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Aussie Post, 1998
He might have been just an occasional visitor to TV screens lately, but Tim Ferguson has been writing up a storm.
A decade with the comedy trio the Doug Anthony Allstars and a stint as host of the wacky TV game show Don't Forget Your Toothbrush gave the impression Tim Ferguson was a bit of a larrikin. But just to show what he's really made of, he's written a book - a political satire, no less. Contracted to Channel nine, Tim has spent most of this year behind the cameras and in front of his computer screen, completing Left, Right and Centre, a novel about post-republican Australia. Tim, who lives in Melbourne with his wife Victoria and their three children, spent two years on the novel, his first.
"I've been writing it on planes, trains and automobiles, and with three kids hanging around," he says. "I learned how to do it with a kid hanging on my ankle, another one smearing peanut butter on my face and a third trying to get me off the computer to play Nintendo. So if there are any parts in it that don't make sense, that's why - it's hard to type and change nappies at the same time."
Tim's novel is set in the future in the Federal Republic of Australia - it happened after Britain dismantled the monarchy - and it follows a dangerously charming and intelligent senate candidate, and his campaign trail. "It's what happen when one mad Aussie decides he's had enough and is going to run the country himself," says Tim. "And you never know, maybe that's what we need. A good dictatorship might clean up Canberra. They don't do anything there except stop things from happening."
In 1990, Tim stood for the federal election, with the slogan: 'It's Tim. I'm gorgeous and I'll print more money'. His promises to ban long-haired men and make it an offense to go barefoot in public weren't enough to knock off his opponents in Kooyong, most notably then-opposition leader Andrew Peacock. "That was a joke, really, in 1990," Tim says. "And the book just sort of came to me one day. It wasn't part of a bigger political plan."
And, no, Tim will not be putting himself forward as a candidate for the Republican movement. "Being at Channel Nine, I'll definitely be voting for Eddie McGuire," he says "I'll have to - it's a contractual obligation!" Tim hasn't left show-biz to become a full-time literary figure . "I'm keeping the sets warm!" he says. "I've done some things for IMT, for A Current Affair, the Today Show, and a bit of writing and developing a few things. But I'm keen to do something on a long-term basis.
"We're putting together a new show for next year. It'll be lots of fun, crazy stuff, going for a young audience. It's kind of a later in the week, Thursday-or-Friday, get together with your mates type of thing, lots of crazy stunts. "And," he adds, "it will definitely be going ahead next year!"
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