Simon Townsend, producer and presenter of Simon Townsend’s Wonder World, has died at age 79.
It was reported that he was recently diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer and died surrounded by family and friends.
He first made headlines in 1967 as a young journalist and conscientious objector to the Vietnam War. In court, he declared himself a pacifist and he was deemed by the magistrate to be “insincere” and jailed for a month in Long Bay jail.
He went on to work for Mike Willesee in the 1970s and edited a children’s newspaper, Zoot, before he ventured into creating a concept for a children’s television program. A magazine format, with early working titles including The Ripper Report and X, was first devised back in 1973 with a pilot produced in association with the Seven Network, but was not picked up.
A second pilot, produced with support from the Nine Network, was also not successful, but by the late 1970s the broadcast rules were changing to enforce a minimum amount of first-run Australian-made content for children on commercial networks. Townsend was successful in gaining approval for his program to be broadcast under the new ‘C’ classification and the show, by now renamed Simon Townsend’s Wonder World, was picked up by the Ten Network in 1979.
The show continued for almost 2000 episodes, ending in 1987, winning five Logies and made stars of its reporters including Angela Catterns, Sheridan Jobbins, Edith Bliss and Jonathan Coleman and the show’s mascot, Woodrow.
Amanda Keller also got her start in television as a researcher for the program.
Townsend returned to television in 1993 as the presenter of ABC’s early evening program TVTV, a nightly program based around television.
Meanwhile, Nine launched a revival of Wonder World, with presenters including Pascall Fox, Jodie Young, Tony Johnston, Catriona Rowntree and Sonia Kruger.
Simon Townsend is survived by three children, including actresses Nadia Townsend and Lisbeth Kennelly, his brothers and five grandchildren. His wife, Rosanna, died in 2003.
YouTube: Simon Townsend’s Wonder World
Source: ABC
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SIMON TOWNSEND EULOGY.
(Harvey Shore, producer of Simon Townsend’s Wonder World!, pays tribute to his friend and colleague of 50 years).
THE WILLESEE YEARS
Simon Townsend, my mate for over 50 years, died on 14 January 2025.
I first heard of Simon Townsend in 1968, the year I graduated from the Royal Military College, Duntroon as an officer in the Australian Army. That was also the year Simon refused National Service and went to jail as a conscientious objector to the war in Vietnam.
Simon remained only a name to me until I’d left the Army and was working in TV. In 1979, Mike Willesee hired us both to work on his new current affairs show for the Seven Network, Willesee at Seven. Simon impressed me as being a very determined and very self-assured journalist. We collaborated on many stories for Willesee and found that we worked well together.
I left Willesee at the end of 1977, after being hired as Head of PR for Village Roadshow. Simon left soon after to work on his version of a current affairs show for kids, which he called Simon Townsend’s Wonder World! He started making pilots for that show with the Seven Network and then the Nine Network.
MARK IT WITH ‘C’
At first, the networks weren’t interested in picking up Simon’s concept. Then, in 1979, the federal government’s Australian Broadcasting Tribunal made it compulsory for all commercial TV networks to air children’s TV programs between 4 pm and 5 pm on weekdays, and those programs were required to have a ‘C’ Classification from the Children’s Program Committee. Simon was quick off the mark: he obtained a ‘C’ Classification for his pilot and presented it to Network Ten, who had nothing of their own and agreed to put it to air on their major East Coast stations – Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.
Simon had to put together a production team in a hurry. He rang me at Village Roadshow and asked if I’d come to work with him as producer of the new show. I declined, since I was having the time of my life working at Roadshow. Simon hired Alan Lowery as founding producer instead. The first show aired on 3 September 1979.
Six months later, I’d just finished working on Can’t Stop the Music, a Hollywood blockbuster starring the Village People, when Simon called me again. Alan had resigned, and Simon wanted me as producer on Simon Townsend’s Wonder World! – but he’d advertised the position in the newspapers and insisted that I had to compete for it via a job application.
Thinking he was joking, I sent him a big box full of fresh fish and prawns, with a note saying, ‘I’m sure you’ll get a flood of applicants for the job and I wanted to send you something to tip the scales in my favour. So please find enclosed a million scales suitable for floods!’
Simon was on the phone the next day and made me an offer I couldn’t refuse!
WONDER WORLD WORKS WONDERS
I started working on Simon Townsend’s Wonder World! in 1980. Simon and I had three aims: first, to continue Alan Lowery’s good work; second, to publicise the hell out of the show, to maximise public awareness; and third, to win some TV Week Logie Awards.
In pursuit of those aims, I pumped out a lot of publicity about Simon and his show that year, particularly aimed at TV Week readers. By the end of 1980, the show was screening in every TV broadcast region throughout Australia and was frequently the top-rating program on Network Ten outside prime time.
At the 1981 and 1982 Logie Awards, Simon Townsend’s Wonder World! won Logies for Best Children’s Television Series. We lost out in 1983 before winning Most Popular Children’s Program three years in a row from 1984 to 1986 – a Logies hat trick.
Simon and I started doing deals with travel companies, enabling our show to travel all around Australia and overseas to film stories.
We sent reporters and crews to every state in the country, and then to Fiji, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, India and Europe. Many of these stories can now be viewed on the website of the National Film and Sound Archive, and on the facebook group page “Simon Townsend’s Wonder World, Fan Page”.
Our trip to Greece in 1984 was featured by Network Ten in Simon Townsend’s Wonder World! episodes aired ahead of their Olympic broadcasts in that year.
In 1986, after six years producing Simon Townsend’s Wonder World!, I felt it was time to move on; I accepted a job as an executive producer at the ABC. Woodrow the Bloodhound, who had shared the Wonder World set with Simon since the show began, died in 1986, and Simon Townsend’s Wonder World! ended the following year, after 1,961 shows. Simon told me he was leaving TV to become a property developer.
A GENEROUS MAN
Simon’s real-estate dreams didn’t quite work out, and in 1989 he asked me to work with him on a new TV concept called TVTV, a review program for the ABC. We made a pilot and got that show up and running, with Simon as host and a team of reviewers looking at daily TV offerings from networks around Australia. It was immediately popular.
At the same time that I began work as founding producer of TVTV, the Nine Network signed a contract to relaunch Simon Townsend’s Wonder World! in an updated format, renamed Wonder World. Simon said that he felt I was the best person to produce the new show for him and asked me to leave TVTV for Nine. Once again, I was made an offer I couldn’t refuse. Once again, Simon backed me all the way.
Simon was the most generous TV executive I ever worked with: not only in terms of my salary and support, but also to his staff. For example, it was common in the ’80s for TV shows to dismiss their staff over the Christmas period, sending them off on an unpaid holiday until the show began again in the New Year. But Simon did a special deal with Network Ten to produce Best of Wonder World shows over the Christmas period, paid for by the network and hosted by him. This enabled Simon to send all his staff home for six weeks over Christmas on full pay. Not many people did that in TV Land.
In 1993, Simon called me again to work with him on a new TV special he was making for the Seven Network called Chance and Coincidence, which offered one lucky viewer the chance to win a million dollars. He was also meeting with Kerry Packer and others over a proposed TV gambling show like Lotto, which Simon modestly called Simono. But after making Chance and Coincidence, I became busy working on other TV shows, like the medical drama series G.P. at the ABC.
I didn’t work on a TV show with Simon again until 2000. Mike Munro called me and asked if I’d help him lure Simon to a restaurant, where he was to be surprised as a subject of This Is Your Life. I felt a bit guilty inviting Simon to lunch on the pretext of having exciting news about a new TV show Nine wanted him to star in. He turned up unsuspecting, and Mike Munro caught him completely by surprise.
After that, Simon and I made a TV pilot on Psychics for the TEN Network, which was not picked up. That was the end of our TV production collaboration, although we met regularly, and talked often about new TV show ideas and concepts. Even after I moved to Queensland in 2005, we stayed in touch. In December 2024, when his son Michael warned me that Simon had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and had only weeks to live, I immediately flew down to Sydney to see him one last time. Despite his condition, Simon was still bright-eyed and keen to share stories of our years together.
After I returned home, I posted him several cheery cards – but before they could arrive, I received the sad news. My dear mate and colleague for the past 50 years was gone!
Hi Harvey, this is an amazing tribute, thank you so much for sharing your memories and am very sorry for the loss of your dear friend and colleague.
Personally I was at school age when the original STWW was on, and definitely have memories of watching it, although my younger brother was at Play School age, so I think he got his way most of the time! This was pre-VCR era! But it’s funny the random things your memory holds on to. One of the stories on the original Wonder World was about traffic lights. The reporter said everywhere you see a traffic light there is a metal box nearby which houses all the controlling parts. “Every traffic light has one,” he said. And 40 years later, to this day, whenever I see a set of traffic lights I still look for the metal box! Strange that that one memory stands out!
I was also a regular watcher of TVTV. Fantastic show and I was very disappointed it didn’t go longer.
Thank you Andrew. We’ve just started a new facebook page called “Simon Townsend’s Wonder World! Fan Page” which has some film stories and anecdotes on it. Have a look!