January 14, 1996: The World Of Ian
Who can forget HG & Roy's comedy-within-a-comedy starring Paul Sironen? We did!
This project really is like opening a time capsule every day - and I reckon this is the most precious thing I’ve found so far!
Yes, stuff that’s in the paper is not necessarily very valuable and you can find out what happened on such-and-such a date inside 60 seconds these days.
But it’s when you read to the last paragraph of a buried story and then have to do a little digging that the treasure makes itself apparent.
In this case, it was a ‘column par’ (an item in a column) when I had been left to do a general sports pull-together in January 1996 that did it for me. In this case, it was Inside Running which appeared on page 45 of the Sydney Morning Herald on this day 25 years ago. The clipping is below but basically I had made reference to Balmain, New South Wales and Australian second rower Paul Sironen having his own mini-series.
WTF did that mean? I had no recollection.
For a start, 26-year-old me had got the name wrong. It was called The World Of Ian, not The Life of Ian. When I found it on YouTube … wow!
Some Australian cultural references for British and other readers: HG ad Roy are a parody sports commentary team whose fame reached its zenith at the Sydney Olympics. Their nickname for Paul Sironen was “The Buttocks”.
Annette Shun Wa is a writer but most famous at the time as a ‘VJ’ - music video TV host.
Ted Mulry was a legendary Australian rocker. Col Joye was also an Australian rocker, from the generation before Ted’s.
Greg Mathews was/is a proudly non-conformist and very famous Australian cricketer.
Lisa Forrest is a highly decorated Olympic swimmer.
OK, brace yourself: styled on high watermarks in global television history such as Kingswood Country and Hey Dad!, here is the first episode of The World Of Ian:
‘THE BUTTOCKS’ IS S**TTY
By STEVE MASCORD
Sydney Morning Herald, January 13 1996
PAUL Sironen didn't finish last year on a good note. On learning that some pesky reserve graders would be paid more by the ARL than he, the 21-Test veteran lamented: "I'm filthy on them. I got a bit of money but I can't believe what other players received." Despite being kicked in the hip pocket, Sirro will always be able to say he is the only league player to have his own mini-series (Life of Ian) and appear on the cover of New Scientist.
