Noni Hazelhurst delivers an incredible and inspiring acceptance speech for the Hall Of Fame at the TV Week Logies 2016.
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00:00Ladies and gentlemen, Nanny Hazelhurst.
00:30Oh, that was interminable, I was nearly too old to play myself.
00:57Wow, 43 years is a long time and yet it seems like an instant, so much so that this is something
01:11of a shock.
01:13I'm very honoured and I'm very humbled and I thank you.
01:17The Logies people wouldn't let me see that package before now, they wanted me to cry,
01:20well job done guys, thanks a lot.
01:23I'm feeling pretty misty-eyed at the moment, but I often get misty-eyed about things.
01:27As you heard, I'm known for it, if something touches my heart I cry pretty readily.
01:32In fact when my sons were teenagers and driving me up the wall and trying to get a reaction
01:36so they could watch me go off like a frog in a sock, I would sometimes start to cry
01:41and they would start a slow hand clap and say, oh BAFTA, which of course would make
01:49me laugh, thus proving their point.
01:53But I was disturbed this week that a misty-eyed response to a particularly frightful human
01:59story in the news was deemed inappropriate and we were exhorted not to feel, not to have
02:06empathy, not to love.
02:08I think of myself as a storyteller and since forever stories have been crafted and told
02:13to help us make sense of the world and to realise that we're not alone.
02:18So whether it was finding more tips than a tin of asparagus during 10 years on Better
02:22Homes and Gardens or playing the role of a mother, hello beautiful, or playing the role
02:29of a mother who's been estranged from her son for years because he was gay in the extraordinary
02:34groundbreaking series Redfern Now, I've always tried to find stories, yeah, they're amazing,
02:46I've always tried to find stories that resonated on a human empathetic level, projects that
02:52existed to encourage people to feel and reflect and let me tell you that's narrowed the field
02:57of what I wanted to do considerably.
03:00I was known for turning down more than I accepted for a while, but if something didn't seem
03:04to have value for me then I couldn't expect it to for anybody else.
03:08But I have been incredibly lucky and I firmly believe that success in this business at least,
03:12I don't know about any others, is 50% luck and 50% hard work and I have been so lucky.
03:18My first stroke of luck was being born to parents who, as Shane said, in the package
03:22were vaudevillians in England just prior to World War II and after the war England was
03:27buggered and vaudeville was dead, killed off by John Logie Baird's invention of television.
03:33So as ten pound poms my parents came here in 1953 I was born.
03:40We got TV for the Melbourne Olympics in 1956, don't worry I'm not going through every year, it's okay.
03:46So from the age of three once mum and dad realised that I had some ability and passion
03:50for performing I was brought up on a diet of English comedies featuring people they'd
03:54worked with and great variety shows, Carol Burnett, Red Skelton, Dean Martin, the best
03:59entertainers of their time and I learned at my parents knees comedy timing, accents, singing,
04:05I had ballet, piano, calisthenics lessons and mum and dad were incredibly critical of
04:11much of what increasingly came to be offered as entertainment having worked with and watched
04:16some of the best.
04:18My mum said you could always tell a lousy act, they used lots of tricky lighting, the
04:22good ones just stood in a spotlight and did it.
04:28They made me understand that the industry didn't owe me a living and that I had to be
04:31able to do anything and everything, great lessons indeed.
04:34They taught me how to act, what they didn't teach me because I suspect no one had taught
04:39them and because it wasn't encouraged especially for girls was how to be myself.
04:45Play school was the next stroke of luck, under the tutelage of Henrietta Clarke and the late
04:50Alan Kendall I learned the tenets of the play school philosophy formed by a most rare and
04:56wonderful respect, love and understanding of its target audience, a single preschool
05:02child.
05:03And once I got over my own self-consciousness and self-judgment and started to relax I realised
05:08that this child was far more demanding than any audience of adults.
05:12Three and four year olds have the best bullshit detectors don't they, they don't just watch
05:17you because you're there, they want connection and they want real engagement.
05:21If they sense you're not really talking to them, an ant crawling up the wall will quickly
05:25take their attention.
05:28For many decades play school has been an icon, an oasis and a safe haven for small
05:32children in an increasingly complex media landscape and world.
05:37I started to see the world through a preschooler's eyes, to see how free and unafraid they are
05:43to just be, they haven't yet been conditioned but also how easily frightened and overwhelmed
05:49they are, how easily abused and particularly how empathetic they are.
05:56No child is born a bigot.
06:00The TV landscape when I started play school in 1978 was very different, four channels,
06:04no 24-7 news, no 24-7 anything.
06:08It was much easier to protect children from images and information that they couldn't
06:11assimilate.
06:12But with the explosion of technology and the proliferation of screens we can't escape
06:17exposure to bad news and violent images, they're everywhere, at the dentists, on buses.
06:23And most of us, not just kids, find the bombardment overwhelming.
06:28I suspect that almost none of us here or watching is immune from the growing incidents of depression,
06:34anxiety and suicide.
06:37We all know people who are struggling, we may be ourselves and too many of our kids
06:42are.
06:43We're all living under a heavy and constant cloud of negativity.
06:47We're divided against each other and our fellow human beings, we find it hard to trust
06:53and we're fearful for the future.
06:55And I think it's because we're surrounded by bad news and examples of our basest human
07:00behaviour.
07:01I fear that our hearts are growing cold.
07:04The fact that I'm only the second woman to be given this honour is merely a reflection
07:07of the prevailing zeitgeist, as is the odious suggestion in some quarters that the eligibility
07:13of our esteemed colleagues Waleed Ali and Li Lin Chin to be considered for the gold
07:17is questionable.
07:19The things are clearly changing, here we are, but they're changing glacially slowly.
07:25The great thing about glaciers though, if you're not on them, you go under.
07:29I've been riding that glacier for 40 years and I'm staying on top of it.
07:41Blundell, Graeme Blundell once wrote about me saying that no one does ordinary and vulnerable
07:45like Nonie Hazlehurst.
07:46Yeah, that's what I thought at first.
07:49But then I thought, it's okay, because in fact we're all vulnerable and we're all ordinary,
07:55although a lot of our energy is spent trying to prove the opposite.
07:59Play School works because it reflects life as many of us actually live it and the people
08:04on it are real.
08:06Shows featuring clips of dogs and cats work because dogs and cats are real and recognisable.
08:11They're spontaneous and truly alive.
08:14There's no fakery, no concocted animosity or competition, no tricky lighting, just lots
08:19of love.
08:21So here's my pitch.
08:23I'd love a channel that features nothing but stories that inspire us and reassure us and
08:30our children that there are good things happening and good people in the world.
08:34I know it's a lot to ask for, but at the very least a show that tries to redress this overwhelming
08:40imbalance, that counters bad news with good, that encourages optimism, not pessimism, that
08:45restores our empathy and love for our fellow human beings and the earth, that redefines
08:51reality, that heals our hearts.
08:54And by the way, I'm available.
09:08There are plenty of vigorous advocates for the cause of division.
09:11I'm a vigorous advocate for the cause of unity.
09:14This award has turned out to be the most wonderful Mother's Day present, not least because it
09:19means my dear sons actually get to spend Mother's Day with me here tonight, Charlie and William.
09:25But it also provides the opportunity to reflect on the qualities of mothering that are meaningful.
09:30The ideal mother and father is someone who nurtures and protects us, who tells us stories
09:36to help us make sense of the world, who gives us non-judgmental acceptance and unconditional
09:40love, who teaches us that we're not special but we are unique, who encourages our empathetic
09:47instincts and teaches us the responsibility that we have to each other.
09:51This is what we long for from our parents and to be as parents.
09:57Helen Clark, the ex-New Zealand PM, said in her pitch to become the new head of the UN,
10:02Peace really matters to women.
10:05I hope that it really matters to us all and I hope that I can keep telling stories that
10:09reflect that.
10:11I just want to quickly thank some people to whom I currently owe a great deal.
10:15The legendary Bevan Lee, who created the beautiful story about bigotry and intolerance with great
10:21roles for women that I'm lucky enough to be part of, A Place to Call Home.
10:32And Brian Walsh, who recognised the audience's love for the show and he brought it back to
10:42life and who has created an environment and a workplace of equality and inclusion that
10:48it is a great privilege to be part of.
10:51Thank you both very much.
10:54Thank you to my manager, Sue Muggleton, my dear brother Cameron who used to make me laugh
11:03so much I wet the bed, and to my boys Charlie and William for keeping me young and making
11:10me old.
11:11I love you both to pieces.
11:15Thank you all for this recognition, I'm very grateful.