It is very appropriate to hear from Hamish and Andy on the day Craig Campbell and Rove McManus celebrate 10 years of The Project.
The two former drive-time radio hosts Hamish Blake and Andy Lee built their TV profile as a key part of Rove Live and Roving Enterprises produced their early TV series Real Stories.
After early years on Channel 31 and then Seven, Hamish & Andy thrived first with Roving Enterprises and then under their own Radio Karate banner at 10.
They later moved to Nine where Blake and Lee now have their own projects plus regular gigs on other shows screened on the network.
They are soon to return on the Radio Karate production for Nine, Hamish & Andy’s Perfect Holiday, in their own words, “to hurt each other”.
“We’ve come back together like many couples who go on holidays together…and argue for most of the trip,” they told Mediaweek.
The duo recently revealed their first Perfect Holiday sees them visit the United States.
“North America, to be more precise,” they noted adding the trip involves crossing the border into Canada.
They spent close to a month filming the series in North America.
Blake: “The whole idea of this format is we take it in turns to plan alternating days. One day I’m meeting Andy in the morning, I’ll give him a card and I tell him, ‘Good news, this is what we’re doing today.’
Lee: “Just like Survivor. I got mail.”
Even though Blake has been hosting Lego Masters and Lee was a team captain on Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation, they have ventured out on solo projects before.
Lee reminded Mediaweek Blake had been a huge part of Spicks and Specs, appearing in about 50 episodes over the years.
They both admitted it can take a bit of getting used to working on a program that is not being produced by their own company.
Blake: “We’re lucky that we are both in fun projects. With Lego Masters, it was really fun to work with another creative team and see how they handle the production, how they dissect creative challenges and problems and stuff because I learned a lot seeing how Endemol Shine operate and I think they’re awesome at what they do.”
Blake then joked some of the ideas might be pinched by Radio Karate in future. “I think it’s called intellectual theft. I’ve bought back all their proprietary material, and we’ll steal it.”