Richard Morecroft

About once or twice a year, I'd recall Richard Morecroft's last night presenting ABC News and the montage they had of him over the years. For someone who grew up with Morecroft as a tv staple, the memory of that night and that montage is still an incredibly nostalgic one. And also, the gasp that night during the montage of, oh my goodness, that hair!

I can't remember the first time I watched Morecroft present the news but it must have either been on ABC at home or BTN* at school. Morecroft was a peripheral but still big part of my childhood and I was so happy to find out he had published this anecdotal memoir of his time behind the newsdesk. I was also a bit worried because, well, I didn't want the curse of Meeting Your Heroes, and because I've seen small stacks of them in various secondhand bookstores which is never a good sign.

But luckily those book discarders were wrong and this was the perfect nostalgic read. Morecroft was the perfect blend of informative and humorous - with humour credits to Alison Mackay his partner (and also the perfect blend of public and private lives - a delicate balance for someone so in the public eye but in a professionally intimate capacity. Just because you saw someone every night on the telly doesn't mean you're entitled to their life stories!). I rarely laugh out loud at a book or a screen but this book somehow had me bark-laughing.

It's also a good record of what I imagine is a quainter bygone time in news reporting, of the technical (and occasional pranks!) behind the scenes and of the pre-online media times. Now to go rewatch Morecroft's final ABC report on YouTube and have my heartstrings pulled.

*Behind the News was a condensed kid-friendly version of the news which we watched in primary school. We had to do a report as well as an accompanying drawing every week on one of the news items presented.… (more)