The pioneering Australian broadcaster and author, Peter Luck, has died aged 73 after battling Parkinson’s disease.
Luck enjoyed a long and successful career on Australian television, first as a journalist on the ABC’s groundbreaking This Day Tonight and Four Corners and later as a prolific producer who became a household name with his show This Fabulous Century on Channel Seven.
On the ABC’s This Day Tonight in the 1960s Luck was a current affairs reporter alongside Bill Peach, Gerald Stone and Mike Willesee.
In the 1970s Luck moved into commercial television and was executive producer, co-writer and presenter of This Fabulous Century, a 36-part television series which combined interviews with archival footage to tell the story of 20th century Australia.
Vale Peter Luck, one of the true greats of journalism, a role model to generations of reporters @abcnews @4corners pic.twitter.com/FSQ2tOmOaV
— Sally Neighbour (@neighbour_s) September 7, 2017
The Logie-winning series was a ratings winner for Seven and was re-made in 1999. He spent two years as executive producer of Nine’s quality Sunday program and hosted Today Tonight and Inside Edition for Seven.
He followed up This Fabulous Century with another show for Seven in 1988, Bicentennial Minutes … A Time to Remember, which was a series of 266 separate mini-documentaries shot at 350 locations.
In 1995 Luck continued to work with popular history, bringing 50 Fantastic Years specials and Salute to Australians at War minutes to Nine to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of second world war. In 1996 he produced and presented Where Are They Now? for Seven.
But Luck was more than just a dominant figure in television. He was a prolific author, penning 10 books including the bestselling This Fabulous Century and Australian Icons, which was accompanied by an exhibition at Sydney’s Hyde Park Barracks. And he made films which were featured at international film festivals, including one about Jørn Utzon, the architect of the Sydney Opera House.
Luck also produced and presented the opening night blockbuster for Australia’s multicultural television network, SBS. The program, Who Are We? traced the history of immigration in Australia.
His This Day Tonight colleague and friend Mike Carlton broke the news of his death on Twitter.
Saddened beyond measure to report the death last night of Peter Luck. My dear friend, and great journalist and writer.
— Mike Carlton (@MikeCarlton01) September 6, 2017
“Peter was one of the true pioneers of Australian tv journalism; a reporter, writer and film-maker without peer,” Carlton told Guardian Australia. “He blazed a trail as one of the original reporters of TDT [This Day Tonight] on the ABC. He was witty, acerbic, thoughtful.
“Deeply but quietly patriotic, he had a profound feeling for Australian history and culture, and he delighted in telling our national stories, big and small.
“In later life he was crippled by Parkinson’s disease, which he fought with courage and good humour, and the heroic support of his wife Penny. Many friends will mourn him. And every TV current affairs journalist is in his debt.”
The Four Corners producer Sally Neighbour said he was one of the “true greats” of Australian journalism and a role model for generations of reporters.
The ABC managing director, Michelle Guthrie, said: “Peter Luck was a trailblazing journalist who became a role model to generations of reporters and was also loved and respected by audiences.
“He made a huge contribution to the ABC in his early career and remains forever part of the fabric of the national broadcaster. All ABC staff join me in paying our respects to Peter and passing on our deepest sympathies to his family.”
The ABC’s director of news, Gaven Morris, said: “Peter was an extremely talented broadcaster with a natural warmth and accessibility that Australians immediately responded to,” he said. “His wonderful conversational tone – actually a rare ability – made everyone feel like he was talking directly to us.
“His legacy lives on at the ABC and he will not be forgotten.”
Other tributes for Luck, who also worked for the Seven Network, came from journalist and author Peter FitzSimons, and from the Australian Financial Review writer Laura Tingle.
RIP. A very good man, Peter Luck, formidable journalist and writer, with a strongly Australian bent. https://t.co/FtxkJ1ZPBa
— Peter FitzSimons (@Peter_Fitz) September 6, 2017
This is very sad. Vale Peter Luck https://t.co/7r3XXZspi5
— Laura Tingle (@latingle) September 7, 2017
