30 November 2007

Ask yourself whether or not you like him

| Ari
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While the rest of the country has been divided into two hostile camps over who gets to lead the country, the staunchly middle-class burghers of Canberra have been just as polarised over what some see as a frontal attack on a beloved institution.

Who might this polarising figure be? Stanhope? Pratt? Johnboy?

Nah … it’s the ex-gardening guru turned weather presenter Mark Carmody during his nightly forays onto the 7pm ABC news.

The genteel letter writers to the Canberra Times have been indulging in the dead tree version of a flame war over the bloke. For example:

THERE’LL BE ELL TO PAY
Despite criticism in these pages of ABC TV weatherman Mark Carmody’s vowels and “‘ells” (Letters, November 14), he justly deserves support for providing differentiation from the display of weather with cleavage on other channels.

As one would expect, intrepid local news hound Samuel Gordon-Stewart has been onto the case … and he’s taken to bagging cr*p out of Carmody.

My theory is that Sam’s probably jealous since he’s got his sights set on being THE source for weather news in the ACT – even if his efforts are all simply cut-and-pasted items from the BOM (and I wonder who in their right mind would be relying on Samuel Gordon-Stewart to advise them on property protection?)

But the greatest venom has been on display at ABC TV’s Have your say pages where there’s seems to be great angst at Carmody’s “frivolous” reports.

I for one don’t mind Carmody’s “shtick” and see no reason why the weather has to be presented in a dreary and sombre fashion. Perhaps I have a blind spot due to my partiality to a bit of gardening.

Anyway, knowing the crowd at RiotACT I’m sure there are some who positively seethe with anger towards the poor bloke. If so, here’s a chance to vent.

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Well, he’s not me, sadly. But it’s so nice to see some goofy normal person on camera, rather than a prinked and preened Media Person. Even though actually, he IS a media person.

Holden Caulfield6:54 pm 28 May 08

I reckon ant, oops, I mean, Mark Carmody is a good guy, but he’s just not a natural in front of a camera. Still, he makes us have a giggle each time we watch, so he can’t be all bad.

Woody Mann-Caruso10:37 am 17 May 08

I think he’s fantastic. All these other bland news announcers run together after a while. I’d rather watch him every day than listen to Tim Bailey say …(hang on, I’ll just check the gun cabinet is locked)… “drips and drops on crops and rooftops” one more time.

He’s the embodiment of the real Canberra – the one that makes million dollar decisions about the nation during the week, but traipses around Pialligo on a dreary weekend wearing mismatched polar fleece gear, has a latte at Rodneys, potters round the backyard in the afternoon, says “yeah, all right kids, you can have fish and chips for dinner” then falls asleep on the couch with a glass of red.

No. Just no. He has the diction of a sulphur-crested cockatoo on steroids. Probably a nice bloke, and I’m told his radio gardening spot was terribly good and popular. The amusing bit of the weather is watching Virginia H try not to roll her eyes. Use him doing colour pieces on Stateline. Get him adopted by Peter Cundall. Whatever.

But, of course, he’s about a million times better and more genuine than Tim Bailey.

I reckon he needs to give an explanation when he doesn’t wear a flower, seriously. He’s done it twice this week and it’s a bit much. He could wear a leaf or something.

And I caught sight of a white flower on him which I thought was a camellia, but at the end Virginia said it was an Azalea. Now, I only caught a brief glimpse of it, but…?

I wouldn’t call it modern, I’d call it horrible. He looked like he should be parking cars in a valet in Hollywood on that particular night.

He’s alright, although tries a bit hard with the whole camp but I’m not gay act.

I still think he’s great. Although some evenings lately he hasn’t worn his flower. And one night, he wore a very “modern” bright red jacket with a mandarin collar, and no flower! He and Virginia are trying to get some sort of closing banter going, it’s a tad awkward sometimes but they’re getting there.

sturzkamfflugzeug9:12 pm 16 May 08

In used to love him on the garden show. I hated him at first as the weatherman. But now the ABC news is now a fascination for me with the cold, hard, yet irresistably sensual Virg bantering with the overt campedness of Mark. It’s magic when she giggles and also squirms at his final reparte. Talk about chalk and cheese. Or perhaps cactus and fern. I’d wonder what they say off-air…

Yes, could be an overshoot! 🙂

Pearl necklace gone wrong?

Yeah, he does look a little stiff in front of the camera.

Tony Lynas looked like someone had spat huge gubbies in his hair!

Holden Caulfield2:25 pm 05 Dec 07

I’m on the fence in regards to Mark Carmody. He was great on the radio, but hasn’t quite made the transition to television. I can kind of cope with his banter and enthusiasm, but I really dislike how he holds his head so that we see the underside of his chin all the time!

Tony Lynas, that is.
He was dead boring on tv, but when he walked amongst us mortals was a magnet for salacious gossip.

Speaking of which, whatever happened to Tony the Pony?

regularbrowse6:02 am 05 Dec 07

I enjoy watching Mark Carmody present ABC weather. He has more personality than the paper cut outs on the commercials. Always wait to hear what the ‘flower of the day is’. Met him a few times. A friendly and polite bloke. Has been involved in community projects such as the Pumpkin Festival and the sensory garden at Malkara special school. I don’t think the other local weather presenters are interested in much except getting their face on TV.

No I detest Marks behaviour. I have seen it at toastmaster classes. These exercises which should not be brought into the the public arena are painful to watch. For me it means that after watching the weather on the ABC for many years I now have to go elsewhere. Mark is the worst (or maybe was) announcer, Tim Bailey the second worst any others quite watchable. A curse on him I hope his chooks grow into emus and kick his dunny down.

Philbert I believe he’s a local through and through.

The fire of a thousand nuns??

The mind boggles.

Growling Ferret10:14 am 03 Dec 07

Carmody might be a clown, but at least he doesn’t wheeze through his nose like former Canberra weather man Mike ‘Hairy Man’ Larkham. Now that shit me to tears. He’s in Melbourne these days, nose wheezing his way through the weather every day.

philbert83au9:44 am 03 Dec 07

I can’t complain about him. He’s a bit of something different and has grown on us at home.

Meanwhile, can someone tell me what he did prior to the weather gig? I get the impression, as a newish Canberran, that he’s been a local personality somehow in the past?

I hate him with a intense passion which burns like the fire of a thousand nuns.
If he was a fill-in until they got someone different, I probably wouldn’t mind quite so much, but he’s a terrible choice for anything long-term.

I think he should chuck the flower at her, every night.

On bended knee.

He’s good value. And Virginia just has to learn that she doesn’t need to banter with him every night – no need for constant rejoinders. Just let him laugh, V.
Nice partnership – the cool, haughty Virginia and Mark the awkward, gauche but endearing Bungendore-esque hick.
The Mark & Alex gardening show was great – they were in stitches most of the time. Not translatable across to the earnest news unfortunately!
Keep up the good work, Carmody, even though you make me squirm with embarrassment for you from time to time!
Nicely judged and nuanced by the ABC News managers, by the way. It’s evident on-screen that they’ve been working on the dynamics between our nightly Odd Couple.

Mark used to play footsies with the woman on the gardening show. She was soon booted.

I really don’t mind who reads the weather, as long as I can understand what’s being said.

Fortunately, there are graphics on screen to fill in the missing bits. So, between the graphics and Carmody’s occasionally incomprehensible speech delivery, I usually come away knowing what to expect in the next day’s weather.

Ha, he’s ok, I went to school with his daughter.

Tim Bailey is a fake. Used to see a lot of him at Thredbo, and he was a sour little man, with a huge ego. Very contrived when he’s doing his weather schtick.

Tim Bailey? (the Ten guy). Check his breathing next time you see him. He almost gasps for breath sometimes. Takes a breath after every few words. I know he talks fast but even so. Maybe it’s a respiratory condition. Sometimes it’s like watching somebody with advanced emphysema do the weather.

I can’t stand him. But he’s enthusiastic and tries to put in a bit of interest. One rellie loves him, one walks out when he appears on screen.
WHatever else, he’s vastly better than the Ten bloke. He makes me think, to howls from the sisterhood, that reading the weather is women’s work.

He’s grown on me. He was better on radio doing gardening though.

I reckon ABC have him on a 5 year contract and have nothing else to do with him.

I’m sorry to say that he kind of annoys me as well. I don’t mind a bit of colour being injected into the news, but he really comes off as trying too hard. Don’t get me wrong – he’s probably a lovely guy and no doubt has the best of intentions, but to me he’s a significant distraction from the information he’s trying to convey, and to my mind that’s not a quality you want in a news/weather reader.

In my household we were very much ‘WTF?’ when we first saw Mark Carmody, but he’s definitely grown on us. Sure, he’s a dork, but he happily embraces his dorkishness. He does make the weather somewhat entertaining, whilst still getting the message across, IMHO.

I think Virginia does like him. Possibly like she’d like a scruffy puppy, but that’s still a sort of like. She often seems genuinely amused (and surprised) at what he says.

I recall watching ABC news years ago when it was still very old-school BBC in style, and the salient meteorological features were indicated on the map using a pointer. When the newsreader threw to the weather, the guy presented the whole thing using an umbrella as the pointer. Both he and the newsreader carried on as if there was nothing unusual, staying straight-faced throughout the whole thing. Nice bit of understated weather man humor.

Problem with Mark is he’s just such a freakin’ try-hard. After all, if he had personality, he wouldn’t be a weather presenter.

And yeah, what is it with female newsreaders in general and wardrobe dysfunction? Virginia has her good and bad days but the WIN chick is a fashion disaster on a nightly basis. I didn’t think her attire couldn’t get any worse. Then she wafts on the other night in a frock made largely of chiffon. Eeeeeek!

Yes I am not overly impressed with the new weather guy. I don’t have time for banter just give me the facts! And my wife is also not impressed with Virginia’s outfits.

can’t stand the git, me. why do weather persons seem to want to talk about the weather as if, a) it is the weather’s fault, and b) as if there is some archetypal weather that everyone wants and so gushes when they have that day to report.

i, for one, rather like cool gloomy days and don’t go much in for the bright hot hot days. why do i feel disparaged by weather gits?

Ugh! I’ve been waiting for him to come up. I loathe him. He’s like some hick weather person you’d find on a regional TV station about twenty years ago.

And he scripts his terrible parting quips and still manages to fluff them nearly every night!

I think Virginia hates him. She doesn’t seem to be able to come up with much by way of reply except for that terrible girlie laugh which totally screws with her ice queen image.

Where on earth did they find him……

I think he’s great! And Virginia doesn’t seem to be dripping venom when she says “Thanks, Mark”. Remember the previous bloke, and her icy “Thanks. John”. ouch! Why on earth don’t they like him? He’s a hoot.

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