Mr John Clarke

In 1998, as Sydney prepared to hold the most successful Olympics ever, John and Ross Stevenson, who run a charitable institute supplying formats to British television, developed ‘The Games’, a series in which the problems of organising an event of this magnitude were identified, re-labelled and buried at sea in a lead-lined container. Again, in 2000, in the months leading up to the carefully understated Opening Ceremony, clever footwork from John and Gina Riley, Bryan Dawe, Nicholas Bell and others ensured that at least some of the highlights involved sport of some kind. The series won a hatful of awards and attracted a very large audience on ABC television in Straya, and in New Zealand, the US and Canada.