Weekend Starts Here, The

1 9 7 0 – 1 9 7 1 (Australia)
12 x 60 minute episodes

This short-lived Friday night variety show from GTV9 in Melbourne was hosted by Jimmy Hannan and broadcast in the summer of 1970/1971.

The show debuted on Friday 23 October 1970 with guest stars Freddie and the Dreamers, Aussie pop singers Matt Flinders and Liv Maessen, and jazz musician Smacka Fitzgibbon.

Guests on subsequent shows included overseas acts like Matt Monro, Winifred Atwell, Dickie Valentine, Lovelace Watkins and Northern Irish comedian Frank Carson, and home-grown talent including Allison Durbin, Normie Rowe, John Farnham, Johnny Chester, Merv Benton and Barry Crocker.

The final episode went to air on Friday 19 February 1971.

Jimmy Hannan died in January 2019, aged 84, after a short battle with cancer.