Wednesdays with Bob. Bob Hawke & Derek Rielly. 2018.

On Wednesdays, Robert J. Hawke - Australia’s 23rd and oldest living prime minister - has welcomed Derek Reilly into his home to share fine cigars and irreverent conversation. On a sun-soaked balcony, the maverick young writer and the charismatic old master talk life, death, love, sex, religion, politics, sport…..and everything in between.

On other days, to paint his subject’s enigma from the outside, Reilly interviews Hawke’s Liberal PM rival John Howard, Labor allies Gareth Evans and Kim Beasley, wife and lover Blanche d’Alpuget, live-in stepson Louis Pratt, and friends - diplomat Richard Woollcott, economist Ross Garnaut, advertising guru John Singleton and long time mate Col Cunningham.

The result is an extraordinary portrait of a beloved Australian - a strange, funny, uniquely personal study of Bob Hawke ruminating on his (and our) past, present and future.