Noni Hazlehurst’s Rare TV Appearance Promotes New Project

Australian actress Noni Hazlehurst cut a very different figure when she made a rare TV appearance this week.

Noni, 71, is perhaps best known as one of the long-serving stars of ABC’s iconic children’s programme Play School.

The beloved actress looked a far cry from her days palling around with Humpty and Big Ted when she appeared on Today Extra on Tuesday.

Noni was on air to chat about her anticipated return to the stage in the upcoming one woman stage play The Lark.

The actress was sporting long salt-and-pepper locks that fell past her shoulders for her chat with hosts David Campbell and Sylvia Jeffreys.

From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail’s new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. 

Noni was on air to chat about her anticipated return to the stage in the upcoming one woman stage play The Lark

It comes after Noni released her memoir, Dropping the Mask in October last year.

In an extract from the book, published by News Corp at the time, she revealed just how awkward it can be shooting a sex scene for a film.

One of her most beloved big screen roles is in the 1982 film Monkey Grip, in which she stars alongside Colin Friels, 72.

Noni recalled one steamy scene where Colin had to kiss her ‘up and down my upper body’ and while the end result was ‘sensuous and tenderly romantic’, the rushes told a different story.

‘Without music to augment the scene, all we could hear, apart from the odd slurping sound, was [director] Ken Cameron’s voice talking us through the action,’ she said.

‘”Slower Colin, linger there a bit more, don’t eat her, be gentle, do that thing with your fingers in your mouth again Noni, slow down Colin, go up, go down, too rough, go sideways, slower Colin” and so on.”

‘It was very funny.’

She added that all the film’s sex scenes were shot on the same day, adding to the awkwardness, although one crew member offered a novel solution.

‘The first assistant offered a closed set and for the crew to be naked as well, but the thought of forty or so waving willies in my eyeline was enough to put me off sex for life,’ she admitted.

The awkwardness didn’t end there either, with Noni detailing how director Ken Cameron instructed her on-screen love interest on how to perform on camera.

Noni also recently opened up about her divorce from Wolf Creek actor John Jarratt after more than a decade of marriage.

Noni and John, 73, tied the knot in 1987 and split 12 years later in 1999. 

They co-hosted popular Channel Seven lifestyle show Better Homes and Gardens while they were married.

Noni also recently opened up about her divorce from Wolf Creek actor John Jarratt after more than a decade of marriage. The couple are pictured on the set of Better Homes and Gadens 

‘John and I had some wonderful times together – and then we didn’t,’ Noni told Woman’s Day. ‘That’s true of many relationships. They start off full of hope and optimism and, along the way, buried issues come to the surface’

‘John and I had some wonderful times together – and then we didn’t,’ Noni told Woman’s Day.

‘That’s true of many relationships. They start off full of hope and optimism and, along the way, buried issues come to the surface.’

Noni claims she knew her marriage was over when John had ‘grown close’ to someone on the Better Homes And Gardens production crew.

‘At that moment, I knew the marriage was over,’ she said.

‘We simply wanted different things. I wanted a family. John wanted another woman.

‘The ending of my previous relationships had been hard enough, but this was far worse. In some ways, I think I’ve been in shock ever since.’

Despite their relationship breakdown, Noni said her two children from her union with John – Charlie, 36, and William, 30 – had been a blessing.

When contacted by Daily Mail Australia, John said: ‘That was 20-odd years ago. It’s prehistoric and I’ve got nothing more to say.’

John, who played the iconic outback villain Mick Taylor in the Wolf Creek horror films, was Noni’s second husband after the lauded actress was married to director Kevin Dobson from 1975 to 1978.