DVD review - "Skippy: The First Complete Season" ****

Classic Australian TV series about the Hammond family who live in Waratah National Park which took the world by storm and became our first big time international TV export. 91 episodes were made from 1966 to 1968 and it still holds up brilliantly. Well, it’s hard to be objective when you spent a great deal of your younger years wanting to be Sonny Hammond (Garry Pankhurst) and live in a national park, catch bird smugglers, fly around in a helicopter and be best friends with a super smart kangaroo. The colour photography remains pleasing, the plots still work (smugglers, koala thieves, escaped prisoners, etc) and it remains terrific, albeit very male orientated, children’s entertainment, much better than the 90s PC version, The Adventures of Skippy.

OK so maybe it was a Flipper rip off but it is very strongly Australian, with an Aussie sense of humour and of course the stunning flaura and fauna. The cast included Ed Devereaux, Tony Bonner, and Ken James – but everyone knew who the real star was: Skippy, a kangaroo capable of chatting with humans, knocking out baddies and saving the day. Umbrella Entertainment were the perfect company to do this one; in addition to 39 episodes this DVD has interview featurettes with the show’s two heart-throbs, Bonner and James, a contemporary TV special and a book reading by John McCallum. There are some great stories about the difficulties of keeping Gary Pankhurst’s weight under control, and the problems of dealing with kangaroos.