Chris Allen is a journalist and veteran TV reporter for A Current Affair.
If you’ve watched Australian television over the last thirty years you’ve probably seen or heard Chris on A Current Affair, also known as ACA, chasing down dodgy scammers, confronting neighbours from hell, or even exposing a grandma selling drugs from her front porch in her dressing gown and slippers.
Chris is one of the great Australian TV journos and he’s still in the game with plans to return to ACA this year to do some more reporting. He’s been a journalist since the late 70s which makes him a veteran of the industry although you’d think he’s ten years younger if you saw him on TV.
Our conversation touches on his coverage of the murder of Alison Baden-Clay just a few houses down from where he lived at the time; his early ambition to become a journalist or an actor; his experience of drama school in the same cohort as Judy Davis and Mel Gibson and his subsequent cadetship at The Courier-Mail; how his love of drama and journalism combined to see him thrive as a reporter on A Current Affair; being thrown in the deep end of TV reporting and how he succeeded in the tough industry; how he manages talking to the loved ones of victims after a tragedy in what the industry calls death knocks; the life of a TV journo working for ACA and the bizarre stories he’s covered including his iconic story on a drug granny and the time someone threated to bite his face off; why he understands why some people criticise A Current Affair for their coverage of neighbourhood disputes; the keys to good TV writing; and why journalism’s been a great career for him so far.
For a full episode transcript and links to Chris’s work visit our website: http://bylinespodcast.com
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Sound production by Jonathan Koster: https://www.instagram.com/djjonnysounds