After Image: Deadly Earnest and the Ghosts of Television's Past

Abstract

In the 1960s and 1970s, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide each had their own Deadly Earnest, ghoulish presenter of Aweful Movies with Deadly Earnest, a weekly offering of schlock and B-grade horror. In Adelaide, on SAS 10, the persona of Deadly was assumed by local actor and photographer Hedley Cullen, whose maniacal laugh and pop-out eyes have remained indelibly etched in the memories of those who watched as children. Although the show was never intended for them, it was children who became his most ardent fans, inundating him with letters, drawings and miscellany, and mobbing him for autographs at suburban shopping centres and drive-ins. This paper discusses Deadly Earnest under Hedley Cullen's stewardship as a feature of the lost world of pre-network regional television and local celebrity.