Dame Edna Everage lets Mike Walsh, his studio audience and home viewers in on her secret thoughts about Lady Diana Spencer and Edna's close friend Queen Elizabeth II. At the time Diana was engaged to be married to Prince Charles (they married on 29 June 1981).

There is so much going on in this clip and it's a fine example of Barry Humphries' brand of Australian satire. At once self-aggrandising and self-deprecating it is brilliant social commentary of the early 1980s.

Dame Everage manages to weigh in on the monarchy, whether Australia should become a republic and even the speculation surrounding Spencer's virginity.

Everage mentions her husband Norm Everage in passing, saying that they won't be able to make the ceremony because his prostate machine would be 'too noisy in the quiet bits'.

Clip taken from The Mike Walsh Show circa 1980.

Notes by Beth Taylor

Dame Edna Everage uses hilariously bad numerology to compare then-Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and the man who would become his successor - Malcolm Fraser.

In this interview with Mike Willesee on his current affairs programme Willesee at Seven, Everage delights in using the 'proven psychic science' of numerology to predict the future.

She would surely call it 'spooky', but she actually gets it right! She says at the end of the clip 'Is it a coincidence, or is it not? That Gough Whitlam is prime minister and Malcolm Fraser isn't ... Yet!'

Willesee obviously has no idea where Barry Humphries is taking this sketch as she launches off with a hilarious series of disparate and ridiculous calculations. The evolution of Willesee's reaction from bemusement to total amusement is priceless.

Humphries loves live performance and interacting with an audience through Everage. This is a great example of Everage's searing social commentary about Australia and Australians.

A lot was happening in 1975: colour television arrived in Australia and on 11 November 1975 Governor-General Sir John Kerr dismissed Gough Whitlam as prime minister, forcing a general election which brought Malcolm Fraser into power. You can read more about The Dismissal on our blog.

This clip comes from a compilation of Willesee At Seven interviews from 1975.

Notes by Beth Taylor

Barry Humphries seeks to put to bed once and for all the 'scurrilous story' that he and Dame Edna Everage are the same person.

He confides that one of the downsides about being her manager is that he has to go clothes shopping for her because 'we are exactly the same inside leg measurement'.

He tries on a pair of Everage's bespoke spectacles with lips and teeth on them, much to the hilarity of the audience who feel like they're in on the joke. Everage sometimes refers to them as 'face furniture'.

Two early photographs of Dame Edna Everage from an unknown source are shown to illustrate how far she has come in terms of her appearance and the couture fashion she now wears as a self-proclaimed superstar.

Humphries says Everage thinks of herself as the natural successor to Australian opera singer Dame Joan Sutherland.

Walsh talks about Everage's more unpleasant side, such as heckling audience members, and shows clips of her flirting outrageously with a woman on Walsh's show and putting US producer Allan Carr in his place.

Clip from The Mike Walsh Show: Archive no. 154, circa 1980.

Notes by Beth Taylor

When the NFSA shared a photograph of Dame Edna Everage holding a Sydney Funnelweb spider cake on Twitter, academic and artist Sayraphim Lothian was intrigued.

Lothian, a self-proclaimed history nerd, took up our challenge to recreate the cake and this video was born!

Watch to see how she makes those tricky spider legs.

Notes by Beth Taylor

Barry Humphries gives Mike Willesee an insight into his brand of satire, saying that he always has an eye for the absurd.

Humphries says he enjoys making films, but that 'to work directly with an audience is, to me, the greatest pleasure of all ... There is an immense pleasure in making an audience laugh.'

This clip comes from a compilation of Willesee At Seven interviews from 1975.

Notes by Beth Taylor

Actress and famous divorcee Zsa Zsa Gabor shows her ability to laugh at herself in this interview with Dame Edna Everage.

Gabor comes across as very much owning her public profile. However, when Everage tells Gabor about her husband Norm, and his prostate condition and registered charity status, Gabor is either displaying her fine qualities as an actor, or she thinks that Everage is serious.

It isn't apparent whether Gabor is aware that Everage is in fact a man (Barry Humphries) masquerading as a woman.

The conceit of the show as a satire of talk shows is reminiscent of the celebrity interviews done by Garry McDonald's Norman Gunston character in the 1970s. In both cases it's not always obvious if the stars are in on the joke.

Everage has an interesting relationship with celebrity, having basically deemed herself a superstar. She likes to rub shoulders with celebrities and enjoys keeping them in their place (below her) and treating them like 'ordinary folk'.

Clip taken from season one, episode four of The Dame Edna Experience. Other guests on this episode are singer Nana Mouskouri and Germaine Greer - who, like Everage and Humphries, is another famous Australian export to the UK.

Notes by Beth Taylor

Dame Everage gives us a bit of 1980s nostalgia when she urges viewers to video her show on VHS tape so the kiddies don't miss out, in this excerpt from An Aussie Audience With Dame Edna.

Referencing Sir Les Patterson's introduction at the top of the show, Everage says 'I don't need any introduction. I hope I don't! Unless of course this is being popped in a time capsule along with a lot of my other contributions to the communications industry.'

Edna's dramatic entrance on stage is one of her familiar tropes, and this is a fine example. She is dressed in a couture 'frock'.

Sitting amongst a room full of her 'peers, peering at her', guests include: musicians Angry Anderson, John Farnham and Graeme 'Shirley' Strachan; music guru Molly Meldrum; fashion icons Prue Acton and Jenny Kee; Olympian Dawn Fraser; entrepreneur Bob Ansett; sportspeople Grant Kenny and Ron Barassi; actors Barry Crocker, Linda Stoner, Noeline Brown, Rowena Wallace and even Barry Humphries himself, with his then-wife Diane Millstead.

A clip of the introduction shows the calibre of 1980s star power in the room.

Notes by Beth Taylor

This compilation of Dame Edna Everage's most dramatic entrances, alongside some of her work, shows how she uses satire to play with the idea of celebrity whilst at the same time claiming the status of celebrity for herself. There is also an appearance by her 'manager', Barry Humphries.

Excerpts come from The Mike Walsh Show (1979–85), Willesee At Seven (1975), An Aussie Audience With Dame Edna (1986) and The Dame Edna Experience (1987).

Notes by Beth Taylor

Dame Edna loves the camera and enjoys engaging with an audience. This photo is a great example of her unfailingly welcoming – and somewhat unnerving – gaze.

This photograph is associated with the Dame Edna Everage Coffee Table Book (1976) which contained recipes for culinary masterpieces such as 'snowball and apple sandwiches' and 'Norm's favourite sausage and pineapple patties'.

Satirist Barry Humphries exaggerated the house-proud characteristics of the women in his early life to create the character of Edna, who is obsessed with homes, cooking, childrearing, celebrity and gynaecological matters.

Here we can see that Everage has established her look of winged spectacles and wisteria bouffant, however this is before she started dressing in couture gowns and became a self-styled celebrity megastar in the 1980s. Interestingly, she wears the same spectacles in her interview with Mike Willesee where she uses numerology to compare Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser.

The dressing of her surroundings is self-consciously Australian kitsch with a koala tea towel, floral wallpaper, Fab laundry powder and a bottle of Bex – the 1950s and 60s housewife's analgesic of choice – in the background.

This photograph is part of a collection of documentation relating to Barry Humphries from the NFSA collection.

Notes by Beth Taylor

Dame Edna speaks to Mike Walsh from London, showing him and the viewers her Sydney Opera House and Queensland pineapple-inspired spectacles for her upcoming tour of Australia.

Everage's love of spectacles is renowned. She was inspired by the bespoke specs belonging to actress, Melbourne socialite and beauty salon doyen Stephanie Deste.

Clip taken from The Mike Walsh Show: Episode 9065 which was produced on 19 June 1979.

Notes by Beth Taylor

Sir Leslie Colin 'Les' Patterson is another of Barry Humphries' fictional characters designed to make Australians squirm with their portrayal of national stereotypes.

Patterson appears on The Mike Walsh Show to the horror and hilarity of the studio audience. He's a loose cannon with his hot pink socks, drooling and smoking as he holds a beer in his hand.

Patterson burst onto the Australian scene in 1974, 19 years after Edna Everage made her debut. His vulgar, alcoholic visage represents everything Everage detests, even down to his hate for Poms (the British).

Like Everage his character is very rich in backstory, including an imaginary family and ancestors.

He had humble beginnings. He started as an entertainment officer at St George Leagues Club in Sydney but he became a cultural attaché, representing Australia in 'the Far East'.

Patterson went on to star in the film Les Patterson Saves the World (George T Miller, Australia, 1987), alongside Everage.

Clip taken from the The Mike Walsh Show: Archive no. 503, circa early 1980s.

Notes by Beth Taylor

Bert Newton and Dame Edna Everage present the award for Best Children's Television Program at the 1984 TV Week Logie Awards to Simon Townsend's Wonder World! with hilarious results.

Simon Townsend's Wonder World! won a total of five Logie Awards in the eight years that the show aired.

Notes by Mel Bondfield

Dame Edna sings a cover of the very recognisable theme song from Neighbours, the long-running Australian television soap opera (1985–current). The song was written by Tony Hatch with lyrics by Jackie Trent.

In this excerpt of Everage's spoof we hear cheeky low-tech sound effect additions, including a meowing cat, barking dog, clucking chickens and a rooster. It is a contrast to Barry Crocker's very straight rendition of the original tune which featured in the show's opening credits from 1985–89.

This recording was featured in a 2SER broadcast about Neighbours on show 35 of Media Magazine in 1989. Her cover was released through CBS Records and Epic in 1988 (654503 7). No indication is given in the broadcast about why the particular recording was included, but the segment is an interview with one of the writers from Neighbours in 1989.

Neighbours and Edna Everage are possibly the two most famed Australian exports to the UK, and the 1980s was the height of her popularity there, so this would have been an obvious song for her to cover. In an interesting Barry Humphries connection, singer Barry Crocker starred in the comedy film The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, based on a character created by Humphries who also gives voice and form to Edna Everage herself.

Music, as well as stage and screen pursuits, has always been an important part of the Edna Everage Experience and this is a fine example of her humour and celebration / take-off of the banal Australian suburbia that Neighbours represents. See also her recording of True British Spunk (1972).

Image from The Mike Walsh Show. NFSA title: 495724.

Notes by Beth Taylor

One of the reasons behind Dame Edna Everage's success as a character is her rich backstory, created by Barry Humphries.

Here on her 1987 talk show The Dame Edna Experience, Everage introduces her supremely downtrodden bridesmaid Madge Allsop, played here by British actress Emily Perry.

Everage constantly denigrates Allsop, using her as a dowdy, comedic foil to her own fabulousness. Here, she makes Madge sit on a camp chair and work in servitude to Everage's high-profile guests.

Clip taken from season one, episode one of The Dame Edna Experience.

Notes by Beth Taylor

This is an excerpt of a radio broadcast on the day Dame Edna Everage cheerfully took over the airwaves on Dean Banks' morning show on station 2CC on 23 February 1984.

In her element when it comes to improvised banter with her audience, Everage dispenses 'womanly advice', and gives details of the sex lives of gladioli, to an unsuspecting talkback caller called Judy. Another caller, Peter, flirts with her and she invites him to lunch.

Dean Banks was a radio presenter with station 2CC in Canberra from 1975–87, 2SM in Sydney in 1988, Melbourne's 3AK in 1989 and he was a breakfast announcer for 3AW Melbourne during the 1990s. Banks began his radio career in 1970 for the pirate station Radio Hauraki in New Zealand.

Image from The Mike Walsh Show. NFSA title: 495724.

Notes by Beth Taylor

This clip from The Mike Walsh Show in 1985 takes a look at the various incarnations of Dame Edna Everage over time.

Often appearing on the show to promote a new tour, here she appears after Another Audience with Dame Edna Everage won a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award for best light entertainment program in 1985.

When she points out a trace of a moustache in a photo of her from the 1950s, the audience is in hysterics – loving the reminder that she is a character played by Barry Humphries.

The clip includes photographs, excerpts of footage from Sixty Minutes (1963) and home-movie footage of Everage when she first went to London in 1969. Together they exemplify one of the biggest reasons behind her success and longevity – her rich backstory.

Through these clips there is a sense that 18 years into her career she is still constantly evolving, from suburban housewife to her apparent Damehood (and now her current self-proclaimed Gigastar status).

As we can see in the early footage of her looking quite drab, her famous bouffant of wisteria hair, diamante-encrusted winged spectacles and couture gowns came about later, in the 1970s and 80s. Her exaggerated lips – clad in dark lipstick – were there from the very beginning.

Humphries (whom she refers to as her 'manager') borrows from his own stuffy childhood in the suburbs of Melbourne to fill out the character of Everage. She epitomises a satirical tug-of-war between his affection and disdain for all things Australian.

Notes by Beth Taylor

Dame Edna Everage has a strong fan base in England. Just as she loves to show up the cultural quirks of Australia and Australians, she also has a friendly dig at the 'Poms' – the English.

This spoof of an English classical music institution enlists the help of the London Symphony Orchestra and conductor Carl Davis and the New Antipodean Singers. Like The Last Night of the Proms, the concert is held at London's Royal Albert Hall.

This clip shows the self-styled celebrity megastar in theatrical mode with everything we would expect from one of her shows. She tosses 'gladdies' – gladioli flowers – into the crowd and refers to the audience as 'possums'. Gladioli tossing has been a feature of her shows since the 1960s. She is wearing a 'frock' featuring sequins depicting the Australian flag and a collar in the shape of the Sydney Opera House which she refers to as 'the Royal Alfred Hall of Australia'.

Barry Humphries relishes live performances and the chance to interact with (and humiliate) his audience. This excerpt includes a fine example of the Dame improvising in-character when she calls attention to some 'Kings Road', punk types with their dyed hair. Much to their delight and embarrassment, she puts them in their place saying 'I was the first to have a rinse like yours, darling'.

Along with the choir, she leads the audience in singing 'Why Do We Love Australia?'. The multi-camera shoot skilfully covers the diverse crowd as they sing along. The recording includes a balance of sound from the choir, Everage and the audience.

However, unlike The Proms proper, it's less about the musical prowess and all about the comedy, which the Dame mines mercilessly as always.

Notes by Beth Taylor

Barry McKenzie Holds His Own (Bruce Beresford, Australia, 1974) – the sequel to The Adventures of Barry McKenzie (Bruce Beresford, Australia, 1972) – is perhaps most famous for one of its final scenes where then-Prime Minister Gough Whitlam makes a cameo appearance and apparently makes Edna Everage (played by Barry Humphries) a Dame.

This lobby card includes a photograph of the scene where Barry McKenzie's Aunt Edna becomes Dame Edna Everage. The photograph is bordered by a cartoon drawing depicting McKenzie surrounded by Frankenstein's monster, religious iconography, bare-breasted 'sheilas' and horror imagery. The images, aside from showing the cartoon-strip roots of the McKenzie character created by Humphries, are an example of the 1970s high-camp, horror imagery and ocker humour which the film features.

The whole idea of Everage's supposed Damehood is an example of the rich backstory which has contributed to Everage's popularity and longevity as a character.

Outside of the film Everage really dines out on her supposed Damehood at every opportunity, saying that it was very kind of Queen Elizabeth II to recognise a Damehood conferred upon her by an Australian, 'and a socialist to boot'.

The film was produced by Phillip Adams who became a prominent journalist and broadcaster.

Notes by Beth Taylor

Two of Barry Humphries' alter egos – Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson – star in the 1987 film Les Patterson Saves the World (George T Miller, Australia).

This illustrated poster suggests an international tongue-in-cheek romp with Everage and Patterson front and centre and a city skyline, love interest (Pamela Stephenson) and a handsome man in a military uniform (Thaao Penghlis) in the background.

The poster echoes the same confusing pastiche of genres that cost the film at the box office. It suggests a combination of kitsch glamour (Everage's dress and koala friend), action movie (Patterson's James Bond pose) and spoof (the typeface used for the title alludes to This is Spinal Tap, 1984).

Released one year after the record-breaking success of Crocodile Dundee (Peter Faiman, Australia, 1986) Les Patterson Saves the World did not fare nearly as well at the box office as the record-breaking Paul Hogan vehicle. In a twist of complexity, Humphries contends that another character of his, Barry 'Bazza' McKenzie, was an inspiration for Hogan's Mick 'Crocodile' Dundee character.

Notes by Beth Taylor

Dame Edna Everage, and her alter ego Barry Humphries, is a favourite on The Mike Walsh Show, even hosting the show on occasion.

Here Everage steals the show with her Tina Turner-style wig and use of 'camera technique' to steal the limelight from the host. Walsh goes with it and the live studio audience loves it.

Everage is a big name-dropper and here she talks about Queen Elizabeth II and former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam - who conferred her Damehood upon her.

This clip is from The Mike Walsh Show in 1985.

Notes by Beth Taylor

Melbourne housewife superstar Dame Edna Everage (Barry Humphries) is invited to Moonee Ponds' centenary celebrations. Served a pizza that has been named in her honour, she exclaims 'scrummy!' and then proceeds to mime revulsion for the camera! Fans wave gladdies (gladiolus flowers) in her honour.

This story comes from a library reel of Eyewitness News stories broadcast in August 1981.

Notes by Beth Taylor

Aunt Edna (Barry Humphries) takes Bazza (Barry Crocker) to meet distant upper class relatives, the penniless and pompous Gorts. Sarah Gort (Jenny Tomasin) takes Bazza to a country ball, where he is constantly insulted by an upper class twit. Barry’s mood improves when he discovers a back room full of Australians having a party.

Summary by Paul Byrnes.

Barry Humphries’ recording career has paralleled his stage and screen activities. On the A side he is joined by Australian actor Dick Bentley (who appeared with Humphries in the first two Barry McKenzie films) for Along the Road to Gundagai and Is’e an Aussie is’e Lizzie. The B side is Edna Everage singing True British Spunk, originally written for a BBC TV series in 1969 but excised before broadcast. One Humphries biographer has noted that his best songs are written for Edna.

From the album, A Track Winding Back (Philips 6205 019).

Dame Edna Everage entertains a studio jam-packed with Australian celebrities in 1986.

In this opening from An Aussie Audience With Dame Edna we see the megastar's celebrity-pulling power.

Guests include: musicians Angry Anderson, John Farnham and Graeme 'Shirley' Strachan; music guru Ian 'Molly' Meldrum; fashion icons Prue Acton and Jenny Kee; Olympian Dawn Fraser; entrepreneur Bob Ansett; sportspeople Grant Kenny and Ron Barassi; actors Barry Crocker, Linda Stoner, Noeline Brown, Rowena Wallace and even Barry Humphries himself, with his then-wife Diane Millstead.

Everage has an interesting relationship with celebrity, having basically deemed herself a superstar, then a megastar and later gigastar. She likes to rub shoulders with celebrities and enjoys keeping them in their place (below her) and treating them like 'ordinary folk'.

Notes by Beth Taylor