The forecast is for a warm day, but Julia Zemiro says after living in her winter coast since arriving in London, she will be the judge of that.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
“Suns out. It’s like a small miracle,” she jokes.
Zemiro is in London on route to Vienna for the Eurovision Song contest for more of her insightful behind-the-scenes chats with contestants. The UK is also home to half the guests for her new series of Home Delivery, featuring Matt Lucas, Jo Brand, Alan Davis and Billy Bragg.
With her natural wit, charm and genuine curiosity, Home Delivery is a role Zemiro clearly relishes and a culmination of every interviewing gig she’s had.
“Executive producer Nick Murray would say to me, ‘I watch you interview at Eurovision. I have no idea who they are and you make it interesting and fun,’ so I guess we started from that premise.
“Even with Rock whiz I had to interview four new people I’d just met and two musicians so I had a lot of experience of making them feel comfortable and talking to them. This show is basically eight hours of that so I guess it is a natural progression,” she says.
“Everyone is so different so you want to tease out certain things in their lives."
- Julia Zemiro
While the first two series’ were comedians only, the third has a broad range of guests. Balancing out the British numbers will be an eclectic bunch of Australian personalities including Ian Thorpe, Ita Buttrose, Paralympian Kurt Fearnley and restaurateur Matt Moran.
Zemiro drives them home to their childhood neighbourhoods and this, she believes, leads to a unique openness and the sharing of candid memories.
“Matt Lucas told some stories we had never read anywhere before. It’s simply because we take them back and they are physically back in the space which sets off a chain of thoughts and memories,” she says.
Well known stand-up comedian, Jo Brand who appears regularly on QI was a revelation.
“She’s quite abrasive and full-on and people thought she was a man hating feminist, but no. She’s married with two children.”
Brand reveals a lot about her upbringing, how her mother was a pre-feminist and she herself was a Psychiatrist nurse for years which helped her comedy write itself Zemiro says.
“Her childhood home is one of the cutest little cottagey, English places you will ever see. It was really cute and cosy."
Actor Alan Davies speaks openly about his troubled childhood and how his mother’s early death left him misunderstood until a primary school teacher took the time to find out why.
“A good teacher, a compassionate teacher, she knew his mum had died and she took him aside and said you’re always interrupting me and being naughty what’s wrong? And he just burst into tears.”
Zemiro says the teacher, Mrs Thorogood, went out of her way to meet up with Davies on the show.
“His mother died and her father died when she was around the same age. He (Alan) didn’t know and we didn’t know even with all our research,” Zemiro says.
It is this sort of emotional, yet simple story-telling that has made Home Delivery a viewer favourite. And Zemiro is not afraid to ask the hard questions.
“Sam Simmons and Wendy Harmer in series two were quite open about wanting to take their own lives when they were teenagers and were comfortable enough to talk about it.
“I was very moved by Sam’s story and very moved by Wendy Harmer.
“If anything I want this show to be something that people watch and think they didn’t have it all to begin with and you too can make your life what you want,” she says.
While the format is similar in all episodes the producers wanted each to have its own narrative, individualised to the guest.
“Every episode is different so you can’t say this is the bit where they go in the house and then they meet the teacher.
“Everyone is so different you want to tease out certain things in their lives,” Zemiro says.
The car chosen for the walk down memory lane is one that was significant in the guest’s childhood.
“If we think they’ll get a kick out of it we let them drive as it gives me a break and I can concentrate on asking questions.”
Jo Brandt has an international rally car licence so drove the manual Austin chosen for her while Bill Bragg drove as did Shane Jacobson as he loves cars says Zemiro.
Which leads to the all-important question, if Zemiro was a guest on the show what would her car be?
“When we came to Australia from France my dad bought a Chrysler Centura, it was enormous, mustard colour. I just thought that it was the fanciest car I’d ever seen.”
Home Delivery screens from Wednesday June 3 at 9pm on ABC