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We Can Be Heroes: Finding The Australian of the Year
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We Can Be Heroes: Finding The Australian of the Year (known as The Nominees outside of Australia) is an Australian mockumentary TV series created, written and starring Chris Lilley and directed by Matthew Saville.
The title of the program is a lyric lifted from the David Bowie song Heroes.
It follows the story of five unique Australians, who have each made a large achievement and been nominated by friends and family for the Australian of the Year award.
It premiered on 27 July 2005, and concluded on 31 August. It was shown on the ABC on Wednesday nights at 9:00pm. There are six episodes, with each episode running for 30 minutes. The show is screened in the United States on the Sundance Channel and in the United Kingdom on FX.
The show won a Logie Award for most outstanding comedy and Chris Lilley won the Best New Talent Logie for his performance in the show (despite having appeared in the Seven Network sketch series Big Bite previously).
Characters
All of the Australian of the Year nominees are played by Chris Lilley.
Daniel Sims
Daniel Sims lives in Dunt, South Australia, which is the only fictional location in We Can Be Heroes. He is 17 years old, and largely a parody of rural, country people. He lives with his mother; his hearing impaired twin brother, Nathan; and his two younger brothers and sister. His father died in a car crash many years ago.
Daniel was nominated for Australian of the Year for donating one of his eardrums to his near-deaf brother, Nathan (also played by Lilley). As he doesn't know sign language, Daniel uses different methods to talk to Nathan, such as screaming at him, or using coloured cards. These cards have different meanings, including 'change the Xbox game' or 'piss off'.
Both Daniel and Nathan, as well as their friends, enjoy rapping and beatboxing. After his hearing was partially restored, Nathan's beatboxing skills improved greatly. Four different rap lyrics created by Daniel can be found here.
Daniel was a winner for the state finals, but he didn't want to wear a suit, or make a speech. However, he later changed his mind when he discovered he would be able to legally buy porn and fireworks in Canberra.
Ja'mie King
Ja'mie King (pronounced "Jah-may") lives in the North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, but was born in South Africa. Ja'mie is a 16-year-old girl and has sponsored 85 Sudanese children for Global Vision (a fictional organisation parodying World Vision), which gave her the National Record. Due to her work of raising money Global Vision decided to make her the 'face' of their organisation. Ja'mie also does the 40 Hour Famine twice a week which she says not only helps raise money but "keeps me looking hot".
Ja'mie is the 'popular' girl in Year 11 at Hilford Girls' Grammar School, a private school on Sydney's North Shore. She and her group of three friends are very superficial caring only about their looks. Ja'mie's friends all support Ja'mie's claims to have been in the finals of Dolly Covergirl of the Year. Ja'mie serves as a parody of the stereotypical wealthy and snobby North Shore private school girl. Ja'mie and her friends enjoy sleepovers and gossiping, as well as modelling and the arts.
She is even featured in a school assembly to promote the work of Global Vision where she makes the school repeat after her in the Sudanese language what Sonali told her when they parted at the Detention centre where Sonali is staying. "Bulumbo Shamanaka" when translated in English says 'You are very beautiful girl'. She scolds the school for misusing their money telling them that each dollar they do not donate equals one dead child, and that their school oval represents a "mass grave".
Two weeks before the Australian of the Year finals, Ja'mie is informed that a flood has hit 'her' village killing all but two of her Sudanese children. She displays apparent displeasure and is shown to have a very short temper when she argues with the manager of Global Vision and then accuses her mother of not offering her support.
In the episodes, we are shown one of the Sudanese children she sponsored named Sonali. Sonali apparently has illegally entered Australia and is in a detention centre. In one episode Sonali apparently writes a letter to Ja'mie telling her that she is in Australia and asking Ja'mie to visit her. Ja'mie does so after much scepticism but soon realises that this visit will bring a lot of media attention, so she invites one of her friends because she 'is good at taking photos.' Ja'mie even takes Sonali along to Canberra for the finals and lends Sonali her Year 10 Formal dress to wear for the occasion.
Ja'mie appears in Chris Lilley's subsequent TV series Summer Heights High, where she is on an exchange to the public school, Summer Heights High School.
Pat Mullins
Pat Mullins lived in Perth, Western Australia, and was 47 years old. As an adolescent she developed skeletal dysplasia of the femur resulting in one leg being shorter than the other. In order to move around more quickly she developed the ability to roll along the ground at high speeds. She was married to Terry, whom she wrote a song about: The song is sung in one of the episodes.
- Terry, Terry
- You make me very merry
- Even though you're very very hairy
- I'll always love my Terry
Terry built Pat a training course, featuring various terrains and obstacles, for her rolling. Her ambition was to roll from Perth to Uluru, although she experienced some injuries and setbacks during training, including having a gumnut lodged up her nose. In the last episode, it was revealed that Pat died of cancer of the liver on January 12, 14 days before the announcement of Australian of the Year. She never completed her roll to Uluru.
Phil Olivetti
Phil Olivetti is the Queensland nominee, who in fact nominated himself for the award; he is a self-obsessed 37-year-old, from Brisbane. He used to work for the police force until he saved 9 children from an unsecured Jumping Castle that was about to crash into power lines. After that, he quit his job and tried to start a career in motivational speaking. He had plans to write an autobiography and sell merchandise. He soon became obsessive about winning the prestigious award, inviting a man on the judging panel to a barbecue to flaunt his Australian spirit and later attempt to bribe him unsuccessfully. When he was informed over the phone that he had failed to reach the semi-final stages of judging, he deceived his family into thinking he had and flew them to Canberra. His wife discovered the truth as he tried to enter the finalist announcement in vain, sparking a bitter argument.
Three months after the announcement of Australian of the Year, Phil is still married and decided to quit motivational speaking and rejoined the police, but is also working on a miniseries about the jumping castle incident and other "situations" he got into, in which he will be played by Vince Colosimo.
Ricky Wong
Ricky Wong is a 23-year-old Chinese physics student who lives in Melbourne, Victoria. He is often exuberant and tells his colleagues that "Physics is Phun" and that they are in the "Wong" laboratory. This character is largely a vehicle for parodying the stereotypical "Chinese overachiever", or model migrant. He has achieved fame for his work in solar energy by developing a highly efficient solar energy panel, but his passion lies in acting. Ricky's dream is to become a professional actor. His father, however, doesn't want him acting and insists that after he finishes his play Indigeridoo, he should complete his physics degree.
Once Ricky completed his PhD, he went to work for the CSIRO - his father had already secured him a job there. However, he soon became depressed, and to his father's anger, announced he was going to act full-time, and auditioned for Home & Away.
Indigeridoo is a musical about indigenous Australians in which Ricky plays the main role: Walkabout Man. The production portrays many famous and well known indigenous people, including Cathy Freeman, Deborah Mailman and Lionel Rose.
Outside of the show
- Some of the characters were interviewed on Triple J's Today Today show, by Chris Taylor and Craig Reucassel, portrayed as actual Australian of the Year candidates. Despite the fact they are obviously parodies, several listeners called in to complain about their attitudes, especially that of Ja'mie King.
- Ja'mie King presented an ARIA Award for 'Highest Selling Single' to Anthony Callea with James Mathison in 2005.
- Ricky Wong made an appearance at the Logie awards in 2006. He sang a song from Indigeridoo with Cathy Freeman.
See also
External links
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