Anh Do & Brian Nankervis
“If you really want to get to know someone, there’s nothing like looking through their family photo albums.” It’s the simplest of premises, and while the digitisation of photographs may alter the way we do it, viewing the family photos of people and hearing their stories offers us great insight and understanding as to who they really are.
With this in mind the new show from Working Dog, Pictures Of You, shows that the team involved are back to doing what they do best – sharing *our* stories.
It’s part This Is Your Life, part Enough Rope, and a thoroughly enjoyable opportunity to watch host Brian Nankervis interview his subjects. He’s a deft guide, leading and joking with the guest in a disarming manner that allows them to open up about their past and what made them into the person they are today. That they’ve involved a live audience ensure the guest gets warm feedback and it adds a level of empathy to an already emotive experience. The audience is drawn in and re-experience the highs and lows with the guest as they recount the joy and the tragedy that has happened in their lives.
In this first episode guests Anh Do & Shane Jacobsen are candid in sharing their lives and photos and we learn some of the lengths it’s taken for both of them to find their place in life. Be it showbiz or experiencing their parents divorce or worse, the trials they’ve come through have shaped them and they’re very generous for sharing their stories.
But that’s part of the true happiness of this new series – you never feel as if the guest has shared something they didn’t want to yet it’s all been so personal for them. More than a nod to host Nankervis and is gently, gently approach while being charismatic enough to let his guests shine. Pictures Of You is a celebration of success – not because the guests are famous, but rather because the guests are comfortable in their skin. It’s heartfelt TV and completely worth watching.
Pictures of You – Tue 9:30pm, Ch7.