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Myf Warhurst was as excited as anyone for the return of music quiz show Spicks and Specks, writes Siobhan duck

FOR their devoted fans, there has scarcely been a TV reunion as hotly anticipated as the return of Spicks and Specks to the small screen. The ABC’s favourite trio of music maestros – Myf Warhurst, Adam Hills and Alan Brough – have returned with a reboot of their much-loved series.

There’s no doubt fans are eager to see them again showcasing their impressive musical knowledge, but Warhurst laughs off any comparison to the international excitement about the Friends cast getting back together.

“Jennifer Aniston looks fabulous and, well, I look 10 years older and wider as well,” she exclaims, with trademark selfdeprecating humour.

Filming during last year’s COVID-19 lockdown in Melbourne, Warhurst says, resulted in subtle changes to the production. Panelists were restricted to those who were Melbourne-based and seated at a much larger – and socially distanced – desk. Proceedings were also policed by an on-set COVID safety officer who Warhurst likens to a parent trying to control over-excited children.

But aside from this, viewers can rest assured the new season of Spicks and Specks looks and feels just like the show that won it legions of fans when it premiered in 2005.

“It was amazing to be back together, but it was also sort of heightened because we’d all been in lockdown for so long,” she explains. “It just felt so normal.

It’s not just us (Warhurst, Hills and Brough) that are original. Half the team (behind the scenes) is the original team as well. So, it really is like hanging out with your family. And because we had a COVID officer it was even more like a family with mum or dad telling us, ‘No you can’t do this,’ or ‘You ‘can’t do that!’ It was just so much fun because when Adam, Alan and I get together and do it, it just feels right.”

Filming while Australia’s live music scene had been silenced made the experience particularly poignant for Warhurst.

“I think if you’re watching it, looking at our faces you’ll be able to pretty much tell that we haven’t heard any live music for a long time because we had already been locked up for a couple of months,” she says. “I almost cried a couple of times. I was (really moved) because that’s what life is about. It was pretty special to have an opportunity to give Australian artists an opportunity to get out there and into people’s homes because there aren’t many opportunities to do that particularly now (because of COVID).”

There was one silver lining in the pandemic curtailing social lives and creativity. Warhurst says it freed up Hills to be in Melbourne long enough to film the show. “I think he was signed up to host the Paralympics in Japan, and (when that was postponed) he was free. Otherwise, I can’t imagine he would have had the time to do it,” she says.

Unlike the 2019 special, where Warhurst had reservations about whether fans would still have an appetite for their quirky gameshow, she had no qualms this time around.

“I was very wary, before we did those specials, because I was like, ‘Are people really going to want to see us 10 years older and a whole lot daggier too?’” she says. “I wasn’t sure back then, but I am really glad we did do it because we love it so much and we get to meet new artists. You have to remember it’s not just our old faces that people get to see. What we’ve always done is bring in younger or emerging artists as well as the established artists. And that’s what we have done this time as well.”

Warhurst acknowledges

Spicks and Specks has a tough task ahead, going up against stiff competition such as reality juggernaut Married at First

Sight and another returning old favourite, Dancing with the Stars.

But she also understands the appeal of those other popular shows. A self-confessed fan of reality TV – not to mention a veteran of the genre having appeared on I’m A Celebrity...

Get Me Out Of Here! – Warhurst spent lockdown binge-watching old seasons of The Real Housewives and renovating her home. “The jungle was probably good practice for surviving lockdown,” she laughs.

SPICKS AND SPECKS 7.40pm, Sunday, ABC