Legendary Australian comedian behind The Bert Newton Show and Tonight Live With Steve Vizard dies at the age of 86

Legendary Australian comedy writer Mike McColl Jones has died aged 86.

The writer, known for his work on comedy great Graham Kennedy, died on March 11 after a short illness.

Mike helped shape the ‘golden age’ of comedy television and his fans and friends have been quick to pay tribute to him following the sad news of his death.

Entertainment reporter Peter Ford gushed over Mike’s contribution to Australian television while remembering him on Melbourne talk station 3AW.

“Recently he has not been in the best of health but very sharp mentally,” he also told hosts Ross Stevenson and Russel Howcroft.

Mike – who was born in Melbourne on 12 August 1937 – started his hugely successful television career writing one-liners for Graham Kennedy’s In Melbourne Tonight show.

His partnership with Graham spanned two decades as Mike went on to write for The Graham Kennedy Show where he established himself as a talented comedy writer.

He helped bring to life many shows at the center of Australia’s ‘Golden Age’ of television, including The Don Lane Show and Tonight Live With Steve Vizard.

In addition to his close relationship with Graham, Mike also worked closely with Bert Newton on his shows Tonight With Bert Newton and The Bert Newton Show.

According to New dailyBert previously said of Mike’s talents: ‘When it came to writing one liners and personality material, Mike was simply without peer.’

Mike worked on dozens of variety shows, wrote thousands of jokes and rubbed shoulders with some of the world’s biggest stars – including David Bowie and Clint Eastwood – when they visited the GTV9 studios.

In 2017, Mike was awarded an OBE for ‘service to the performing arts as a comedy writer for television’ as part of the annual Queen’s Birthday Honors list.

TV presenter and film producer Steve Vizard wrote an obituary for Mike, saying he will be ‘greatly missed’ as he gushed over his friend’s life’s work.

He wrote: ‘Mike McColl Jones was a gentle, imaginative man who was a direct, vital, unbroken link to the age of vaudeville and the Tivoli greats, through the glorious era of radio, through the golden age of television, when television was the only thing. game in town and half the nation watched last night’s shows, through cable television and the dawn of the new millennium, to the age of streaming and digital media.

‘It’s a rare thing to make someone laugh, especially in the solitude of their living room, but Mike managed to do it for 40 years, and in doing so he not only gave our nation a laugh, but convincingly charted the daily ebbs and flows and absurdities of our nation’s unfolding journey,” he added.