Beloved children’s entertainment icons The Wiggles have provided fans a rare insight into their journey to the spotlight in Amazon Prime produced documentary Hot Potato: The Story of the Wiggles.
Celebrating the evolution and enduring cultural impact of the group across more than 30 years, the feature length film offers intimate access into the minds of the men in the colourful skivvies, all of whom have shared in the joy of millions of children globally.
To celebrate the release of the documentary, the original four Wiggles sat down with TV Week to discuss their enduring legacy.
The world premiere for the documentary was held in Sydney on October 19th, 2023.
(Credit: Getty)Red Wiggle Murray Cook tells us that at its heart, the purpose of The Wiggles was to “spread joy”, something he feels is evident in Hot Potato.
“I feel very proud of this thing we created, we spread a lot of joy and there’s lots of dark things in the world.”
According to the 63 year old, this desire to experience “unbridled joy” played a huge factor in the sell out success of The Wiggles 2022 Australia 18+ Tour, attendees taking a trip back to their childhood with the help of their wiggly idols.
Blue Wiggle Anthony Field, the only remaining original Wiggle in the band, says that it was difficult to put into words how he felt about what The Wiggles had become.
“It’s overwhelming,” he shared with a smile.
“It’s just fantastic that we helped children have a good time, it’s also beautiful that people remember being children and dancing as [toddlers] to the Wiggles.”
The final tour with the original Wiggles lineup was in 2012….that is until a decade later when they reunited for a string of 18+ shows in 2022.
(Credit: Getty)Many of these young children have now grown into adults, their love for the Fruit Salad singers lasting the test of time, and being passed onto their own children.
According to Yellow Wiggle Greg Page, it was hard to hide his elation when watching the documentary for the first time, especially the inclusion of home video footage submitted by fans.
“There’s lots of footage of children dancing on the television [in the documentary]. We saw them [children] at the concerts but we were never able to see those who were active with The Wiggles at home,” the 51 year old shared.
“Producers got fans to send footage of their kids dancing and interacting with the television. That was something I hadn’t really seen before so it was really lovely.”
The original Wiggles lineup with the current Wiggles lineup take a ride in the big red car.
(Credit: Getty)As for what the future holds for the original foursome, they are all keeping relatively busy.
Greg is at the forefront of a campaign to make defibrillators mandatory in all NSW public buildings with his charity Heart of the Nation – which he founded after suffering a heart attack during a Wiggles charity concert in 2020.
Murray is still an active musician, writing and performing with his soul-rock band The Soul Movers whilst Anthony is still traveling the world as a member of the updated The Wiggles lineup.
The original lineup took to the Falls Festival stage for a ‘one off’ performance in 2022.
(Credit: Getty)As for Jeff, he is enjoying his retirement, but divulges to us he will always keep the door open to The Wiggles, and would always be ready for an audience of fans to chant the famed catchphrase: “Wake up Jeff!’
“I would love it for the ogs [original Wiggles] to get back together to do more shows, I’m sure it will happen in the future sometime but it all depends on how much time Anthony can devote away from the current wiggles. He’s very busy.”
“But we’re all wanting to get the band back together again.”
Stream Hot Potato: The Story of The Wiggles now on Prime Video with a 30-day free trial. Subscribe here.
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