Hugh Stuckey

Hugh Clifford Stuckey (born 1 July 1928) is a comedy and drama writer, with credits writing for television, film, radio and commercials in Australia, England and the US. He's also a published author, playwright, radio broadcaster, actor, Victorian baseballer and is in the National Archives of Australia. Having started writing for Sydney Tonight in 1957 he is one of Australia's first television comedy writers. He has written for In Melbourne Tonight, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Andy Griffith Show, I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, Blue Heelers, The Flying Nun, Hey Dad, Neighbours, A Country Practice, The Restless Years, The Two Ronnies, Dave Allen at Large, The Dick Emery Show, The Bill, plus various shows for comedy stars Stuart Wagstaff, Bert Newton, Frankie Howerd, Noel Ferrier, Tommy Leonetti, and many others. In 2005 Hugh won the Fred Parsons Award for Contribution to Australian Comedy at the Australian Writer Guilds Awards (AWGIE Awards).

Early life

Born Hugh Clifford Stuckey on 1 July 1928 at the Ellesmere Hospital, Ormond, Australia, he is the son of Linda Stuckey and Australian baseballer Hubert Stuckey. Hugh was born during the Great Depression which had a big impact on the Stuckey family.

Early career

In 1942 at 14 years old, Hugh secured his first radio spot as a comedian for a weekly variety show called Kiddies Kapers. In 1943 at the age of 15 under pressure by his father, Hugh finished his studies at Melbourne High School (Victoria) and started working at Australian Paper Manufacturers (APM) now named Paperlinx. Hubert had chosen APM for Hugh to work for as they had survived the Great Depression and could offer Hugh a secure job for life.

Hugh however found little interest in his job at APM, focusing his attention on performing live on stage and radio after hours. During World War II Hugh performed in 350 performances for the Australian troops in a comedy routine. In 1946 he got his first writing credit for a five-minute sketch for ABC Radio. In 1947 he wrote several gags for Radio 3DB's show Happy Gang.

Still working full-time at APM, for 26 weeks he wrote for the Macquarie Radio Network's, 3AW station for a weekly sitcom Monty's Caberet.

In 1954, much to his father's disappointment, Hugh quit his job at APM and left Melbourne with his new wife Shirley and took up a writing role for The Cadbury Show that would run for over 300 episodes.

The same year Hugh fathered his first child Leigh – Anne in 1955, Hugh's writing career developed as he began writing for well known actors at the time such as Jack Davey, George Wallace Snr and Willie Fennell.In 1959 his second daughter Claire was born.

Television

In 1957, the year after television was introduced to Australia, Hugh was hired as a comedy writer for Sydney Tonight. In 1958 he was appointed head writer for the highly successful In Melbourne Tonight which was hosted by Graham Kennedy on GTV9 (now Nine Network.

In 1962 Hugh moved on to write for The Delo & Daly Show a comedy variety show hosted by two Americans Ken Delo and Jonathan Daly shown on HSV7 (now Channel 7, he stayed on to write 46 one-hour episodes. With the support of Jonathan Daly, Hugh was granted a leave of absence by HSV7 to pursue writing and gaining experience in Hollywood. Whilst in Hollywood Hugh was hired by Desilu Productions who gave him work writing for The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Danny Thomas Show and The Andy Griffith Show.

After returning to Australia and fulfilling his contract with The Delo & Daly Show, Hugh moved to HSV (TV station) now Seven Network in 1963. He was hired to devise and produce a daytime series that ran five one-hour episodes per week called Time for Terry hosted by English comedian Terry O'Neill.

In 1966 Hugh was hired by ATV TV Station (also known as Channel 0) now Network Ten to be Writer and Producer for The Jimmy Hannan Show, hosted by 1965 Gold Logie Award winner Jimmy Hannan.

After two failed series in the UK for ABC Television, English comedy star Tony Hancock was flown to Australia to do a television series Terra Australis for the Seven Network. Hugh was head writer for what was contracted as a 13 episode series. Hugh refers to his work on this show as being less of a writer and more of a minder for the deeply depressed and alcoholic Hancock. On 24 June 1968 after only three episodes were produced, Tony Hancock was found dead in his Sydney flat with an empty bottle of sleeping pills and an empty bottle of vodka by his side. He left a suicide note reading "Things just seemed to go too wrong too many times".

The Seven Network later showed this work as The Tony Hancock Special, transmitted on 25 January 1972.

Hugh and his wife Shirley were both deeply saddened by the death of Hancock which prompted a move shortly after his death to the US. Based in L.A Hugh found work writing for sitcoms Bewitched, The Flying Nun and I Dream of Jeannie . He also wrote sketch comedy material for Rowan & Martin's Laugh In starring Danny Kaye and Red Skelton.

Family life however wasn't working in L.A, so Hugh and Shirley decided to return to Australia. In the lead up to returning to Australia, Hugh was offered to write for Liberace, a role he turned down to return to Australia.

On returning to Australia Hugh began writing for Neighbours for the first time and The Restless Years as story editor and script editor.

In 1975 Hugh signed his first contract in the UK with BBC London where he wrote for The Two Ronnies, Dave Allen at Large, The Dick Emery Show and comedy star Frankie Howerd. During this period Hugh's marriage to Shirley disintegrated and shortly after they divorced.

Hugh returned to Australia where he wrote for numerous Tonight Shows which were hosted by Stuart Wagstaff, Noel Ferrier, Tommy Leonetti, Bert Newton and others.

Hugh became the Story Editor and Episode Writer for 45 one-hour episodes of 18 Logie Awards winning television drama A Country Practice.

During his time writing for A Country Practice Hugh began a side project with Director William Fitzwater, inspired by his personal interest in Opera. At a young age a friend of Hugh's father introduced him to opera which became a life passion. Hugh and Fitzwater shared the vision of introducing children to opera at a young age. Together they created 13 episodes of The Maestro's Company which was Australia's first ever show featuring both puppets and live actors which was released in 1984.

During this period of his life, Hugh married Barbara Maurice. In 1985 they had a daughter, Annika and in 1986 a son, Tim.

In 1992 after finishing with A Country Practice, Hugh moved back to England to write for police drama The Bill, Moon and Son and Frankie's On starring English comedian Frankie Howerd. Hugh found once again living in England his marriage come to an end and in late 1992 he separated with Barbara.

By 1993 Hugh found himself back in Australia. During this time he worked on several projects that did not come to fruition. He wrote for his first and only animation with The Adventures of Blinky Bill for a few episodes. It was not until 1998 until he wrote for television full-time again when he was hired back to work for Neighbours as the story editor.

Commercials

Hugh also found regular work writing and producing advertisements for Ford Motor Company, Mobil Oil Company, The Age, British Leyland, Sanyo and others.

Publication

In 1959 Hugh wrote the book My mate Charlie. A fictional comedic novel based on his father's best friend (who Hugh's middle name is named after) "Uncle Cliff" and Hugh's father. The book was featured on In Melbourne Tonight with host Graham Kennedy recommending it to his viewers. It was published by Horwitz Publications.

J.C. Williamson Theatre Prize

During the 1970s J.C. Williamson Theatre Ltd held a competition whereby the winner was guaranteed production of their winning play. Hugh and writing partner Jack Brown won the competition with their murder mystery Over my dead body. They were paid the £5000 award money but shortly after winning J.C. Williamson Theatre Ltd went bankrupt and the play was never performed.

Australian Writers' Guild

Hugh was one of the founding members of the Australian Writers' Guild, he served as national vice-president when renowned playwright David Williamson was national president.

Fred Parson's Award

In 2005 Hugh was awarded the Fred Parson's Award for his contribution to Australian comedy.

References