Mike McColl-Jones

McColl-Jones attended Xavier College in Melbourne where he excelled at tennis. He attended the school at the same time as Philip Brady. McColl-Jones left school in 1956 and joined Myer as a salesman. When television started in Melbourne, McColl-Jones began submitting jokes to In Melbourne Tonight which were regularly used by Graham Kennedy. Despite McColl-Jones' contributions, an offer of permanent work wasn't made until 1963 when GTV-9's general manager Colin Bednall offered him permanent work. His father Hector died in 1963 at the age of 57 from a form of leukemia. ==Career==

Throughout his career, McColl-Jones wrote for In Melbourne Tonight, The Graham Kennedy Show, The Don Lane Show, The Bert Newton Show, The Ernie Sigley Show, The Peter Couchman Show, Blankety Blanks, ''Hey Hey It's Saturday and Tonight Live with Steve Vizard''. When In Melbourne Tonight was revived in 1996, McColl-Jones again wrote jokes for the show, this time hosted by Frankie J. Holden. However, it was his association with Kennedy that McColl-Jones is arguably best known for, having written jokes for Kennedy from 1958 to 1975. ==Honours==

In the 2017 Queen's Birthday Honours, McColl-Jones received a Medal of the Order of Australia in recognition of his service to the performing arts as a comedy writer for television. ==References==