William Lyon

Sitting on the Prime Minister's Right Hand William Lyon

In the early 1990s, Bill Lyon (who twice stood as an Australian Labor Party candidate for election to the Western Australian parliament) adopted the persona of 'Sir Bruce Fernargle-Jones' in order to provide satirical commentary on local, national and international politics from the 'inside', so to speak. In his weekly radio broadcasts on the Australian Broadcasting Commission, he turned a humorous, knowledgeable and sceptical eye on the foolishnesses, foibles, failings, faults and frailties of prime ministers, premiers and presidents as well as many others of greater or lesser significance - questionable businessmen, trendy fashionista, errant Royalty - as well as on passing social issues and mores. This book gathers together for the first time the scripts Lyon prepared for the broadcasts he made late at night, which originated in Perth but which were relayed throughout Australia. The Chinese curse, 'May you live in interesting times', although probably bogus, seems nonetheless to have been visited upon Sir Bruce Fernargle-Jones, and his perspective upon those 'interesting times' provided the substance of the commentaries reproduced in this book. Together they represent a comic time capsule of the twists and turns - and occasional lunacies - of Australian (and sometimes international) politics and society during a stimulating era. In addition to Sir Bruce's talks, the book contains material 'drawn from the archives of the Rottnest Island Film Commission' of which fictional organisation Sir Bruce Fernargle-Jones was the fictional chairman (a 'fact' to which he often refers in his broadcasts). This material mainly consists of radio and television scripts for comedy programs based on the idea of the incompetent operations of the said Rottnest Island Film Commission - scripts that were written by Bill Lyon and Neil Rattigan a decade earlier than the Sir Bruce broadcasts but from which he arose like a middle-aged, paunchy, self-opinionated Botticelli Venus. There are also reproduced some related correspondence, memoranda and assorted trivia.