• Industry leader to discuss media and TV production with students
• Expert will draw on vast media experience to explore creative media storytelling
• He will also give students an insider’s view on how TV shows are conceived, funded, and produced

Communication and media students at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Bathurst will gain insights from an expert when a leading TV producer speaks to them on Monday 1 April.

Former journalist and producer of numerous successful TV entertainment shows in Australia Mr Jon Casimir will address students in the CSU School of Communication and Creative Industries.

Senior lecturer in communication Dr David Cameron said, “It’s wonderful to host Jon Casimir at the University, and this is a great opportunity for our students to gain insights from an industry leader with such a diverse and successful background in media and TV production.

“Jon is an alumnus of the University’s predecessor institution Mitchell College of Advanced Education (MCAE) in Bathurst, and will draw on his vast media experience to explore creative storytelling for TV and new media.

“During the day he will discuss projects and program ideas such as the recent ABC success You Can't Ask That, a show he co-created for ABC television and iview.

Dr Cameron said that at a 10am lecture Mr Casimir will examine the soon-to-launch fourth series of You Can’t Ask That (9pm Wednesday 3 April).

“The show asks misunderstood, misjudged or marginalised Australians the questions we’ve always wanted to know the answers to, but have been afraid to ask,” Dr Cameron said.

“Jon will explain how the show came about, and what goes into making it.

“What looks like a deceptively simple TV show is, of course, very complicated, and Jon will expose the secrets of the production and attempt to explain why the format hits such a chord with viewers around the world.”

The new eight-part series of You Can’t Ask That will feature the first-person voices of people who have experienced domestic and family violence, African Australians, intersex people, carnies and show people, ex-politicians, alcoholics, disaster survivors, and deaf people.

Dr Cameron said You Can’t Ask That has been a smash hit on both ABC free-to-air broadcast and iview since it launched in 2016.

“You Can’t Ask That has been optioned in 27 countries and is already in production in eight of those,” he said. “It is the ABC’s most successful format ever.”

In March, the Israeli adaptation of You Can’t Ask That won Best Factual Series at the 2018 Israeli Television Academy Awards. The premiere season of the adapted ABC original format series in Israel – where it is called סליחה על השאלה or Pardon The Question – was one of 120 programs vying for one of the nation’s leading film and television awards in Tel Aviv.

The award win follows ABC Commercial’s sale of the series’ format rights to Israel’s public broadcaster KAN in 2017. The series has touched hearts and opened minds in Israel with the same honesty and humour that has made the original Australian series such a huge local and international success.

This win followed the Spanish version of the show picking up Spain’s Emmy award equivalent in 2018.

In 2017, it was awarded the European Broadcast Union’s prestigious Rose d’Or Award for Best Reality and Factual Entertainment Program.

In Australia, it has been awarded three United Nations Association of Australia Media Awards and been nominated for two AACTA Awards, a Logie Award, and an Australian Human Rights Commission Human Rights Award.