C. Dvorak, the veteran tech journalist behind PC Magazine‘s Inside Track column and co-host of the No Agenda podcast, has died at 80. Read: THR
Trailer Park
The Chosen returns for season 6 on Prime Video November 15. While the season follows the crucifixion of the show’s hero Jesus, the show will continue onto season seven. How does that happen? There’s a plot twist you will not expect…
The Great American Baking Show returns August 3 on Roku Channel.
Lioness returns to Paramount+ for season 3 August 2.
Dalliance debuts August 27 on Paramount+ in Australia. The show looks interesting, but who approved this publicity photo on the YouTube cover? How is this appealing to anyone?
Billy, a former cameraman, encounters Dani on a Sydney Harbour ferry as their different worlds intersect.
The Robot Chicken 25th Anniversary Special debuts on Adult Swim August 30.
That’s the newsletter for the today.
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