The ABC Of is an interview series, hosted by actor David Wenham, in which a range of prominent Australians revisit their pasts through moments drawn from the vast ABC Archives.
This week, David Wenham goes fishing in the ABC Archival life of Evonne Goolagong Cawley, the Indigenous kid from Barellan in NSW who went on to conquer the world, winning both Wimbledon and the French Open before she even turned 20.
And they were just the first two of her 14 Grand Slam titles (seven singles, six double and one mixed doubles).
Some amazing footage has been unearthed by The ABC Of researchers, from news vision of Evonne at 11 and 12 playing at White City in Sydney to footage of the joyous hometown parade staged after her first Wimbledon triumph.
And then there’s a jawdropping 1973 meeting with a male interviewer whose questions will make you pause and rewind to see if you really heard them correctly.
Each episode of The ABC Of is a one-on-one conversation in which the questions are based on archival video clips. Before they sit down, the guests are unaware of the clips that have been chosen.
In many cases, those clips travel past the choices you’d expect, the obvious markers of the guest’s CV, wending their way down delightful and surprising paths to footage that has not seen the light of day for decades.
Production credit: A Guesswork Television Production in association with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Executive Producers: Jon Casimir and Jo Long. ABC Commissioning Editor Julie Hanna. ABC Head of Factual and Culture Jennifer Collins.
