August 7, 2023 • 24 mins
From the outside, Peter seems like a sweet unassuming 66 year old. But he has a penchant for drinking cocktails, breaking the speed limit, and putting out fires both literally and figuratively...
But what he is concealing something that he developed 20 years ago, and since then, he has embedded himself into Australian cultural history, which still has a mark on pop culture to this day.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, it's me Art Simone. And aren't you one lucky
bugger to have your earholes growth by my dulcet tones.
But it gets even better because I am introducing you
to some very exciting and interesting people who theme a
little dull and bland on the surface. Trust me, it's
worth finding out what this person is concealing. Well, I guess,
(00:30):
I mean I actually don't know what it is. We're
going to find that bit out together. This is concealed
with Art Simone. Let's get into it. Roll the shape.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Hi, I'm Peter.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
I'm sixty six and live alone in Sydney. Everybody who
knows me to find me for how fast I drive?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Hello?
Speaker 3 (00:51):
A very dry Marchini, Churchills and Vespers are my favorite.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Well, hello, Peter, how are you today? Oh?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Marvelous?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
As always good to hear.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Now, all right, you've got your nice spectacles on? Are
they reading glasses?
Speaker 3 (01:13):
They're multifolcure, Yes.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
A bit of both. I have some of those when
I have to wear glasses, but for most of the
time I am a g amazon, so I wouldn't ever
be seen with a pair of glasses on. My lashes
wouldn't fit.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
You could always go for contact.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
That's true, that's what's in at the moment. They're glued on.
See what your glasses. You're a nice warm jumper. Did
you knit that jumper yourself?
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Yeah? Nights in front of the fire. Oh yes, stoking.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
It with coal.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
What's the most flammable thing you've put in a fire before?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Probably petrol?
Speaker 1 (01:47):
That is quite logical. Actually, all right, So you drive fast?
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Others say that. I say I drive appropriate to the conditions.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Oh okay, do you have a bit of a lead foot?
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Some people have said that. In fact, almost everybody says that.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
So you're right, not an uber driver? Then I don't
think list.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
I'm very proud of the fact that I was sixty
five before I've ever lost my license for speeding.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Oops. That's right. You can play at home. You can
get Mario Karsh. That'd be good. Okay. So what I'm
going to be doing, Peter, is asking you three questions,
and from the answers to those three questions, I have
to try and work out what it is you are
concealing from me today. Are you ready?
Speaker 2 (02:36):
I'm ready?
Speaker 3 (02:37):
But there was so much I'm concealing from you.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Well, hopefully I get one of them. Right, but I'll
let you know now my track record is pretty bad.
So first question I have for you is where in
Australia would you never go to.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
I try never to go north as the true driver.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
North of the Tweed River. Okay, where's the Tweed River?
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Like I see you had the same geography teacher with
my children.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
I know the Yarra and I know the Murray. Maybe
I should take more road trips. I'm usually in the air.
They should do that. And sometimes you're flying and they go,
if you look out the window, here's the mountain. It's this.
I would like give me like a little set of headphones,
like when you go to the gallery and they do
a tour, give me one of those so I can
look out the window and they could be like, that's
a cloud and this year is another cloud. And if
(03:31):
you look to your left you can see a field.
That'll be good. North of the Tweed River. Okay, Well
I sort of know where that is, but that's all right.
Where is it? It's like up near Byron Bay.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
It's kind of like right on the border just before
you get into Queensland.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Oh, okay, never north of the Tweed River. Not going
to Queensland. Question number two, What do you value most
in a TV show or film?
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Authenticity?
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Authenticity? Okay? All right, So you don't like SpongeBob square
pan it so I can imagine maybe not for.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
You, not for me.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
What about Bluie? Everyone loves blue at the moment.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
I love blue?
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Oh good? Okay, all right. And the final question I
have for you is do you have any nicknames?
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Yes, I have a nickname that is tied to something
I made famous.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Nickname tied to something you made famous? Well, what's the nickname?
Give me the nickname?
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Rabbit?
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Rabbit? Okay, rabbit? Okay, all right, so let's recap. Okay,
not going north of the tweed into queens Then do
you like authenticity? And do you have a nickname which
is rabbit? Okay? You like a martini, and you like
we not SpongeBob, and you drive really fast and you're
(04:51):
not a nuber driver. Okay, all right, okay, authenticity. My
brain went to like reality television then, but then reality
television is very authentic, so maybe not that, okay. And
north of the tweet, it's something about a river, river,
wet things, fish, irrigation, oh, irrigation, Okay, and rabbit rabbit.
(05:15):
My brain just says rabbit proof fence, and I don't
think that's about you, rabbit nickname, that's clue, bouncing rabbit,
rabbit proof fencing. What are rabbit's good breeding? Bouncing, borrowing, burrowing?
(05:37):
All the bees? Three bees? Okay, I was really going
to try and get it this time, but I'm really
it's just nothing. Can I put in no answer.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
I don't write the rules. You can do whatever you like.
It's your show.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Okay. For the first time in history, I'm tapping out.
I'm saying pass. I cannot join the dots today. I
don't know if there's just the thing shewy of the
room not correct, but I can't. I can't join it.
I'm gonna tap it out. It's a first. Everyone here
is to tap it out. Oh, I give up. I surrender.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
I was the original voice of Big Brother. I was
also executive produce for the first three seasons of Big Brother.
I was black clad.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
No, yeah, I haven't in reality television. I went away
from it. I hate myself.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
I don't get the rabbit, though seremary made Bunny ravity
is famous.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
Peter is Big Brother, the Big Brother, the original Big brother.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
I'm so close now. Well it's good though, because I
got a lot of questions with his big brother.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
Okay, we are here with Peter, who is in fact
the original voice of Big Brother, the executive producer for
the first three seasons down under.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Oh my goodness. Now just to flashback, so first three seasons?
Can you name some of the memorable contestants from those
first three seasons.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Well as their notional father I have to love them
more equally. But people might remember Sarah Marie, people might
remember Reggie, people might remember Christy Swan.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Oh wow, oh wow, and look at them now. But
how did it happen? Did you see another country's version
and say, you know what, we have to have the
show down here.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
I didn't do that. That was done by people higher
up the tree than I was. And then I was
asked for her to the show, and I said, well,
that's your decision. If I do the show, it'll be
done the way I do shows. You have to make
up your mind as to whether or not the way
I do shows is to show you want.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
So your role as an executive producer, what kind of
fell under the umbrella of that? What were you kind
of in charge of.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Well, you were responsible for everything, so I watched and
re edited everything, supervised the games department who did all
the activities. I was responsible, legally, morally, creatively responsible to
the network.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
And their requests remind me how long does a season
of Big Brother last? In terms of how many weeks
are they filming for? Thirteen weeks thirteen, So that's pretty intense.
That's almost what like twenty four seven thirteen weeks. Yeah,
you're on call, not even mentioning like pre production.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Not even mentioning pre production, but you do eighteen our days,
twenty our days. Times I went completely without sleep. I
had a bed in my office, and the orders to
the staff was you're more likely to get sacked for
not waking me up when you should have than waking
(09:13):
me up when you didn't need to.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Well, because you were the voice of Big Brother, So
that means if anyone wanted to talk to you, you
had to be on call to go and chat to them. Right.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
If it was going to a air, yes, but if
it was just we're running out of toilet paper, other
people could do it.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Oh okay, So they might sit down in the diaryum
and be like I need two paper they go all right,
here it is. But if they go I'm really emotional,
they go all right, will you sit there for a bit?
We need to go and get Big Brother.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
In the process, when did they go, oh, you should
be the voice of Big Brother? When they're like, all right,
you're going to be the one that.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Was just me getting cranky. Series one, we found it
very hard to get production crew to think about moving
to Queen for twenty weeks, leaving their families all that.
So we ended up with a lot of what I
call backpacker employees, mostly Brits, and in the first week
(10:12):
Rome was burning the edits foaks for crashing, people getting hurt.
Nothing was working properly, nothing worked as well as had
had in rehearsals. And in the middle of all of that,
the network guy came up and said, there are too
many English voices on this show. This is Big Brother Australia.
(10:33):
And I just said, oh, that's ridiculous. I'm for generation
argue with that, and walked into the voiceover booth and discovered,
oh this is fun.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Oh I like this.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
I like the power.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Obviously, when you set up a season of Big Brother,
you kind of know what you're going to be doing
in terms of like environment now or do you just
make that up? You to go along like you're like,
all right, we're going to chuck a dog in one day.
You know that's going to happen. Or were you just
kind of bouncing off what the housemates were doing?
Speaker 3 (11:08):
A bit of both. There was a lot of making
it up on the spot. You have to have a
plane from which you then deviate.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
How much deviation is that?
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Well quite a lot.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Because I discovered the joy of being live on air
and changing my mind about how the healthmage could be
treated depending on their reaction to one thing. I could
then go, oh, okay, so you're going to be like that,
let me do this. In most foreign countries and I
think after me, there's often a voiceover person who does it,
(11:45):
and the producers have to handwrite notes to the voiceover person.
But I had the advantage of being in charge and
could just back up my mind and go, let's do this.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Was there anyone above you who could say no? Or
you were just like I'm the shots.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
I were cast of thousands of people with more important titles,
but they didn't ever get involved deditorially.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Yeah, it's crazy. There must be a lot of stuff
that would just end up on the cutting room floor,
but you have to be rolling just in case something
does happen.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Well, we get ninety six hours of material a day.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
That's a lot of material.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Yeah, and that turnaround is so quick. Everything is so
overly produced these days. I agree, where they film it
in advance, they make up storylines. I was in one
of the shows, so I know what it's like to
be produced by someone with them. You know, you've got
the whole thing planned out and it comes across like
that on camera most of the time.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
The way I.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Shore, you don't manipulate the people. You maniprate the environment
and then the people reacting wise that you couldn't possibly script.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
So while it's all filming all right, so you know,
they phrased it that you know, they don't see anyone else,
it's just them. They see each other, they speak to
this voice. But were there any you had to go
into the Big brother House off camera to try and
resolve something you couldn't do just as a voiceover.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Once and I can't discuss it because it's in contempt
of court.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Sallacious.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
I used to do what I called the last rites
with them before they went into the house, and I said,
you have to tell me anything that might come up
in the press so I can protect you. Never occurred
to this person to tell me that she'd been involved
in a crime and she's scared of living daylights out
of the rest of the housemates. Once she had won
(13:34):
too many drinks and started making up stories that weren't
even true, so I sent out called the psychologists who
came down from Brisburne, and she and I went in
for a couple of hours and settled everything down. I
even went so far as to send someone to the
twenty four hour service station and got some hamburgers.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
As long as someone's fed, they're usually happy. The last
thing you can do to someone is limit their nibbles,
and then they make it a bit stoppy.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
It's so luxurious by comparison to their ordinary food.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Were there any days when you were there and you go,
there is nothing today, like these guys are boring. Were
there any times you're like, what are we going to do? Oh?
Speaker 3 (14:22):
No, it bored me as your friend. Many days of
the week, the producer who was assigned to tomorrow's show would
come bursting into my office about eight o'clock at night
and say I don't have a show. I don't have
a show. I'm going to have to put it in
an activity. And I would watch my food for a
(14:42):
bit and say, no, just let them boil. And of
course something that you could never have imagined anyone would
do would happen when a girl called Turkan decided that
she was going to leave the house in the middle
of another wise I was highly structured show. We shut
(15:03):
off the rest of the story, and the story became
about Turkey and wanting to leave, and we stayed on
air with this drama until after eleven. We actually kept
Rove off air.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
And not Rove Live.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
Rove Live couldn't be live. And I came out of
the outside broadcast truck and someone walked up to me
and said that was fantastic television. And I said, well,
I only wish I'd thought of it.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
I wish I could claim it is my idea.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Yeah, because people do things that you would never dare script.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
I think the first three seasons were like the Golden Era,
They're amazing. So were you part of casting.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
The first one? I cast almost by myself, and then
it was a huge hit and then I suddenly had
a retinue of people who wanted to be attached to
a hit, and the second series was cast. I thought
not as well because it was done as a committee.
And at the end of series two, I said, I
(16:13):
don't care. It doesn't have to be me, but one
person has to cast this show, and the cast has
to make sense to them. A Series two cast it
didn't make sense. I couldn't make it do things because
the dynamics between the people weren't correct.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
How hard was it to cast the first season when
in reality you didn't really know what the beast was
yet you were kind of making it up as you
go along. You could obviously look overseas, but yeah, how
did you pick what you were looking for?
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Well, you just kind of know.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
The main thing was we were making a show that,
unlike the overseas ones, we were running at seven o'clock,
So we had to be child friendly, family friendly in
that seven o'clock show, and that effects who you cast. Effectively,
we were running against Home and Away, and so we
had to provide an alternative to Home and Away that
(17:09):
was as cheerful and engaging.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
So what was the casting process like for the years
you were there.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Every potential contestant went to two different casting sorts whatever
else you want to call them, and I made them
rank them on a scale of one to five. And
I was really interested in the double, five, five, and zero.
I wasn't very interested in anyone that was two, three,
(17:41):
four maybe, But basically the most interesting characters were the
ones who got a zero from one and a five
from the other, the polarizing people.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
And then when you get those characters, how do you
then interview them to find their stories.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
They did quite detailed biographies of themselves and lots answered
lots of questions.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
There was a lot of paperwork, and.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Then we would have casting days where forty or fifty
people would be invited to come along and play some
games and talk to each other and engage in activities.
And then as I saw people I thought you were interesting,
I would drag them aside and give them an interview.
And it sounds terrible that I really knew i'd found somebody.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
When they cried, well, it means they're willing to show
emotion around other people.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Well, I felt like I'd found there in a self, right.
I didn't do anything mean to make them cry, but
if you just keep asking people, and why say that yes,
eventually I'll get somewhere. Well, I'll cry.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Well, it's true. I've always wondered because I did drag Race,
and I always wondered if they had like a file
about me where they're like, all right, here's all the
information on this one. We can tap into this, tap
into that. Were there little you know, guardbooks on the housemates.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
There was an approved biography that all the crew members
got and then everything else was withheld for privacy. But
I had their psyche reports, I had their application forms,
I had their application tapes. I had everything at my fingertips.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
What was the process for kind of getting someone acclimatized
back into the world, you know, because there's a lot
of stuff to catch up on. They've obviously been broadcast
across the country and everyone knows who they are. Was
there kind of a process in there you just went off,
you go love?
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Oh No, they had ongoing psychological support and our support
depending on their needs. I mean, some of them needed
security guards, some of them needed a lot of time
as a therapist. Because you know that phenomenon of when
you show someone a picture of themselves, they go I
didn't didn't.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
That was me earlier today, Well.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
The same thing happens. I didn't make them say any
of the words they said. I didn't make them do
any of the things they did, but they'd come out
and have a terrible reaction to seeing themselves as they
appear to others. We took good care of them.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Yeah, that would be wild. I guess for some of them,
you'd be like enemy number one. But they need to
blame someone, so they'd be like, oh, it's all your fault, Peter.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Well, it was we who invented the idea of blaming
the editor. Ah, because sometimes people do things that don't
come across very well because they're odd, very nice things
to do. Then they face exposure to the public. And
so the answer to that was to say, oh, I
was edited badly.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
What's that RuPaul has released her own song, blame it
on the edit. Because so many people will comeup with
drag race and be like, it's the editing, it's the editing.
I'm not like that. I sway, well, no, you might
not be like that all the time, but in that
situation you were.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
I don't know about RuPaul, but I don't think they
put words in your mouth.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
No, oh, that be said. I've been in a situation
where I was coerced to say something like battered down
until the words came out of my mouth because they
wouldn't let me leave.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
They're what I called god puppet shows where the producer
is so involved you can almost pick who the producer
was who got them to just say that.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
I remember when I walked into drag Race when I
filmed it, I was like, I know how the how
this all works. I'm not going to fall for it.
I'm not going to lean into what they want me
to do. I'm just going to be myself and do
my own thing. But it got to the point where
I'd been fighting with them for so long that it
was just so tiring that the easiest way was just
to go along with it and be like, Okay, this
is what we're doing. Fine.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
I don't admire that personally as a production method, the
less you have to do with what people say and
do more authentic the production becomes.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Out of those first three seasons, it'd big brother, what
are you most proud of? What do you walk away with?
And go I'm really happy I did that.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Oh a lot, just to pick an example the friendship
between Blair and Johnny.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Blair, middle class.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
White boy would never have met Johnny in the city
gay boy, and formed a friendship so close that when
Johnny was evicted, Blair cried. And I think that models
to a lot of teenagers it's okay to accept difference
and be friends. I think there was a lot of
(22:43):
that kind of messaging in those shows.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yeah, I think there was a lot of magic in
bringing people together. You know. That's the exciting thing of
Big Brother is a big melting pot of different types
of people from all different corners of the country.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
And friendships that you wouldn't have predicted and they would
never have had it had they not gone into the house.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
I want to know if you can give me some
tips to becoming the Big Brother voice and getting the
housemates to do things that like you wanted them to do.
So I talked too fast, I probably should slow down.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
First of all, Well, yeah, the hardest thing about being
Picked Brother is not laughing. And sometimes people would be
so ridiculous that I'd have to turn my mic off
and have a good old laugh and the voice over
birth and then flick the microphone back on and sound Stern.
(23:38):
You sound too good natured.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Hoo is this big brother y'all? My god? Could you
just say clean up your man's and stop yelling at
each other things?
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Maybe so that was Peter the original voice of being brother,
and well, while I think I do have the deep
and booming in very important voice, I guess he can
(24:11):
climb that one. For now. You've been listening to an
iHeart Australia production concealed with artsimone. Listen to more of
what you love on iHeart, and to check out two
people whose voices have changed a nation, check us out
on the socials
Hello, it's me Art Simone. And aren't you one lucky
bugger to have your earholes growth by my dulcet tones.
But it gets even better because I am introducing you
to some very exciting and interesting people who theme a
little dull and bland on the surface. Trust me, it's
worth finding out what this person is concealing. Well, I guess,
(00:30):
I mean I actually don't know what it is. We're
going to find that bit out together. This is concealed
with Art Simone. Let's get into it. Roll the shape.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Hi, I'm Peter.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
I'm sixty six and live alone in Sydney. Everybody who
knows me to find me for how fast I drive?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Hello?
Speaker 3 (00:51):
A very dry Marchini, Churchills and Vespers are my favorite.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Well, hello, Peter, how are you today? Oh?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Marvelous?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
As always good to hear.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Now, all right, you've got your nice spectacles on? Are
they reading glasses?
Speaker 3 (01:13):
They're multifolcure, Yes.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
A bit of both. I have some of those when
I have to wear glasses, but for most of the
time I am a g amazon, so I wouldn't ever
be seen with a pair of glasses on. My lashes
wouldn't fit.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
You could always go for contact.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
That's true, that's what's in at the moment. They're glued on.
See what your glasses. You're a nice warm jumper. Did
you knit that jumper yourself?
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Yeah? Nights in front of the fire. Oh yes, stoking.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
It with coal.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
What's the most flammable thing you've put in a fire before?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Probably petrol?
Speaker 1 (01:47):
That is quite logical. Actually, all right, So you drive fast?
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Others say that. I say I drive appropriate to the conditions.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Oh okay, do you have a bit of a lead foot?
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Some people have said that. In fact, almost everybody says that.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
So you're right, not an uber driver? Then I don't
think list.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
I'm very proud of the fact that I was sixty
five before I've ever lost my license for speeding.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Oops. That's right. You can play at home. You can
get Mario Karsh. That'd be good. Okay. So what I'm
going to be doing, Peter, is asking you three questions,
and from the answers to those three questions, I have
to try and work out what it is you are
concealing from me today. Are you ready?
Speaker 2 (02:36):
I'm ready?
Speaker 3 (02:37):
But there was so much I'm concealing from you.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Well, hopefully I get one of them. Right, but I'll
let you know now my track record is pretty bad.
So first question I have for you is where in
Australia would you never go to.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
I try never to go north as the true driver.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
North of the Tweed River. Okay, where's the Tweed River?
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Like I see you had the same geography teacher with
my children.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
I know the Yarra and I know the Murray. Maybe
I should take more road trips. I'm usually in the air.
They should do that. And sometimes you're flying and they go,
if you look out the window, here's the mountain. It's this.
I would like give me like a little set of headphones,
like when you go to the gallery and they do
a tour, give me one of those so I can
look out the window and they could be like, that's
a cloud and this year is another cloud. And if
(03:31):
you look to your left you can see a field.
That'll be good. North of the Tweed River. Okay, Well
I sort of know where that is, but that's all right.
Where is it? It's like up near Byron Bay.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
It's kind of like right on the border just before
you get into Queensland.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Oh, okay, never north of the Tweed River. Not going
to Queensland. Question number two, What do you value most
in a TV show or film?
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Authenticity?
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Authenticity? Okay? All right, So you don't like SpongeBob square
pan it so I can imagine maybe not for.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
You, not for me.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
What about Bluie? Everyone loves blue at the moment.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
I love blue?
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Oh good? Okay, all right. And the final question I
have for you is do you have any nicknames?
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Yes, I have a nickname that is tied to something
I made famous.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Nickname tied to something you made famous? Well, what's the nickname?
Give me the nickname?
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Rabbit?
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Rabbit? Okay, rabbit? Okay, all right, so let's recap. Okay,
not going north of the tweed into queens Then do
you like authenticity? And do you have a nickname which
is rabbit? Okay? You like a martini, and you like
we not SpongeBob, and you drive really fast and you're
(04:51):
not a nuber driver. Okay, all right, okay, authenticity. My
brain went to like reality television then, but then reality
television is very authentic, so maybe not that, okay. And
north of the tweet, it's something about a river, river,
wet things, fish, irrigation, oh, irrigation, Okay, and rabbit rabbit.
(05:15):
My brain just says rabbit proof fence, and I don't
think that's about you, rabbit nickname, that's clue, bouncing rabbit,
rabbit proof fencing. What are rabbit's good breeding? Bouncing, borrowing, burrowing?
(05:37):
All the bees? Three bees? Okay, I was really going
to try and get it this time, but I'm really
it's just nothing. Can I put in no answer.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
I don't write the rules. You can do whatever you like.
It's your show.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Okay. For the first time in history, I'm tapping out.
I'm saying pass. I cannot join the dots today. I
don't know if there's just the thing shewy of the
room not correct, but I can't. I can't join it.
I'm gonna tap it out. It's a first. Everyone here
is to tap it out. Oh, I give up. I surrender.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
I was the original voice of Big Brother. I was
also executive produce for the first three seasons of Big Brother.
I was black clad.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
No, yeah, I haven't in reality television. I went away
from it. I hate myself.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
I don't get the rabbit, though seremary made Bunny ravity
is famous.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
Peter is Big Brother, the Big Brother, the original Big brother.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
I'm so close now. Well it's good though, because I
got a lot of questions with his big brother.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
Okay, we are here with Peter, who is in fact
the original voice of Big Brother, the executive producer for
the first three seasons down under.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Oh my goodness. Now just to flashback, so first three seasons?
Can you name some of the memorable contestants from those
first three seasons.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Well as their notional father I have to love them
more equally. But people might remember Sarah Marie, people might
remember Reggie, people might remember Christy Swan.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Oh wow, oh wow, and look at them now. But
how did it happen? Did you see another country's version
and say, you know what, we have to have the
show down here.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
I didn't do that. That was done by people higher
up the tree than I was. And then I was
asked for her to the show, and I said, well,
that's your decision. If I do the show, it'll be
done the way I do shows. You have to make
up your mind as to whether or not the way
I do shows is to show you want.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
So your role as an executive producer, what kind of
fell under the umbrella of that? What were you kind
of in charge of.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Well, you were responsible for everything, so I watched and
re edited everything, supervised the games department who did all
the activities. I was responsible, legally, morally, creatively responsible to
the network.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
And their requests remind me how long does a season
of Big Brother last? In terms of how many weeks
are they filming for? Thirteen weeks thirteen, So that's pretty intense.
That's almost what like twenty four seven thirteen weeks. Yeah,
you're on call, not even mentioning like pre production.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Not even mentioning pre production, but you do eighteen our days,
twenty our days. Times I went completely without sleep. I
had a bed in my office, and the orders to
the staff was you're more likely to get sacked for
not waking me up when you should have than waking
(09:13):
me up when you didn't need to.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Well, because you were the voice of Big Brother, So
that means if anyone wanted to talk to you, you
had to be on call to go and chat to them. Right.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
If it was going to a air, yes, but if
it was just we're running out of toilet paper, other
people could do it.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Oh okay, So they might sit down in the diaryum
and be like I need two paper they go all right,
here it is. But if they go I'm really emotional,
they go all right, will you sit there for a bit?
We need to go and get Big Brother.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
In the process, when did they go, oh, you should
be the voice of Big Brother? When they're like, all right,
you're going to be the one that.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Was just me getting cranky. Series one, we found it
very hard to get production crew to think about moving
to Queen for twenty weeks, leaving their families all that.
So we ended up with a lot of what I
call backpacker employees, mostly Brits, and in the first week
(10:12):
Rome was burning the edits foaks for crashing, people getting hurt.
Nothing was working properly, nothing worked as well as had
had in rehearsals. And in the middle of all of that,
the network guy came up and said, there are too
many English voices on this show. This is Big Brother Australia.
(10:33):
And I just said, oh, that's ridiculous. I'm for generation
argue with that, and walked into the voiceover booth and discovered,
oh this is fun.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Oh I like this.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
I like the power.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Obviously, when you set up a season of Big Brother,
you kind of know what you're going to be doing
in terms of like environment now or do you just
make that up? You to go along like you're like,
all right, we're going to chuck a dog in one day.
You know that's going to happen. Or were you just
kind of bouncing off what the housemates were doing?
Speaker 3 (11:08):
A bit of both. There was a lot of making
it up on the spot. You have to have a
plane from which you then deviate.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
How much deviation is that?
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Well quite a lot.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Because I discovered the joy of being live on air
and changing my mind about how the healthmage could be
treated depending on their reaction to one thing. I could
then go, oh, okay, so you're going to be like that,
let me do this. In most foreign countries and I
think after me, there's often a voiceover person who does it,
(11:45):
and the producers have to handwrite notes to the voiceover person.
But I had the advantage of being in charge and
could just back up my mind and go, let's do this.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Was there anyone above you who could say no? Or
you were just like I'm the shots.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
I were cast of thousands of people with more important titles,
but they didn't ever get involved deditorially.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Yeah, it's crazy. There must be a lot of stuff
that would just end up on the cutting room floor,
but you have to be rolling just in case something
does happen.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Well, we get ninety six hours of material a day.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
That's a lot of material.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Yeah, and that turnaround is so quick. Everything is so
overly produced these days. I agree, where they film it
in advance, they make up storylines. I was in one
of the shows, so I know what it's like to
be produced by someone with them. You know, you've got
the whole thing planned out and it comes across like
that on camera most of the time.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
The way I.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Shore, you don't manipulate the people. You maniprate the environment
and then the people reacting wise that you couldn't possibly script.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
So while it's all filming all right, so you know,
they phrased it that you know, they don't see anyone else,
it's just them. They see each other, they speak to
this voice. But were there any you had to go
into the Big brother House off camera to try and
resolve something you couldn't do just as a voiceover.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Once and I can't discuss it because it's in contempt
of court.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Sallacious.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
I used to do what I called the last rites
with them before they went into the house, and I said,
you have to tell me anything that might come up
in the press so I can protect you. Never occurred
to this person to tell me that she'd been involved
in a crime and she's scared of living daylights out
of the rest of the housemates. Once she had won
(13:34):
too many drinks and started making up stories that weren't
even true, so I sent out called the psychologists who
came down from Brisburne, and she and I went in
for a couple of hours and settled everything down. I
even went so far as to send someone to the
twenty four hour service station and got some hamburgers.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
As long as someone's fed, they're usually happy. The last
thing you can do to someone is limit their nibbles,
and then they make it a bit stoppy.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
It's so luxurious by comparison to their ordinary food.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Were there any days when you were there and you go,
there is nothing today, like these guys are boring. Were
there any times you're like, what are we going to do? Oh?
Speaker 3 (14:22):
No, it bored me as your friend. Many days of
the week, the producer who was assigned to tomorrow's show would
come bursting into my office about eight o'clock at night
and say I don't have a show. I don't have
a show. I'm going to have to put it in
an activity. And I would watch my food for a
(14:42):
bit and say, no, just let them boil. And of
course something that you could never have imagined anyone would
do would happen when a girl called Turkan decided that
she was going to leave the house in the middle
of another wise I was highly structured show. We shut
(15:03):
off the rest of the story, and the story became
about Turkey and wanting to leave, and we stayed on
air with this drama until after eleven. We actually kept
Rove off air.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
And not Rove Live.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
Rove Live couldn't be live. And I came out of
the outside broadcast truck and someone walked up to me
and said that was fantastic television. And I said, well,
I only wish I'd thought of it.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
I wish I could claim it is my idea.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Yeah, because people do things that you would never dare script.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
I think the first three seasons were like the Golden Era,
They're amazing. So were you part of casting.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
The first one? I cast almost by myself, and then
it was a huge hit and then I suddenly had
a retinue of people who wanted to be attached to
a hit, and the second series was cast. I thought
not as well because it was done as a committee.
And at the end of series two, I said, I
(16:13):
don't care. It doesn't have to be me, but one
person has to cast this show, and the cast has
to make sense to them. A Series two cast it
didn't make sense. I couldn't make it do things because
the dynamics between the people weren't correct.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
How hard was it to cast the first season when
in reality you didn't really know what the beast was
yet you were kind of making it up as you
go along. You could obviously look overseas, but yeah, how
did you pick what you were looking for?
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Well, you just kind of know.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
The main thing was we were making a show that,
unlike the overseas ones, we were running at seven o'clock,
So we had to be child friendly, family friendly in
that seven o'clock show, and that effects who you cast. Effectively,
we were running against Home and Away, and so we
had to provide an alternative to Home and Away that
(17:09):
was as cheerful and engaging.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
So what was the casting process like for the years
you were there.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Every potential contestant went to two different casting sorts whatever
else you want to call them, and I made them
rank them on a scale of one to five. And
I was really interested in the double, five, five, and zero.
I wasn't very interested in anyone that was two, three,
(17:41):
four maybe, But basically the most interesting characters were the
ones who got a zero from one and a five
from the other, the polarizing people.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
And then when you get those characters, how do you
then interview them to find their stories.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
They did quite detailed biographies of themselves and lots answered
lots of questions.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
There was a lot of paperwork, and.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Then we would have casting days where forty or fifty
people would be invited to come along and play some
games and talk to each other and engage in activities.
And then as I saw people I thought you were interesting,
I would drag them aside and give them an interview.
And it sounds terrible that I really knew i'd found somebody.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
When they cried, well, it means they're willing to show
emotion around other people.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Well, I felt like I'd found there in a self, right.
I didn't do anything mean to make them cry, but
if you just keep asking people, and why say that yes,
eventually I'll get somewhere. Well, I'll cry.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Well, it's true. I've always wondered because I did drag Race,
and I always wondered if they had like a file
about me where they're like, all right, here's all the
information on this one. We can tap into this, tap
into that. Were there little you know, guardbooks on the housemates.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
There was an approved biography that all the crew members
got and then everything else was withheld for privacy. But
I had their psyche reports, I had their application forms,
I had their application tapes. I had everything at my fingertips.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
What was the process for kind of getting someone acclimatized
back into the world, you know, because there's a lot
of stuff to catch up on. They've obviously been broadcast
across the country and everyone knows who they are. Was
there kind of a process in there you just went off,
you go love?
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Oh No, they had ongoing psychological support and our support
depending on their needs. I mean, some of them needed
security guards, some of them needed a lot of time
as a therapist. Because you know that phenomenon of when
you show someone a picture of themselves, they go I
didn't didn't.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
That was me earlier today, Well.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
The same thing happens. I didn't make them say any
of the words they said. I didn't make them do
any of the things they did, but they'd come out
and have a terrible reaction to seeing themselves as they
appear to others. We took good care of them.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Yeah, that would be wild. I guess for some of them,
you'd be like enemy number one. But they need to
blame someone, so they'd be like, oh, it's all your fault, Peter.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Well, it was we who invented the idea of blaming
the editor. Ah, because sometimes people do things that don't
come across very well because they're odd, very nice things
to do. Then they face exposure to the public. And
so the answer to that was to say, oh, I
was edited badly.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
What's that RuPaul has released her own song, blame it
on the edit. Because so many people will comeup with
drag race and be like, it's the editing, it's the editing.
I'm not like that. I sway, well, no, you might
not be like that all the time, but in that
situation you were.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
I don't know about RuPaul, but I don't think they
put words in your mouth.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
No, oh, that be said. I've been in a situation
where I was coerced to say something like battered down
until the words came out of my mouth because they
wouldn't let me leave.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
They're what I called god puppet shows where the producer
is so involved you can almost pick who the producer
was who got them to just say that.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
I remember when I walked into drag Race when I
filmed it, I was like, I know how the how
this all works. I'm not going to fall for it.
I'm not going to lean into what they want me
to do. I'm just going to be myself and do
my own thing. But it got to the point where
I'd been fighting with them for so long that it
was just so tiring that the easiest way was just
to go along with it and be like, Okay, this
is what we're doing. Fine.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
I don't admire that personally as a production method, the
less you have to do with what people say and
do more authentic the production becomes.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Out of those first three seasons, it'd big brother, what
are you most proud of? What do you walk away with?
And go I'm really happy I did that.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Oh a lot, just to pick an example the friendship
between Blair and Johnny.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Blair, middle class.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
White boy would never have met Johnny in the city
gay boy, and formed a friendship so close that when
Johnny was evicted, Blair cried. And I think that models
to a lot of teenagers it's okay to accept difference
and be friends. I think there was a lot of
(22:43):
that kind of messaging in those shows.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yeah, I think there was a lot of magic in
bringing people together. You know. That's the exciting thing of
Big Brother is a big melting pot of different types
of people from all different corners of the country.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
And friendships that you wouldn't have predicted and they would
never have had it had they not gone into the house.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
I want to know if you can give me some
tips to becoming the Big Brother voice and getting the
housemates to do things that like you wanted them to do.
So I talked too fast, I probably should slow down.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
First of all, Well, yeah, the hardest thing about being
Picked Brother is not laughing. And sometimes people would be
so ridiculous that I'd have to turn my mic off
and have a good old laugh and the voice over
birth and then flick the microphone back on and sound Stern.
(23:38):
You sound too good natured.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Hoo is this big brother y'all? My god? Could you
just say clean up your man's and stop yelling at
each other things?
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Maybe so that was Peter the original voice of being brother,
and well, while I think I do have the deep
and booming in very important voice, I guess he can
(24:11):
climb that one. For now. You've been listening to an
iHeart Australia production concealed with artsimone. Listen to more of
what you love on iHeart, and to check out two
people whose voices have changed a nation, check us out
on the socials
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