One of our best-loved television personalities, Ian “Molly” Meldrum has had some history-making Logies nights that no-one will ever forget. One such unforgettable moment came last year.
When Samuel Johnson won the Gold Logie in 2017 for his starring role in miniseries Molly, the man he played joined the actor on stage during his acceptance speech to give him a gold hat he’d painted himself.
But what followed wasn’t expected. Some described Molly’s speech as “wild and wandering”, but a year on, an embarrassed Molly insists it all came from a good place.
He says when he reached into the bag to get the hat, he got paint all over his hand – the hat was still wet, and the realisation threw him.
“I gave it a fresh coat the morning of the Logies,” Molly says. “The plan never was to give it to him on stage, but when he won, everyone said, ‘Get up there!’, so I did.
“I reached into the bag to get the hat, and the wet paint stuck to my hand. I didn’t know what to do.
“Sam said, ‘Keep talking’, so I did! It was another Molly disaster – almost as bad as the Prince Charles thing.”
Molly is referring to his train wreck of an interview on Countdown in 1977, when the heir to the British throne was the show’s special guest.
Nervous, sweaty and tongue-tied in the presence of royalty, Molly stumbled and mumbled – and swore at his own mistakes.
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“Do you not have one of those teleprompters?” a gracious Prince Of Wales asked calmly, trying to put Molly at ease, but to no avail.
Read more from our interview with Molly in TV WEEK’s 60 Years of Logies Souvenir Edition, on sale now.
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