Paul McDermott doesn’t sleep. Can’t sleep. Won’t sleep. He’s having too much fun
A warning to all waiters: know your product when serving Paul McDermott, because he’ll trip you up. It’s not that the sharp Good News Week presenter is a food or wine snob. Quite the opposite. He says he has no favourite cuisine – food is merely a way of staying alive. And when buying wine, McDermott uses the novice’s guide of choosing label by price: expensive for people you like, cheap for the rest.
But if there’s one thing McDermott loves it’s his cup of tea, and embarrassing waiters at snooty restaurants by ordering little-known brews is his favourite pastime. A variety called Queen Mary is McDermott’s current top choice, and you wouldn’t be the first waiter who has faltered when he’s requested it.
Apart from tea, McDermott claims not to have and interests and likes. It all fits in with the misanthropic "criticise everything and praise nothing" mantra of the highly successful television show Good News Week and his intensely private demeanour.
He doesn’t even really like talking about television, because he doesn’t watch much.
McDermott says if there was a government department which investigated people who worked more than their quota of hours, he’d be "illegal". Midnight clock-offs, diets of water and bananas, and hyperactivity-induced-sleeplessness puncture his life.
Among the flood of similar shows to reach our screens in recent times, GNW has succeeded where others have failed.
"Because of the popularity if Good News Week and the variety show we did, people think they’re very easy to do, which is a native conclusion," McDermott says.
"That’s why there are so many similar shows, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There’s a market for them, but they’re not easy, by any stretch if the imagination."
McDermott didn’t see Mick Molloy’s much-publicised failed comedy show, so is wary of passing judgment.
" I saw a bit of it and I thought it was fine. But like anything else, comedy needs time to settle in, especially if it’s adventurous or different.
" People who are raised on Australia’s Funniest Home Videos are going to take time to adjust to a new thing. We [the makers of GNW] were very lucky on the ABC because they nurture that kind of thing."
He surmises many of the ingredients for a great show were there with Molloy’s offering.
"They are very talented people you’re talking about – Judith Lucy is an extraordinary talent, Tony Martin is a very gifted comedian and Mick Molloy is awesome as well."
He says the reason behind some of the more recent flops is lack of support from the networks. They’re not willing to give it time. They throw a lot of money to people who have an idea, and the idea gets up, then they say: ‘That’s not a good idea.’ There should be a bit more time thinking about what’s going on, or once it’s on, supporting it rather than stabbing it in the back."
McDermott says there are no such problems at GNW. "The Ten network has certainly been tremendously supportive since we came from the ABC but we still are having a bit of trouble with ratings."
He says the current shows are "probably the best we’ve produced in the four years we’ve been doing GNW. We’ve got our formula right now. The problem is maintaining it".
McDermott believes GNW will have a long life. "Because it deals with contemporary events, news and so on, it’s as enduring, I suspect, as newspapers and any other media because it’s another form of commentary.
"Even if it wasn’t me, Mikey and Julie, if other people took over, it would be wonderful to see the show continue for years."
The serious-news element of GNW appeals to many fans, but McDermott feels the cast are just doing what good comedians should be doing.
"There’s no point doing comedy unless there’s some form of social comment. If you can walk into a wall and make it a social comment, I think that’s fantastic, as long as you have a point to it.
"We do the same thing. We attack a position. I suppose there’s a social conscience, but another motivating force is to criticise everything and praise nothing. We just hate everybody the same."
But this dislike of everybody isn’t always even-handed. At times executives have requested that, say, anti-Liberal material be dished out in equal parts as anti-Labor comment.
"We got to the rediculous stage where they were saying: ‘You’ve got three Howard lines so we’ve got to have another Beazley line here’, or: ‘These Beazley lines are really cruel and those Howard lines aren’t so cruel’."
Politics make bad dinner-table conversation, but McDermott is merely sipping gin and tonic and nibbling on bread, so it’s probably OK to steer the conversation that way.
The republic referendum is difficult to avoid on a show such as GNW and his personal views are staunch. About the only thing McDermott has in common with the monarchist is that fixation with tea-drinking.
However, his outlook for the republic can cause is not good.
"I think the republic is probably dead in the water," he says of the chances of the yes campaign.
"I think we’re battling. It’s worded in such a way that’s made it very difficult. John Howard has been a very canny politician with the referendum.
"Pathetic side-issues have clouded the issue so much that we aren’t sure what we are deciding."
McDermott doesn’t doubt the republic will come.
"But it should happen now rather than when the blue-rinse set shuffle off and the New Idea or Women’s Day can’t print and more royal family stories.
"I’m speaking to friends in Britain and they say: ‘We can’t even believe you’re having a referendum on it. No one here wants them’."
