Print friendly
Without so much as mentioning a word, the moment Rolf Harris’ name made it to the press, his reputation was vaporised by speculation and condemnation. As with charges about inappropriate flesh pressing, notably with the underage, anyone’s reputation that comes within a bull’s roar of it finds a career ruined. That is specifically so if The Sun has anything to do with, a publication with a fetid ambience if ever there was any.
It has transpired that Harris’ home was raided by police in November last year, when he was interviewed by police as part of Operation Yewtree, an operation into alleged sex abuse that pointed a firm finger at the late Jimmy Savile. Last month, a few days shy of his 83rd birthday, the veteran performer was arrested and interviewed for another round of questioning. There have been no formal charges laid, but in the scheme of things, this won’t matter.
All that is needed is a tag-line – in this case, “Australian-born pensioner from Berkshire”, spiced with the additional “known performer”, and the suspicious brigades smell blood. The Sun was so good to “out” the pensioner, a long time entertainer who had moved to the United Kingdom and became one of Australia’s more known exports.
Harris over the years became a figure of mock fun and occasional mock reverence. He popularised the Australian idiom before British screens. He brought, for better or worse, the song Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport, accompanied with “wobbleboard”, into wide circulation. The Edwardian parlour song Two Little Boys still strikes a note with a few, while hisJake the Peg made some listeners shudder.
Harris also thrilled children with his drawing programmes. Then came age, something that can have its own impending fatality in entertainment – and the feeling of embarrassment that comes with typecast settings and boxed roles. The culture vanguard was always peering with mild mannered suspicion at him – could he really be a genuine artist, or merely a dilettante dauber? Nonetheless, networks felt they had a reliable number in programmes featuring Harris as the concerned media star with an interest in animal welfare. He was, after all, the “family” figure. Continue reading
Sources
- Binoy Kampmark in On Line Opinion
- Image: The Telegraph
Binoy Kampmark lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne and blogs at Oz Moses.
Related Posts:
News category: Analysis and Comment.
