When you least expect it, you're selected

Front Up
SBS, Tuesdays
Reviewed by Dave Riley Where would television be without its regular fodder of talking heads? In any given day, the console is visited by a fresh batch of chatty craniums. Generally, such company is warranted by reputation alone. In exchange for another grab at fame, something topical is solicited from the skull currently in focus. By such means is our TV-world "known". But if you tire of the politician's catch phrases, the actor's public private life, the dirt and the gossip as the beautiful, rich or famous strut their expensive egos, then perhaps you warrant a regular dose of Front Up. Taken neat, Front Up is lethal to bulldust. In concept it seems pretty simple: front up to folk at random on the streets of Australia and, with videocam set on record, pry into their lives. Having subjects taken by surprise and confronted by outstretched microphone and spying lens — "You want to talk to me!" — creates an edge in favour of the interviewer. In arrogant hands such an opportunity could be utilised to turn common folk into video fools. But with Andrew Urban holding up the mike, the street interviews that make up this program are a sheer delight. Each week, five or six people are encouraged to vent themselves. Without set form or structure — and seemingly without manipulation — Urban fosters a discourse remarkable for its ability to draw on the common sense and genuine sensibility of passers-by as they pause briefly in their lives to donate their opinions. Urban's guests, picked at random from among the masses in the street, are addressed with "unconditional positive regard" (to employ a favourite phrase of the helping industry) without using associated buzz words to trick his subjects into an unguarded response. Thanks to later editing and certainly selection from among many interviews, Front Up arrives on our screens each week as a fresh insight into the world of everyday people untouched by media hype. Such a genuine presentation of what the rest of us think about ourselves and others is unique television. Despite what we are told and encouraged to believe, there are a lot of fine folk out there doing their best with a life as found. At least for a few moments, through the work of Andrew Urban and his team, they are able to share some of its richness and challenge with us. They may not be famous, but they are as special and as thoughtful as you or me.

From GLW issue 219