Everything about Phillip Adams totally explained
Phillip Adams AO (born
26 July,
1939) is an
Australian
broadcaster,
film producer,
writer,
humanist,
social commentator,
satirist and
left-wing pundit with the
News Limited-owned
newspaper,
The Australian.
Early years
Adams was born in
Maryborough,
Victoria, the only child of
Congregational Church minister the Reverend Charles Adams.
His parents separated when he was young. He has written:
"Mother dumped [hisfather] in favour of a rather sleazy businessman... - a sociopath who tried to murder me... I spent my latter part of my childhood trying to protect my mother from this psycho."
Of his education he's said:
"I was forced to leave school before completing my secondary education and the only job I could get was working in advertising."
Adams joined the
Communist Party at age 16, whilst employed in advertising, but left at age 19. He has often compared dogmatic belief in
Communism with dogmatic belief in
Roman Catholicism.
Career
Adams began his advertising career with Foote Cone & Belding and later became a partner in Monahan Dayman Adams (now Publicis Mojo), which made him a millionaire. He developed such successful campaigns as "Life - Be In It", "Slip, Slop, Slap", "Break down the Barriers", "Guess whose mum has a Whirlpool" and "watch the big men fly for a Herbert Adams Pie", working with such talents as
Fred Schepisi, Alex Stitt, Peter Best and Mimmo Cozzolino. He left the advertising industry in the 1980's.
He wrote regular columns for
The Age and
The Bulletin. He currently writes twice weekly for
The Australian.
Broadcasting
2UE
In the late 1980s and early 1990s Adams presented a late-night program on Sydney commercial radio station
2UE.
Late Night Live
Adams took over
Late Night Live on
Radio National from
Richard Ackland.
Late Night Live is broadcast across Australia on ABC Radio National as well as on
Radio Australia shortwave radio and the
World Wide Web.
A serious discussion of world issues, the programme is tempered with Adams' gentle and ironic humour.
Frequent contributors include
Bruce Shapiro(External Link
) and
Beatrix Campbell. At times, Adams refers tongue-in-cheek to his listeners as "the listener" or "Gladys", as though he'd only one listener. Recently, Adams has begun introducing the show saying "Good evening Gladys and Poddies", in reference to the show's growing
podcast listener base.
As of 2007, the current theme music is
Elena Kats-Chernin's
Russian Rags, which Adams renamed "Waltz of the Wombat".
The previous music was
Bach's concerto for oboe, violin and orchestra in C Minor, BWV 1060: III. Allegro.
Criticism
Adams has been criticised as being an example of left-wing bias in the ABC.
The call to give equivalent broadcast time on the ABC to a "
right wing Phillip Adams" began with
John Hewson in 1993.
In July 1996 Prime Minister
John Howard said in an interview with journalist Peter Cole-Adams: "
I think one of the weaknesses of the ABC is that it doesn't have a right-wing Phillip Adams. I think that would be a good idea. It would make a lot of people feel things were better".
Former ABC managing director
Jonathan Shier is reported as saying:
» Shier:
It is hard - it has been hard - when I've asked the people in charge of editorial to give me the example of the right-wing Phillip Adams.
» Adams:
Well, it was echoing a repeated statement of John Howard's.
Former ABC board member
Michael Kroger asked (
15 May 2002) "why [...] is it not possible 'for someone to hold down a presenter’s position who is clearly on the other side of Australian politics?'"
Adams responded with a "Public Forum" programme on
9 May 2001, asking "
Where is the Right-Wing Phillip Adams?"
In July 2002
Imre Salusinszky wrote a satirical piece for Quadrant, "
My Life as Phillip Adams: A Memoir".
Film work
Adams played a key role in the revival of the
Australian film industry during the
1970s. He was the author of a 1969 report which led to legislation by Prime Minister
John Gorton in 1970 for an Australian Film and Television Development Corporation (later the Australian Film Commission) and the
Experimental Film Fund.
Together with
Barry Jones, Adams was a motive force behind the
Australian Film Television and Radio School which was established under the
Whitlam government.
He also played a key role in the
South Australian Film Corporation, which was created in 1972 and became a model for similar bodies in other Australian states.
Adams played a key role in the establishment of the
Australia Council and the
Australian Film Development Corporation, later known as the
Australian Film Commission.
As head of delegation to the Cannes Film Festival he signed Australia's first co-production agreements with
France and the UK. He was Chairman of the Australian Film Institute, the Film and Television Board of the Australia Council, the Australian Film Commission, and Film Australia. He helped establish the
Australian Caption Service, which provides services for hearing impaired television viewers - and the Travelling Film Festival to take quality films into rural areas.
In the 1960s Adams wrote, produced and directed (as well as serving as cinematographer for) his first feature film "" (1969); the first feature to win the Australian Film Institute Award, and the first Australian film to win the Grand Prix at an international festival.
Adams produced or co-produced other features including the critically-panned but hugely popular film adaptation of Barry Humphries'
The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, directed by
Bruce Beresford, which became the most successful Australian film ever made up to that time. Other films include "The Naked Bunyip", "
Don's Party", "The Getting Of Wisdom", "Lonely Hearts", "We Of The Never Never", "Gendel Grendel Grendel", "Fighting Back" and "Hearts And Minds".
Other work
Adams chaired the Commission for the Future, established by the
Hawke Government to build bridges between science and the community. In 1988 the Commission won a major United Nations award for educating Australia on the issue of greenhouse and
climate change.
He chaired the National Australia Day Council. Its principal task was to choose the Australian of the Year. He also chairs the Advisory Board for the Centre of the Mind at the University of Sydney and the Australia National University in Canberra, and has been a board member of
Greenpeace,
CARE Australia, the
National Museum of Australia,
Adelaide's Festival of Ideas and
Brisbane's Ideas at the
Brisbane Powerhouse.
Adams is the author or editor of over 20 books, including
The Unspeakable Adams,
Adams Versus God,
The Penguin Book of Australian Jokes,
Retreat from Tolerance,
Talkback and A Billion Voices,
Adams Ark (published in
2004) and (with Lee Burton) "Emperors of the Air" (Allen & Unwin).
Robert Manne has described Adams as "the emblematic figurehead of the pro-Labor left intelligentsia".
(External Link) Adams had a close relationship with every Labor leader from
Gough Whitlam to
Kim Beazley, advising on public relations, advertising and policy issues. However, on
July 19,
2006 he was reported as saying of the Labor Party:
"They hate me," he says. "I think Kim Beazley is a serious error. I think the party's been going downhill federally ever since Keating left... The Labor Party's hardly worth feeding federally."(External Link)
Adams' life and extra-curricular activities have made him a source of interest to fans and foes of all persuasions for many years. Australia's security intelligence organisation kept an extensive
ASIO File on Adams. The file began at about the time he turned 16 years of age. A work in itself, if a resume of this type can be considered autobiographical in any way.
Personal life
Adams' partner is
Patrice Newell. He has four daughters, three to his first wife, and one to Ms Newell.
He lives on Elmswood, a cattle property near Gundy in the
Hunter Valley of
New South Wales. He also has a home in
Paddington, an inner suburb of
Sydney. Adams is a collector of rare
antiques, including
Egyptian,
Roman and
Greek sculptures and
artifacts.
He has written "I'd been an
atheist since I was five"
(External Link) and has an interest in
spiritual matters, particularly
life after death.
In 1979 a portrait of Phillip Adams by artist
Wes Walters won the
Archibald Prize.
Honours and awards
Bibliography
The Unspeakable Adams
The Uncensored Adams
Classic Columns
Adams Versus God
Harrold Cazneaux: The Quiet Observer
Talkback: Emperors of the Air
Retreat from Tolerance
Conversations
A Billion Voices
Adams Ark (2004)
The Inflammable Adams
More Unspeakable Adams
Adams with Added Enzymes
The Big Questions (with Professor Paul Davies)
More Big Questions (with Professor Paul Davies)
With his partner Patrice Newell, he's the author of several joke books:
The Penguin Book of Australian Jokes (1994)
The Penguin Book of Jokes from Cyberspace (1995)
The Penguin Book of More Australian Jokes (1996)
The Penguin Book of Schoolyard Jokes (1997)
Filmography
Film
Kitty and the Bagman
A Personal History of the Australian Surf
Hearts and Minds (1966) (producer)
(1970) (producer, writer, director)
The Naked Bunyip (1970) (producer)
The Adventures of Barry McKenzie (1972) (producer)
Don's Party (1976) (producer)
The Getting of Wisdom (1978) (producer)
Grendel Grendel Grendel (1981) (producer)
Fighting Back (1982) (executive producer)
Lonely Hearts (1982) (executive producer)
We of the Never Never (1982) (executive producer)
Abra Cadabra (1983) (producer)
Dallas Doll (1994) as Radio Announcer
Road to Nhill (1997) as God (voice)
Television
Adams' Australia (part of BBC TV's contribution to Australia's celebrations for its bicentenary).
The Big Questions with Professor Paul Davies
Death and Destiny filmed in Egypt with Paul Cox.
More Big Questions with Professor Paul Davies
Face The Press SBS
Short Cuts ABC
Four Corners
This Day Tonight
Parkinson
7:30 Report
Clive James
Will Be Back After This Break (7 Network)
Two Shot series 1 and 2 (ABC)
Short and Sweet (2 6-part series, ABC)
Talking Heads
Compass
This Day Tonight
7.30 Report
Sunday
A Current Affair
Sixty Minutes
Australian Story
Counterpoint with William F. Buckley Jr
We'll Be Back After This Break (series, Seven)
CNNN
The Chaser's War on Everything
Compere, Australian Film Institute Awards Telecast
Co-presenter, the Australian Bicentennial CelebrationFurther Information
Get more info on 'Phillip Adams'.
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