Skippy the Australian icon set to bounce back
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Your support makes all the difference.More than 30 years after Skippy the bush kangaroo bounced across television screens, plans are being hatched to resurrect him in a new series featuring some of the original cast and crew.
The nostalgia trip has been dreamed up by Tony Bonner, who played an airborne ranger called Jerry King in the 1960s series. Mr Bonner has been negotiating with the holders of the rights to Skippy, Fauna Productions, to recreate the programme, which was televised in every country except mainland China.
The television series, one of the most successful to come out of Australia, revolved around a family who kept an eastern grey kangaroo as a pet. Skippy himself was played by various kangaroos whose descendants live at Waratah Park, an animal sanctuary on Sydney's north shore where the original series was filmed.
Mr Bonner's plan is to film a new show at Waratah Park. He said yesterday that he could start production within a month. "Skippy is an Australian icon, there's no question about it," he said.
Skippy was often summoned to get the Hammond family – Matt, the head ranger, and his two sons, Mark and Sonny – out of trouble. Skippy could drive cars, pick locks, send Morse code and communicate with humans.
Waratah Park still contains the ranger's house, together with Matt Hammond's office and two-way radio. However, the helicopter pad that was used by Jerry King has become a horse paddock. The park is managed by the Hogan family, who have the same fixation with animals as the fictional Hammonds. Twelve-year-old Louise Hogan is rearing a five-week-old possum, Blossum, that likes to sleep on her head.
A version of the story called The Adventures of Skippy was made in 1991. Mr Bonner did not say which of the ageing members of the original cast had agreed to play parts in a new series.
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