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Book versus film: How Alfred Hitchcock transported the spine-chilling ‘Psycho' to the screen
'Norman Bates heard the noise and a shock went through him.' Thus begins Robert Bloch's best-known novel Psycho, which inspired the Alfred Hitchcock classic Psycho. Published in 1959, the book about a serial killer with a mother fixation was quickly snapped up for a screen adaptation that came out in 1960. Hitchcock's money-spinning version inspired three sequels, a remake and a contemporary series. Bloch was a prolific writer in the genres of crime, science fiction and fantasy ('Things were very quiet in ladies' underwear that morning' is the opening line of his novella The Miracle of Ronald Weems). Bloch churned out more Psycho books too, which had nothing to do with the film sequels. While the movie diverges from the book, the two Psychos are united in their concentrated impact. Hitchcock's genius lies in locating the correct tone and visuals to match Bloch's chilling prose. Hitchcock's Psycho will be screened on July 24 at Mumbai's Regal cinema by the Film Heritage Foundation, as part of its annual restoration workshop. The foundation previously showed the suspense maestro's North By Northwest, and will screen Rear Window (on July 31) and Vertigo (on August 7). View this post on Instagram A post shared by Film Heritage Foundation (@filmheritagefoundation) A landmark of the horror genre, Psycho remains the subject of numerous dissections and debates. The black-and-white movie's gruesome centrepiece is a roughly 45-second sequence in which a woman is knifed to death while taking a shower. The stabbing was one of the most explicit portrayals of violence in cinema at the time. In an interview in 1990, Bloch recalled telling the director, 'Mr Hitchcock, I think this is either going to be your greatest success, or your biggest bomb.' Bloch dreams up a worse fate for the showering woman, Mary Crane. Mary spots a 'crazy old woman' peering at her through the curtain. 'Mary started to scream, and then the curtains parted further and a hand appeared, holding a butcher's knife,' Bloch writes. 'It was the knife that, a moment later, cut off her scream. And her head.' It was the 'suddenness of the murder in the shower, coming, as it were, out of the blue', that intrigued Hitchcock, he told filmmaker Francois Truffaut for the conversation book Hitchcock/Truffaut. Psycho supplied Hitchcock the opportunity to get audiences 'aroused by pure film', he said. Bloch's crisp writing and vivid imagery gave Hitchcock and screenwriter Joseph Stefano ample cues to create graphic, abrupt scenes. Bloch based Norman Bates on Ed Gein, the American serial killer who in the 1950s made souvenirs from the body parts of his victims. Norman's reading list includes a book about the Incas, who have fashioned drums out of human skin – a foreshadowing of Norman's subsequent actions as well as a link to Ed Gein. In an essay The Shambles of Ed Gein from 1962, Bloch wrote, 'The real chamber of horrors is the gray, twisted, pulsating, blood-flecked interior of the human mind.' In Bloch's novel, readers meet his deranged creation in the first chapter itself. Norman is unnerved by a sound that turns out to be that of rain, not of 'someone tapping on the window pane'. Norman has lived his entire life in the house adjoining the Bates Motel. The only other occupant, who looms large over Norman's fragile mind, is his beloved and hated mother Norma. Bloch writes: 'Here everything was orderly and ordained: it was only there, outside, that the changes took place. And most of the changes held a potential threat.' Norma disapproves of 40-year-old Norman's stay-at-home behaviour, his sexual impotence, his submissiveness. 'Mothers sometimes are overly possessive, but not all children allow themselves to be possessed,' Bloch observes. Mary Crane wanders into Norman's isolated world by accident. She is on the run after having stolen money from her employer in order to help her boyfriend Sam Loomis pay off a debt. Heavy rain forces Mary to stay the night at Bates Motel, where Norman, his collection of stuffed animals – he is a taxidermist by hobby – and Mother await her. After Mary's disappearance, the detective Arbogast, Sam and Mary's sister Lila arrive at Bates Motel. The book's final chapters are replicated in the film adaptation. The movie finds innovative ways to transport Bloch's observations to the screen. A line that compares Norman's house to a jail inspires Saul Bass's opening titles, in which the names resemble distorted bars in a prison cell. Hitchcock made some key changes to the book. Mary Crane is now Marion Crane. Norman doesn't have a plump face, thinning sandy hair or rimless glasses. He is tall and slim, with a full head of hair, piercing black eyes and a boyish appearance. The film begins with Marion, rather than Norman. The camera hovers over a city and then moves downward and through the window of the room where Marion (Janet Leigh) is in bed with Sam (John Gavin). Voyeurism, the act of seeing what is meant to be shielded from the gaze, will be echoed later in the film, culminating in the shower. '…the public always likes to be one jump ahead of the story; they like to feel that they know what's coming next,' Hitchcock told Truffaut. 'So you deliberately play upon this fact to control their thoughts. The more we go into the details of the girl's story, the more the audience becomes absorbed in her flight.' The movie withholds the introduction to Norman – a necessary device for creating suspense. The movie's Norman is a cipher, without any indication of his proclivities. In the book, Norman has an outburst when Mary suggests that he should institutionalise his ailing mother. In the film, Norman doesn't visibly react to Marion's remark. Rather, his mental state is revealed through camera angles and subtle editing. Cinematographer John L Russell moves around and closer to Norman and the stuffed birds in the background during his conversation with Marion. The film's iconic bit of dialogue 'We all go a little mad sometimes' is a reworking of Bloch's line 'I think perhaps all us go a little crazy at times.' Norman's poignant statement about his loneliness is an invention of the film: 'We scratch and claw but only at the air and each other. And for all of it we never budge an inch.' Hitchcock's mastery is most evident in the opening section, the build-up to Marion's killing and the shower sequence. While the woman's beheading is excised for the movie, Hitchcock conjures up an equally terrible end for the character. Hitchcock told Truffaut that he deliberately cast Janet Leigh as Marion. By killing a well-known actor so early into the narrative, Hitchcock was 'directing the viewers', he added, 'playing them, like an organ'. Marion's murder is sliced into numerous shots that last mere seconds and match the frenzied stabs on her naked body. Bernard Hermann's strings-heavy background score mimics the sound of shrieking. A match cut links Marion's eye to the drain into which her blood is flowing. The shoot took a week, required 72 camera set-ups and involved 52 editing cuts. Marli Renfro played Leigh's body double. Renfro was among the actors, filmmakers and critics interviewed by Alexandre O Philippe for his insightful documentary 78/52 (2017). Director Karyn Kusama notes in 78/52 that Psycho was 'the first modern, pure expression of the female body under assault'. Hermann's iconic tune – which was partially lifted by composer Sandeep Chowta for a scene in Ram Gopal Varma's Satya (1988) – could not be heard in cinemas because of the audience's screams, Peter Bogdanovich recalls in 78/52. Play The stabbing montage eclipses Hitchcock's other feats in the movie. The truth about Norma and Norman comes off better in the novel. Despite peaking a bit too soon, the film distils the twisted spirit of Bloch's novel, while also giving a face to Norman Bates that is impossible to forget. Anthony Perkins, the father of horror filmmaker Osgood Perkins, brilliantly played Norman in Psycho and its sequels, his interpretation of the maniac overshadowing his other roles. Film scholars have pointed to Psycho 's predecessors, among them Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter (1955). Michael Powell's Peeping Tom, which was released two months before Psycho in 1960, is considered a worthier and weightier exploration of deviance. Yet, Psycho 's contribution to the serial killer genre is vast and enduring. In 1998, Gus Van Sant directed a shot-by-shot remake in colour. His Psycho starred Vince Vaughn as Norman, Anne Heche as Marion and Julianne Moore as Lila. The film is a curio, adding nothing to the original production. The continuing fascination with Norman's house of horrors also inspired the long-running television series Bates Motel (2013-2017). The prequel takes place in the present and explores Norman's formative years. Freddie Highmore plays a young Norman, while Vera Farmiga is Norma. The show is aimed at completists who want to know every inch of the twinned Norman-Norma. But Bloch's novel and Hitchcock's adaptation are adequate as starter and main course. Each is complete in itself, best consumed in one terrified gulp.
The Herald Scotland
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
'Period parody run riot' The 39 Steps Pitlochry Festival Theatre
Pitlochry Festival Theatre Neil Cooper Four stars John Buchan probably couldn't have predicted what liberties maverick film director Alfred Hitchcock would take with his 1915 novel, in which dashing Richard Hannay takes flight to Scotland after a night at the theatre throws him into a world of intrigue and adventure. Hitchcock too might have raised an eyebrow regarding how writer Patrick Garland transformed his 1935 big screen adaptation into a pocket sized stage pastiche requiring just four actors to do the business. Garland's irreverent hybrid of Hitchcock and Buchan's creations has run and run for two decades now and counting. Ben Occhipinti's new Pitlochry Festival Theatre production breathes fresh life into a show that has tremendous fun with the existing material while managing to put a personal stamp on things. This is led by Alexander Service as Hannay, who flaunts his character's matinee idol looks with a nice line in self parody as he flees from his bachelor pad that has just acquired a murdered German fugitive as part of the furniture. READ MORE: The panoply of skullduggery and accidental romance that follows sees Blythe Jandoo too play assorted leading ladies with similar lashings of style, charm and comic strip satire aplenty. This is especially the case with Pamela, who ends up in an involuntary clinch with Hannay on the train to Scotland in order to help throw the cops off the scent, then later spends the night with him in handcuffs. Chris Coxon and Stephanie Cremona keep things rattling along as the show's self styled Clowns, changing hats, coats and accents in rapid fire succession as assorted pulp fiction spies, Highland hoteliers and the Mr Memory vaudeville turn that sets things in motion. All this takes place on Liz Cooke's sliding doors set featuring a mini revolve and a track that allows miniature trains and Highland sheep alike to speed their way home. The end result sees a Freudian dream team forever in motion in a period parody run riot.
Time Out
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
It's official: the world's most beautiful outdoor cinema is in Australia
We Aussies are in the thick of winter right now, making it the perfect time to cosy up at the movies with a bucket of popcorn and a box of Maltesers. But here's the good news – we're officially halfway to summer, the unofficial season of outdoor cinemas. Our deliciously balmy summer weather sets the perfect scene for sinking into a bean bag with a prosecco in hand and watching the sun dip below the horizon as a blockbuster lights up the big screen. But if there's one thing that takes the movie magic to the next level, it's watching the plot unfold in a stunning location. From abandoned train tracks and cemeteries to grand castles and amphitheatres, Time Out's global film editor worked with our travel writers around the world to curate a list of the 30 most beautiful outdoor cinemas on Earth – and four Aussie theatres cracked the list. Westpac OpenAir, Sydney Australia is home to loads of breathtaking outdoor theatres, but Sydney's Westpac OpenAir took the crown as the most gorgeous alfresco cinema in the world. With the iconic Opera House and Harbour Bridge as its backdrop, this floating cinema at Mrs Macquaries Point in Sydney's Botanic Gardens is nothing short of spectacular. The massive 350-square-metre, three-storey-high screen projects everything from the latest blockbusters to vintage classics. While relaxing, you can order a bottle of bubbles to wash down a picnic box or enjoy a bougie dining experience on the site's waterside terrace. Somerville Auditorium, Perth Fancy watching a film in a forest? Perth Festival 's Somerville Auditorium has your bark, ranking as the 19th most beautiful outdoor cinema on Earth. From November to April, picnicking crowds sink into deckchairs and beanbags to watch an expertly curated festival programme full of world cinema and arthouse gems. This tradition has been happening since 1953, so it's got some serious cultural clout. Cameo Outdoor Cinema, Melbourne Following just behind in 20th place was Cameo Outdoor Cinema in Belgrave, just a 45-minute drive from Melbourne's CBD. Set against the lush backdrop of the Dandenong Ranges, this leafy spot serves up more than just scenic views – the film lineup is top-tier too. Expect everything from Almost Famous to Z, with Hitchcock marathons and even the occasional silent flick. You can even bring your four-legged friend along for the fun! Sun Pictures, Broome It's pretty cool that Australia lays claim to the world's oldest outdoor cinema, Sun Pictures, which has been playing films in a gorgeous garden in Broome since 1916. It ranked as the 30th most gorgeous screen in the world and the fourth most beautiful in Australia. Come rain, hail or shine, you'll find a mix of locals and backpackers gathering under the stars for one of two nightly screenings. We hear the house-made choc bombs here are the bomb (sorry, not sorry!).
Sydney Morning Herald
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘People are fed up': Why 10 News+ is going back to basics
If you read the comments under any story about free-to-air news and current affairs, you will find the same mix of complaints: Untrustworthy, too woke, too left, too right-wing and, inevitably, 'bring back The Drum '. So launching a new nightly news program, one that promises in-depth coverage and big-picture reporting, is a tough ask: How do you build trust with an audience that is already side-eyeing how news is delivered? It's a question journalists Denham Hitchcock and Amelia Brace hope to answer as the hosts of Network 10's new hour-long nightly news program, 10 News+. '[Building trust] that's difficult because that requires time,' says Hitchcock. 'But what we're saying from the start is that [trust] is at the core of this program, so you will see that in the reporting and the questioning and the topics that we choose, I think that will change people's opinions because we won't just be taking one side, we'll be questioning both sides equally, and when people see that, I think it will change their opinion.' Brace agrees: 'It is just about treating our audience with respect. People are intelligent. They do have their own thoughts and they do have their own opinions. So it's just about telling both sides of the story and then letting people decide what they think of that, not telling them what they think about it.' 10 News+ is at the heart of Ten's bid to reshape its early evening viewing. The state-based local news is broadcast from 5pm, followed by 10 News+ at 6pm, and then game show Deal or No Deal at 7pm. Gone is The Project, which finished last week after a 16-year run. In another bold move, 10 News+ will be broadcast on Spotify, as well as on YouTube and 10Play, in what Ten says is a 'world first for commercial TV news'. It is an everything, everywhere all at once approach. And it's also a sharp U-turn from The Project, which mixed news reporting with light entertainment and comedy. 'People just want their news straight up,' says Brace. 'There's been, I think, a drift in recent years towards opinion or sensationalism, and in some media even, I think bias. And people kind of leant into that for a while and enjoyed the change, but now people are fed up with it. 'They don't want to be told what to think or how to think. They just want their information and then they can make up their own minds. People are smart. They don't need to be told what to think.' So what does that mean in practice? On the basis of Monday night's first episode, it was an exclusive interview with Debbie Voulgaris, the convicted drug smuggler and Melbourne mother who is currently serving a 15-year prison term in Taiwan, and another interview with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Loading Both stories were longer than most standard news segments and, apart from covering a shark attack on the far north coast of NSW, the show steered clear of the kind of local fracas that are grist to the daily news mill. It's an approach, says Hitchcock, that melds the best of Australia's big TV news hitters: 7.30 and Four Corners on the ABC, 60 Minutes on Nine and Spotlight on Seven. 'Our show is a hybrid of almost all of them,' says Hitchcock. 'We'll see a story in our first two days, I'm pretty sure it'll be Monday [the Voulgaris story], that will be a story that 60 Minutes, Spotlight or Four Corners would kill for. So we're hoping viewers will come to us because they'll get the news of the day, they'll get the things that matter, but they'll also see something fresh.' Brace, 37, and Hitchcock, 48, come to 10 News+ as familiar faces from Seven and Nine, respectively, where they built their reputations as foreign correspondents, with stints in the US, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. They both began their careers at Seven – Brace in regional Queensland and Hitchcock in Sydney. Brace remembers her first day on the job at Seven, when she was a university student on a competitive internship, which involved covering a fatal bus crash. 'I went out shadowing a reporter,' she says. 'I kind of really got thrown in the thick of it.' It's been a wild ride since then, with Brace covering everything from the drought in rural Queensland to being part of a world-record skydive live on air ('It was absolutely terrifying. I cried in my goggles'). In 2020, she won a Walkley Award for her coverage of the protests outside the White House, where she was hit with a baton by police. 'You can't cover these things from a bureau or even from a block back,' says Brace. 'Because what is happening to these people is happening on the front line, and you have to be standing there, and you have to sit with your own eyes so you can actually stand up on camera or in Congress, as I had to, and say what happened wasn't right. Sometimes it's your job to say, 'I saw that and that wasn't OK.'' Hitchcock, meanwhile, got his start in the office of the now defunct current affairs show Today Tonight when he was 18 years old. 'I was answering the phones and filling the biscuit barrel,' he says. 'But within six months, I was a researcher, and within another three months after that, I was a producer at 18. It was fast, but from there I've done almost every job – researcher, producer, editor, reporter, correspondent, all sorts.' Like Brace, he's has the kind of globe-trotting news career that makes great TV – reporting from the frontlines of Syria and Iraq, covering the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, and Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines – but it's the quieter story of Sharn McNeill, who was only 30 when she was diagnosed with motor neuron disease, that he names as one of his favourites. 'It always makes me teary whenever I even describe it to anybody,' he says. 'That's one of those stories of human endurance and positivity that always stays with me.' With so long in business, do either of them see a difference in how news is reported or consumed today? Loading 'I don't see a change in the stories of people interested in, just in the way they consume it and the speed in which they consume it,' says Hitchcock. 'Those big stories used to happen and [you] used to be able to chew on it for a whole week. Now it could be the most immense story that you've ever seen, and three days later, we're on to something else.' Brace, meanwhile, thinks people are more overwhelmed than ever before by the 'sheer amount of information out there' and this is what leads to the rise in misinformation. 'It's just selective reporting when you blatantly just tell one side of a story,' says Brace. 'That side is not untrue, but it's dangerous to do that, I think. I bump into people in real life regularly who say, 'Did you hear this?' And I'll say, 'But did you hear this?' And it's not that I'm on one side or the other. I just get really annoyed when they have no idea that that's only half the story.' The US, famously, is home to Fox News, which proudly wears its bias on its sleeve. Do either of them think there is that type of biased reporting in Australia? 'We have more of it than we used to,' says Brace. 'I genuinely think that perhaps 10 years ago, we had a really balanced media with very little tolerance for bias. I remember maybe around the Kevin Rudd kind of time – because I'm very politically focused – there started to be some headlines and some things said, and I'd be like, 'Hm, that's interesting reporting.' I just feel like it's grown over the years, where we now have certain outlets that you just know they're one side or the other. And I really don't like that.' Loading Of course, it's not just bias or misinformation that modern broadcast news has to deal with. The fickle beast that is ratings will probably have more of an effect on 10 News+'s future than any story they choose to do. A dramatic drop in ratings was one of the reasons given for The Project's axing, so what happens when, say, four weeks from now, 10 News+ isn't clicking and it's suggested they start chasing more sensational local stories? 'It'll be a collective decision, the stories that we chase for the day,' says Hitchock. 'So that'll be Dan Sutton, who's the executive producer, and Martin White, who's the vice president [of news on Ten]. Those two will be keeping a keen eye on the show, and then Amelia and I, of course, will have heavy input as well. 'But I don't think it'll change the mission statement or the program. Will it change if the ratings are not as expected? I don't know, but I don't think so, because the show has been pitched as a certain way, and we're filling a national show. It can't be hyper local. The answer wouldn't be to go back to hyper local stories, the answer would be just better stories.' And what if it's suggested a comedian would make a perfect addition to the desk? 'We are very funny,' says Brace, laughing. 'No one's realised that Denham and I are hilarious. So we should be fine.'
The Age
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
‘People are fed up': Why 10 News+ is going back to basics
If you read the comments under any story about free-to-air news and current affairs, you will find the same mix of complaints: Untrustworthy, too woke, too left, too right-wing and, inevitably, 'bring back The Drum '. So launching a new nightly news program, one that promises in-depth coverage and big-picture reporting, is a tough ask: How do you build trust with an audience that is already side-eyeing how news is delivered? It's a question journalists Denham Hitchcock and Amelia Brace hope to answer as the hosts of Network 10's new hour-long nightly news program, 10 News+. '[Building trust] that's difficult because that requires time,' says Hitchcock. 'But what we're saying from the start is that [trust] is at the core of this program, so you will see that in the reporting and the questioning and the topics that we choose, I think that will change people's opinions because we won't just be taking one side, we'll be questioning both sides equally, and when people see that, I think it will change their opinion.' Brace agrees: 'It is just about treating our audience with respect. People are intelligent. They do have their own thoughts and they do have their own opinions. So it's just about telling both sides of the story and then letting people decide what they think of that, not telling them what they think about it.' 10 News+ is at the heart of Ten's bid to reshape its early evening viewing. The state-based local news is broadcast from 5pm, followed by 10 News+ at 6pm, and then game show Deal or No Deal at 7pm. Gone is The Project, which finished last week after a 16-year run. In another bold move, 10 News+ will be broadcast on Spotify, as well as on YouTube and 10Play, in what Ten says is a 'world first for commercial TV news'. It is an everything, everywhere all at once approach. And it's also a sharp U-turn from The Project, which mixed news reporting with light entertainment and comedy. 'People just want their news straight up,' says Brace. 'There's been, I think, a drift in recent years towards opinion or sensationalism, and in some media even, I think bias. And people kind of leant into that for a while and enjoyed the change, but now people are fed up with it. 'They don't want to be told what to think or how to think. They just want their information and then they can make up their own minds. People are smart. They don't need to be told what to think.' So what does that mean in practice? On the basis of Monday night's first episode, it was an exclusive interview with Debbie Voulgaris, the convicted drug smuggler and Melbourne mother who is currently serving a 15-year prison term in Taiwan, and another interview with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Loading Both stories were longer than most standard news segments and, apart from covering a shark attack on the far north coast of NSW, the show steered clear of the kind of local fracas that are grist to the daily news mill. It's an approach, says Hitchcock, that melds the best of Australia's big TV news hitters: 7.30 and Four Corners on the ABC, 60 Minutes on Nine and Spotlight on Seven. 'Our show is a hybrid of almost all of them,' says Hitchcock. 'We'll see a story in our first two days, I'm pretty sure it'll be Monday [the Voulgaris story], that will be a story that 60 Minutes, Spotlight or Four Corners would kill for. So we're hoping viewers will come to us because they'll get the news of the day, they'll get the things that matter, but they'll also see something fresh.' Brace, 37, and Hitchcock, 48, come to 10 News+ as familiar faces from Seven and Nine, respectively, where they built their reputations as foreign correspondents, with stints in the US, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. They both began their careers at Seven – Brace in regional Queensland and Hitchcock in Sydney. Brace remembers her first day on the job at Seven, when she was a university student on a competitive internship, which involved covering a fatal bus crash. 'I went out shadowing a reporter,' she says. 'I kind of really got thrown in the thick of it.' It's been a wild ride since then, with Brace covering everything from the drought in rural Queensland to being part of a world-record skydive live on air ('It was absolutely terrifying. I cried in my goggles'). In 2020, she won a Walkley Award for her coverage of the protests outside the White House, where she was hit with a baton by police. 'You can't cover these things from a bureau or even from a block back,' says Brace. 'Because what is happening to these people is happening on the front line, and you have to be standing there, and you have to sit with your own eyes so you can actually stand up on camera or in Congress, as I had to, and say what happened wasn't right. Sometimes it's your job to say, 'I saw that and that wasn't OK.'' Hitchcock, meanwhile, got his start in the office of the now defunct current affairs show Today Tonight when he was 18 years old. 'I was answering the phones and filling the biscuit barrel,' he says. 'But within six months, I was a researcher, and within another three months after that, I was a producer at 18. It was fast, but from there I've done almost every job – researcher, producer, editor, reporter, correspondent, all sorts.' Like Brace, he's has the kind of globe-trotting news career that makes great TV – reporting from the frontlines of Syria and Iraq, covering the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, and Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines – but it's the quieter story of Sharn McNeill, who was only 30 when she was diagnosed with motor neuron disease, that he names as one of his favourites. 'It always makes me teary whenever I even describe it to anybody,' he says. 'That's one of those stories of human endurance and positivity that always stays with me.' With so long in business, do either of them see a difference in how news is reported or consumed today? Loading 'I don't see a change in the stories of people interested in, just in the way they consume it and the speed in which they consume it,' says Hitchcock. 'Those big stories used to happen and [you] used to be able to chew on it for a whole week. Now it could be the most immense story that you've ever seen, and three days later, we're on to something else.' Brace, meanwhile, thinks people are more overwhelmed than ever before by the 'sheer amount of information out there' and this is what leads to the rise in misinformation. 'It's just selective reporting when you blatantly just tell one side of a story,' says Brace. 'That side is not untrue, but it's dangerous to do that, I think. I bump into people in real life regularly who say, 'Did you hear this?' And I'll say, 'But did you hear this?' And it's not that I'm on one side or the other. I just get really annoyed when they have no idea that that's only half the story.' The US, famously, is home to Fox News, which proudly wears its bias on its sleeve. Do either of them think there is that type of biased reporting in Australia? 'We have more of it than we used to,' says Brace. 'I genuinely think that perhaps 10 years ago, we had a really balanced media with very little tolerance for bias. I remember maybe around the Kevin Rudd kind of time – because I'm very politically focused – there started to be some headlines and some things said, and I'd be like, 'Hm, that's interesting reporting.' I just feel like it's grown over the years, where we now have certain outlets that you just know they're one side or the other. And I really don't like that.' Loading Of course, it's not just bias or misinformation that modern broadcast news has to deal with. The fickle beast that is ratings will probably have more of an effect on 10 News+'s future than any story they choose to do. A dramatic drop in ratings was one of the reasons given for The Project's axing, so what happens when, say, four weeks from now, 10 News+ isn't clicking and it's suggested they start chasing more sensational local stories? 'It'll be a collective decision, the stories that we chase for the day,' says Hitchock. 'So that'll be Dan Sutton, who's the executive producer, and Martin White, who's the vice president [of news on Ten]. Those two will be keeping a keen eye on the show, and then Amelia and I, of course, will have heavy input as well. 'But I don't think it'll change the mission statement or the program. Will it change if the ratings are not as expected? I don't know, but I don't think so, because the show has been pitched as a certain way, and we're filling a national show. It can't be hyper local. The answer wouldn't be to go back to hyper local stories, the answer would be just better stories.' And what if it's suggested a comedian would make a perfect addition to the desk? 'We are very funny,' says Brace, laughing. 'No one's realised that Denham and I are hilarious. So we should be fine.'
