No Foibles These Fables

Sydney Morning Herald

Sunday July 3, 1994

Robin Oliver

WHEN next it comes time for television to hand out prizes for a job well done, John Misto's splendidly observed fables of life in the public service should need a pantechnicon to carry away the booty.

As a piece of whimsy, The Damnation of Harvey McHugh travels first-class and, though it may not be top of the pops and is not therefore likely to be voted upon by the crayon pushers who decide the outcome of our most trivial awards nights, it is exceptionally strong in performance and production skills.

Thursday night opposition is overpowering, yet Harvey craves attention. Fortunately for viewers who have not yet sampled its considerable pleasures, it is made up of 13 separated stories within an ongoing theme.

Harvey McHugh is a temporary public service clerk with a profoundly naive aptitude for honesty. As temps have a year to find a permanent niche, Misto shifts him each week to a different department in the most robustly corrupt public service imaginable - though Misto, who puts an 85 per cent truth rating on the stories he spins, would claim imagination has little to do with it.

This episode, Little House on the Gold Coast, was the first to be made after the ABC decided the first six had fallen below expectations and would be remade. It makes an ideal starting platform.

Singling out newcomer Aaron Blabey, as Harvey, and the sublime Monica Maughan, as his mum, is grossly unfair, for the others are all lovely, including - this week only - Frank Gallacher as Sgt McCabe.

Here's what we should be chanting on awards night. Mon-i-ca | Mon-i-ca |Mon-i-ca | Brilliant.