Andrew Denton

Denton worked on Australian radio stations early in his media career, beginning as a writer for radio presenter Doug Mulray on Triple M.[1] He had an early involvement in the Sydney Theatresports movement.[4]

Denton worked as a morning radio host for the Triple M in Sydney. His time on Triple M included the House From Hell reality TV program, in which various contestants were placed in a house together and involved in various stunts, tricks and tortures. Denton has said in radio interviews that he regrets being involved in the program due to the unacceptable level of human manipulation.[5]

Denton made his first television appearance as an extra on the ABC television series The Investigators, and progressed to being a member of the team that was runner-up on the Australian improvised comedy show Theatresports in 1987.[6]

From the late 1980s into the 1990s, he hosted a number of TV shows, including Blah Blah Blah (1988), The Money or the Gun (1989–1990), Live and Sweaty (1991–1995), and a comedy talk show, Denton (1994–1995), that aired on Seven Network. These shows were talk-based. Live and Sweaty focused on sports and was a panel-based television show.[2]

Each week on The Money or the Gun, Andrew had a musical guest play a cover version of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" in a different musical style, usually the genre of the guest's own musical style.[7]

Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, musicians from Led Zeppelin, later appeared on Denton to perform a Rolf Harris song. (Harris performed a notable version of "Stairway to Heaven", with wobble board solo.)[8] Denton saw the beginning of the Musical Challenge segment, and challenged musical guests to perform a song from a barrel full of well-known songs. This segment evolved during his time on Triple M, resulting in three albums with tracks including Tina Arena singing "Cheap Wine", The Wiggles singing "Long way to the Top", Neil Finn performing "Sexual Healing", James Reyne performing Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights", Barenaked Ladies performing Prince's "When Doves Cry" and Paul Kelly performing Prince's "Little Red Corvette". Two volumes were released on CD titled Andrew Denton's Musical Challenge. In the early 1990s Denton was the first guest programmer on Rage.[9]

Denton appeared as a contestant on the Nine Network's Sale of the Century.[10]

While presenting his talk show Denton, he launched a public subscription scheme to hire a bounty hunter to capture fugitive businessman Christopher Skase, who was attempting to avoid extradition to Australia at the time.[11][2] He had a cameo appearance in the Australian film Let's Get Skase.

In 2003, Denton began hosting Enough Rope with Andrew Denton.[12] He was executive producer and script editor for ABC's The Election Chaser and CNNNN. In an audience development survey in 2004, respondents named Denton as one of the "most liked and recognisable" personalities on Australian television. Enough Rope ended in late 2008.

Asked about the best skill an interviewer can bring to the job, Denton said: "Research, clearly. Listening, obviously. And leaving myself open to the possibility it won't go the way I expect."[13]

In 2009, Denton hosted the second season of Elders, a series of interviews with ageing notable Australians. After this series finished, Denton took a few years off being in front of the camera and spent more time behind the scenes. In 2012, he returned to hosting duties, to ABC's game show, Randling.

In 2014, Denton appeared on the SBS TV program Who Do You Think You Are?, tracing his Jewish family line to Poland.[14] He visited the Treblinka extermination camp and contemplated what his fate might have been had his grandfather not moved to England.[15]

In 2018, Denton hosted Interview, produced by Legacy Media for the Seven Network.[16]

Denton's first feature-length documentary, God on My Side, documents his visit to the National Religious Broadcasters Convention. It was first shown at the Sydney Film Festival in June 2006 with plans to show it as a TV special on ABC's Enough Rope. It was screened in Australian cinemas from 2 November 2006. Denton insists he is not anti-Christian.[17]

In 2011, Denton served as executive producer on the crowd-funded horror film The Tunnel. The film was directed by Carlo Ledesma, co-written, co-produced and co-edited by Julian Harvey and Enzo Tedeschi, and produced with Denton's production company Zapruder's Other Films.

Denton appeared as Malcolm Turnbull in the Belvoir St Theatre production of A Royal Commission into the Australian Economy,[18] written by John Clarke and Ross Stevenson, and participated in the early years of the ABC's World Series Debating.[19]

Zapruder's Other Films is a production company founded in 1989 by Denton, Anita Jacoby, and Peter Thompson.[20] The company was named for Abraham Zapruder, the man who famously filmed the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Works produced by the company include:

• CNNNN (2002–2003)
• David Tench Tonight (2006)
• Enough Rope (2003–2008)
• The Gruen Transfer (2008–present)
• Elders (2008–2009)
• 30 Seconds (2009)
• Hungry Beast (2009–2011)
• Gruen Nation (2010)
• The Tunnel (2011)
• AFP (2011)
• The Joy of Sets (2011)
• Randling (2012)

In early 2012, Zapruder merged with Cordell Jigsaw to form CJZ and, in June 2013, Denton sold his share of the company at the same time he announced that he was quitting television.[21]