Julia Zemiro’s Home Delivery: March 23

This week on Home Delivery the guest is the rollicking Greig Pickhaver aka HG Nelson who grew up in Adelaide in the 1950s and 60s.

He meets up with Julia at Brighton Jetty, where he spent much of his youth leaping into the water with the ambition of catching every fish in St Vincent’s Gulf.

Then they climb into a glorious Kombi van and drive cross Adelaide to visit the family’s rambling two-storey house, where Grieg spent most of his time sleeping and waiting for time to pass. A stable family life was virtually non-existent as Greig’s parents’ troubled marriage caused shockwaves around the house, with him describing the family as living like eight satellite arms operating completely independently of each other. He says his mother’s shattered dreams condemned the Pickhavers to a cycle of silence and regret.

Then it’s on to Adelaide High School, where because Greig’s dyslexia made learning a constant battle, he used sport and theatre as a device to escape the stifling atmosphere of his home, while waiting for the world to turn so the unique set of skills he was about to acquire would be of some value.

They finish the day at Flinders University where his time in drama school began the process of opening Greig’s mind to the possibility of escaping from the landscape of doubt and claustrophobia that made up his family life. The world of theatre pointed the way to a wider world of imagination and creativity that led to HG Nelson and beyond.

A Cordell Jigsaw Zapruder production. Presenter and co-producer Julia Zemiro. CJZ Executive Producer Nick Murray. CJZ Executive Producer / Director Damian Davis. ABC Executive Producer Richard Huddleston. ABC Head of Entertainment Jon Casimir.

8pm Wednesday on ABC.