Derryn Hinch: Profile

In December 2009 Derryn Hinch will pass a personal media milestone. He will celebrate his 50 years as a journalist.

Hinch used to threaten he would eventually write an autobiography and call it Famous People who have met me. He was joking. Eventually he did write two. The first, about the private thoughts of a public person,  used his catchphrase as the title: That's Life. The second was called The Fall and Rise of Derryn Hinch - How I hit the wall and didn't bleed.

He has now written ten books, including two novels, with two more coming out in 2009. One about his drinking days is called I Beat the Booze - and you can too. The other, about his half century in the business is called  Human Headlines - Read all about it!

A national magazine once referred to him as "the former Derryn Hinch".

And there have been a lot of "former" situations in Derryn's life. He is a former police rounds reporter, former foreign correspondent, former newspaper editor, former host of national current affairs shows, former novelist, former radio host in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide, former MIDDAY host and former jailbird. He spent 12 days in jail over a contempt of court charge when he revealed the name of a convicted child molester.

For 11 years Hinch covered both North and South America for the Sydney Morning Herald and other Fairfax papers as well as the Macquarie Radio Station. He was there on the spot when man first went to the moon. He was there for such turning points in history as the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr and Bobby Kennedy.

He was there when President Nixon resigned at the peak of the Watergate scandal.

In politics Hinch has met every Australian Prime Minister from Bob Menzies to Kevin Rudd. He has been in the Oval Office at the White House and interviewed such diverse politicians as Senator Edward Kennedy and Andrew Peacock.

In entertainment Hinch has interviewed such big names as Meryl Streep, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Sophia Loren, Harrison Ford, Catherine Deneuve, Mae West, Peter Finch and Rod Taylor.

At home here in Australia he has interviewed every major male and female star over the years - and was also married to a national icon, Jacki Weaver, for 14 years.

Hinch was the first person  to interview fugitive businessman Christopher Skase in Majorca since he fled Australia. And has interviewed the Dalai Lama three times.

Derryn Hinch first joined 3AW in 1979. He went on to become the undisputed King of Melbourne radio - with the highest morning ratings ever achieved then or now - before leaving to start the top rating HINCH on the Seven Network. He rejoined 3AW for the third time (after a year doing Nightline in 2000) in February 2003 and has been a top rater ever since.

Away from journalism in recent years Hinch has made some diverse and surprising appearances. In The Wog Boy movie, Dancing With The Stars on Seven, as himself in the Nine Network series Underbelly  and in late 2008 starred as The Narrator in the Melbourne season of The Rocky Horror Show.

Apart from writing and broadcasting he now leads a more tranquil (and sober) life with his wife Chanel and Scrappy Muttley Hinch, the family cavoodle.