Derryn Hinch state funeral live updates: Legendary journalist farewelled at The Timber Yard

Hello and welcome to our rolling coverage of the state funeral of Derryn Hinch.

You can watch the service live right here, and it will also be livestreamed on 9Now and broadcast on Nine.

For decades, Hinch was one of the biggest names in media in this country, a newspaper man who became a radio man and then a television man. He published books, he fought for the rights of survivors of sexual abuse, he outed paedophiles and went to jail for doing so. He lunched long and hard, he had a liver transplant, he married and divorced a string of beautiful women. He even became a senator.

Little wonder he was known, both affectionately and derisively, as The Human Headline.

In his last months, he was unsentimental about the death he knew was imminent – he had been in serious ill health following a series of falls – but he’d love the fact he is being remembered in such a public way. He’d no doubt love the fact he’s generated one last tranche of headlines as he’s leaving the building forever, too.

“It was a bit like Zorro riding into town on his horse”.

“I saw Xanadu last night. My recommendation: Xana don’t.”

Nikki Nichols, who has performed with John Farnham’s band, sings a song that MC Darren James tell us was one of his favourites.

It was, he said, “a song that Derryn loved, and unfortunately for a lot of us, used to try and sing at the drop of a hat after a late night. I think he had a crack even at his 80th birthday.”

You can’t help a man for trying.

Dermot O’Brien, Hinch’s producer on his eponymous current affairs show, has recalled being given his brief by the then owner of Channel Seven, Christopher Skase.

“He said: ‘Your job is to make yourself Derryn Hinch’s best friend’,” he said. “Well, Christopher, 38 years later, as his best friend, colleague, and partner in crime – not to mention critic – mission accomplished.”

Hinch was, O’Brien said, “addicted to three things: notoriety via the media, women, and alcohol, not necessarily in that order” and he loved the trappings of success and fame.

“He loved the entertainment-friendly car. Remembering that this was the 1980s, he would not order a bottle of wine under $30 because that’s what he drank at home. It was business or first-class all the way, and with an open bottle of wine waiting in the back of his stretch limo every night for the ride from the station back to the hotel.

“I know what Derryn would be saying now if he could,” O’Brien concluded. “And that would be, ‘Wow, what a ride!’ After all, there is no point getting to the end of your life in pristine condition. Goodbye, my friend. That’s life.”

Something tells me this won’t be the last time we hear that phrase this afternoon.

Victorian Labor MP Danny Pearson, who attended the service on behalf of Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan, said Hinch was a man of “many talents and titles: journalist, advocate, parliamentarian, and, who could forget: human headline?”

Though he didn’t always agree with Hinch, Pearson said, for him and many others, “he turned the switch on. He made us think about things we hadn’t thought about. He made sure that we had a deeper appreciation for the world around us, in big things and little things”.

That included the music of Frank Sinatra, said Pearson. But it was the fact he would “always stand up for what he thought was right, no matter what” that truly defined him.

“He was authentic, relentless, direct, and compassionate. He never shied away from a fight, and in so doing, gave a voice to those who couldn’t speak for themselves. His determination to stand up for others took him to the Senate.

“There, he advocated for victims of child sexual abuse, and he helped to deliver real change for victims and survivors. And he proved once again a single voice can make a difference.”

Darren James, MC for the service, introduced today’s service. “To Australians [Hinch] was a leader, he asked the difficult questions. He was a relentless fighter,” he said.

James said he loved Hinch’s anecdotes, and dubbed them Hinch’s laws. “An example: ‘When you’re right, they never remember, when you’re wrong, they never forget.’”

Another example of “Hinch’s law” was Number 13. “Anyone who says they won’t resign, does”. That included the man himself, of course, who was sacked 13 times.

Not everyone was a fan, obviously. Or they were until they weren’t, or weren’t until they were. James said one caller once described Hinch as “an over-opinionated dickhead”.

Love him or hate him, though, he was hard – nay, impossible – to miss. “Most of us move through life without leaving a ripple,” James said. “He created tsunamis.”

There’s a certain irony in the fact that Derryn Hinch has been given a state funeral. After all, the state sent the man to prison – more than once.

Hinch was jailed in 1987 for contempt of court after revealing the prior conviction of a Catholic priest, then facing trial over charges of paedophilia. In 2011, he was sentenced to five months of home detention after breaching suppression orders in another sex crime case.

In 2014, he went to prison for 50 days after refusing, as a matter of principle, to pay a fine imposed for revealing details of the criminal past of the man facing court over the death of journalist Jill Meagher.

They were serious offences that risked derailing legal proceedings and the integrity of the justice system, though they were driven by a strong and genuine passion for justice.

Bob Talbot worked with Hinch as a newspaper journalist and has known him for 50 years. “He never changed,” Talbot said. “The human headline [nickname] was well-earned. And well deserved.”

The two had lunch together just a few weeks ago. “He never lost that sharp wit and always had something cutting to say. Whether he got you or not.”

Newsreader Jennifer Keyte said she loved working with Hinch.

“Derryn was huge in every respect. Loved life, loved women. Loved great conversation, loved conflict. But loved life,” she said.

“He really treated women with great respect; he really listened. He was ahead of his time. He was the first person to ban smoking in his office. He was progressive.”

More guests have arrived at Hinch’s funeral and are sharing their memories of the broadcasting legend.

Denis Walter worked with Hinch on radio doing afternoons when Hinch was working on the Drive program. “Interesting career as a journalist, but he also changed our justice system. That’s a fair contribution,” Walter said.

“If you were out with him socially he was always good fun. He loved singing Joe Cocker’s You Are So Beautiful. It was the only song he sang, but he did a good job of it.”

PR guru Ann Peacock said she knew Derryn as a family friend – he was her father’s best man.

“Even after Dad passed away, there was always that heart synergy,” she said. “I’ll really miss that.”

There was a time in the early 1990s when it was hard to know who was more famous: Derryn Hinch, or Steve Vizard’s parody of him, Darren Hunch.

In a bad wig and false beard, Vizard trotted out his fuming, fulminating current affairs presenter to great comedic effect on the sketch show Fast Forward (though the character in fact originated a few years earlier on the short-lived show The 11th Hour, where sketches were shot in the afternoon and broadcast that night).

As a target for parody, Vizard told me recently, “He was about as easy as it could be”. All a would-be impersonator needed, said Vizard, was “a notepad and a pair of ears and a memory. In fact, I don’t even think I did a particularly good impression of him. We just doubled down on what he said, and probably added another 10 per cent.”

Even the character’s famous catchphrase, “shame, shame, shame”, was mostly Hinch’s work.