Shirl's Neighbourhood

Shirl's Neighbourhood
Company type	Television program
Industry	Children's television
Founded	April 2, 1979; 47 years ago
Defunct	1983
Headquarters	Melbourne, Australia
Products	Children's television series

Shirl's Neighbourhood was a children's television program broadcast in the afternoons on Australia's Seven Network from 2 April 1979 through 1983. The half-hour series featured Graeme "Shirley" Strachan, formerly the lead singer of Skyhooks, alongside co-presenter Liz Rule. The show included a variety of characters such as Norm The Kangaroo, Ol' Possum, Claude The Crow, Stanley The Snake, Greenfinger the Garden Gnome, Yippee the Bunyip, Igor the Spider, Bartholomew the Sheep, and a troop of monkeys. Musical performances and sketches were regularly contributed by Franciscus Henri, who appeared as "Professor Henri" until October 1980. In the early episodes, Bruce Spence appeared portraying a gardener.

Don Bridges took on the role of Norm the Kangaroo, while other puppet characters were designed and operated by Ron Mueck.

Production

The series was produced by Jenifer Hooks and Richard Bence under Puppetstuff, delivering more than 900 episodes between 1979 and 1983. Jenifer Hooks later advanced to leadership roles at Film Victoria and Cinemedia.

Recurring segments included Possum's Patterns hosted by Auntie Mae, Greenfinger's Garden initially presented by Laurie Ryan and subsequently by Bruce Spence, along with wildlife features led by Fritz Martin.

The program attracted both young viewers and adults, largely due to Claude the Crow’s somewhat sardonic outlook, which appealed to grown-ups in a similar manner to Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street.

References

Notes

National Film and Sound Archive – Bulletin 2

External links

Photograph of "Shirl" and "Norm the Kangaroo" (Monash University Archives)
Darrin's Shirl's Neighbourhood Shrine
Shirl's Neighbourhood at the National Film and Sound Archive broken link: colsearch.nfsa.afc.gov.au does not resolve