Summer Heights High

[DIEHARD]

Meet Chris Lilley - the man behind the comic creations

HIS seven comedy creations have become TV legends in the blink of an eye but getting to know the eighth one - the man himself - is a harder nut to crack.

His latest show Summer Heights High, featuring the exploits of drama teacher Mr G and students Ja'mie King and Jonah Takalua, has been attracting more than one million viewers to the ABC.

Yesterday the show's writer and actor Chris Lilley revealed there's a little bit of his own schooldays in the show and he draws on the real life stories of today's youngsters to keep his script contemporary.

Recently, Lilley, 32, experienced first-hand the full extent of his and his characters' new-found popularity. "I was walking down the street near where I live and there were a bunch of builders working on a construction site and they were (calling out) 'Chris Lilley, Jonah'," Lilley said.

"I never would have got that audience with (previous series) We Can Be Heroes."

Lilley, who grew up in Sydney, now lives with his girlfriend in St Kilda. He has been hailed as Australia's own Ricky Gervais for his edgy work on We Can Be Heroes and Summer Heights High.

*****y private school student Ja'mie King, who featured in both shows, is mimicked in schoolgrounds and offices nationwide while viewers are just getting to know troubled Tongan teen Jonah Takalua from the new series.

Manic music teacher Mr G has been established since 2003 while Lilley's other four characters seeking to be Australian Of The Year in We Can Be Heroes are also well known to fans.

All are the result of a man who has grown up observing people, their behaviour and idiosyncracies.

"There was this one teacher (in high school) who thought I used to do an impersonation of her and I didn't," he said. "I used to impersonate the head of sport and this woman was the head of the girls. She was convinced it was her."

Comedian and Rove regular Ryan Shelton helped his friend develop Ja'mie and worked on the other characters as he helped write WCBH.

"Chris goes out and meets people his characters are like and he makes studies of them, takes notes or interviews people and sometimes film them," Shelton said.

"He watches those videos over and over and over and I'm sure he's done it with Jonah. You watch him, the way he moves and all the little nuances. He's fidgety, he's always touching something or fiddling with it in that ADD way and you know he's spoken with kids and studied them."

"We'd spend two hours a day on Ja'mie, talking about what school girls do - his personal experiences, what I remembered from school.

"He did so much research, meeting private high school girls or just eavesdropping on them.

"He had an idea of what she would be like and he wouldn't have thrown himself into a character like that unless he knew exactly how to be play her convincingly."

Lilley says: "I don't like to analyse how it works too much. It's not like I play the tape and copy it. I absorb the general feel of the characters.

http://www.news.com.au

[Super Cronk]

I was going to post a thread about this asking if anyone likes it or not. i watched the last two episodes and i reckon its a crack up, especially jonah!!!

[GCT_89]

FUNNIEST **** IVE SEEN IN RECENT YEARS!!!!!!

jonah is by far the funniest of chris's characters. he just does everything so well with him.......

i only finished year twelve last year and can relate his character to many, MANY students i used to go to school with.......

Jonah
"oh miss you farted"
"you got your period or what miss?"
"puck you miss"
"SORRY BEN!!!!"

Ja'mie
"just because im rich doesnt mean im a *****"
"sorry, no offence. but its true"

Mr G.
"thats my plunger"

[Super Cronk]

yeah he does the sterotypical high school islander really well.

[nflin3]

This show is gold... have to say jonah is the best character

[Social Loafer]

The bloke is a genius, he does all 3 characters so brilliantly.

Couldn't stop laughing when Jonah chose to put those Yellow hot pants on

[DIEHARD]

The bloke is a genius, he does all 3 characters so brilliantly.

Couldn't stop laughing when Jonah chose to put those Yellow hot pants on

He is a genius, to pull off so many different characters so perfectly.

Jonah makes me laugh so much I cry. The yellow pants was a crack up.

[Social Loafer]

I think it was last week that Mr G complained to the PE department about the balls making too much noise when kids use them

Ja'amie's whole relationship with the year 7 boy was on the border line of being so very very wrong, yet you couldn't stop laughing

[DIEHARD]

I think the best thing about the show is the subtly, just the finer touches and hidden gags and the complexity of the characters.

[nflin3]

I think he does the role of Ja'mie ( I think the name is a joke ) very well. He captures the personality of a grade 11 girl who has moved from a private school to a public school very well I think.

Can't wait for the fight between the girls next week. It is hard enough concentrating to understand the full conversation between the girls as it is ^_^

Thank god I can podcast these :P

[jenny]

ABC sorry for Summer Heights High drug death jokes
September 21, 2007

THE ABC will make a public apology to a family after Chris Lilley's hit show Summer Heights High poked fun at the ecstasy death of a blonde teenage student named "Annabel" on Wednesday night.
Peter and Alison Catt, the parents of Elanora Heights woman Annabel Catt who died from an ecstasy overdose in February, were forced to leave their living room room in disgust when the show was aired.

While it has agreed to end next week's program with a message to the local family, the broadcaster is refusing to pull the the remaining shows that continue the storyline of beautiful blonde teenager "Annabel Dickson".

A photo of the character, which even looks like Annabel, was used in the episode, with drama teacher Mr G using the death as fodder for a school musical promoted as "One girl, one pill, one hell of a night". It included songs with the lyrics, "She's a party girl with a bad habit for drugs ... when girls take drugs and then they die, who would have thought at Summer Heights High".

Mr and Mrs Catt said the episode had caused their family enormous distress and they had called on the ABC to pull future episodes of the series which continue the ecstasy death story-line.

Annabel, 20, died on February 18 after taking an ecstasy tablet - later found to be the deadly drug PMA - at a Good Vibrations music festival.

The show also caused great anguish yesterday for staff and students at Annabel's former school, Narrabeen Sports High.

Acting principal Roger Dawson said staff and students were very distressed.

Mr and Mrs Catt said: "We and many others immediately drew the conclusion the episode was making a comparison to our beloved daughter.

"This was done by naming the deceased in the show Annabel Dickson, describing her as blonde and beautiful and showing a picture that had a resemblance to our daughter."

The ABC described the similarities as an unfortunate coincidence.

"All filming of Summer Heights High finished on February 7 this year - 11 days prior to the tragic death of Annabel Catt on February 18," ABC-TV director Kim Dalton said.

"ABC TV and the producer have both contacted the Catt family to explain the situation and to apologise for the extremely unfortunate coincidence that our fictional character has the same first name."

An ABC spokeswoman confirmed the distressing parallels were known to the corporation. "We had finished production, it was all done. Of course we knew, the world knew, it was all over the newspapers. There was nothing we could do about it."

Asked why the Catt family were not told before the program aired, the spokeswoman declined to comment.

Annabel's older brother, Antony, said the show had "opened a massive wound" for his already traumatised family. "Shock, disbelief, anger - I could use a lot of adjectives to describe how I felt," he said.

"They have known about Annabel for months and they gave us no forewarning to say it's a terrible mistake and say sorry.

"We've got another five episodes of comparisons being drawn between this character and my little sister.

"This is the first time I have been genuinely angry since Annabel died."

The show's creator and main actor, Chris Lilley, 32, was not available for comment.
AAP

[nflin3]

Can there be at least one ABC comedy that doesnt get bad stories about them in the media LMAO

[jenny]

Can there be at least one ABC comedy that doesnt get bad stories about them in the media LMAO

Teletubbies

[Coaster]

Teletubbies

Purple one is gay, try again Jenny

[jenny]

Purple one is gay, try again Jenny

LOL Really?