Garry McDonald as TV host Norman Gunston was both sublime and absurd, as evidenced in this comical still from 1979 in which he wears a formal top half (shirt and tie) and bush-trekking bottom half (cargo shorts) and poses alongside a snake. Norman usually had shaving cuts daubed with small pieces of tissue across his face and, as you can see in the image, a deliberately bad comb-over to partially cover his balding head.

How on earth this fictional TV host was granted exclusive interviews with so many visiting dignitaries and celebrities is a mystery. His blunt and naive line of questioning could be off-putting; today his interviews with Mick Jagger, Chevy Chase, Guns N' Roses, Paul and Linda McCartney, Muhammad Ali and Malcolm Fraser remain audacious, surreal and extremely funny. Garry McDonald first performed Norman Gunston on The Aunty Jack Show in 1973, introducing a unique comic creation with instant cult status.