The Catastrophe Continues

Seen every Thursday on the ABC's 7.30 Report, John Clarke and Bryan Dawe are an Australian institution. In 1987, John and Bryan began a weekly radio broadcast in which they enacted mock interviews between prominent and newsworthy figures about issues of the day. This noble public service soon took to television screens, where their weekly report has brought a welcome splash of colour to the week's events for over two decades.

To celebrate this milestone, Text has published the very best of these interviews in one volume for the first time. All the stars of the era are here: Keating, Kennett, Howard, Costello, Latham, Ruddock, Rudd. John, as the prominent interviewee, deals with matters as he sees fit. Bryan, the dogged journalist, persists with dignity and strives for understanding.

'You can't fault John Clarke and Bryan Dawe for balance: they make bipartisan fun of everybody they can...even if you have never heard them broadcast, they are still eminently amusing.' Australian