Misto wrote about Australian sport in his television series, The Cut, for ABC TV. One of the episodes, about a group of football players who bet on their own games, was written long before the actual scandal broke in New South Wales. Another episode, about an Australian cricketer caught in a terrorist attack, was also ahead of its time.
Misto also wrote Heroes’ Mountain about the rescue of Stuart Diver after the Thredbo Landslide. “Stuart is an extraordinary man, courageous, modest and inspiring,” says Misto. “There was one funny story we couldn’t use because no one would believe it. Some working girls, at a brothel in Melbourne, decided they wanted to cheer up the rescuers. So they rented a bus and drove to Thredbo. They ended up handing out soup for the Salvation Army.” Heroes’ Mountain won a Gold Plaque at the Chicago International Television Festival.
In January, 1977, a railway bridge collapsed on a Sydney passenger train killing 83 people and trapping dozens more. The untold and shocking story behind this disaster was the subject of John Misto’s mini-series, The Day of the Roses. “It was one of our darkest days. Bystanders looted the morgue and stole from the bodies of the dead. Yet the bravery of the rescuers was phenomenal. Many of them, facing certain death, refused to leave their posts.”
Misto won an AFI Award for his script for The Day of the Roses, and an Australian Writers’ Guild Award. The mini-series also won a Silver Logie
John Misto has even been banned from parliament! His television series, The Damnation of Harvey McHugh, about a naïve public servant trying to survive in the cut-throat, politically correct public service, was regarded as too offensive to politicians to be filmed in the Victorian Parliament.
“People couldn’t believe that the stories were true. But one public service office really did have a blind security guard. They were ordered to hire him after they failed to meet their EEO requirements. Fortunately they were able to place him in an office that nobody else wanted – because it had no windows.” Misto won an AFI Award for his script for The Damnation of Harvey McHugh.
Misto has written many shows for children. His telemovie Peter & Pompey, about an ancient Roman boat being discovered in a Queensland town, won a Penguin Award and was also published as a book. It is a perennial favourite with kids. Every year it is borrowed hundreds of times from Australian libraries.
Misto has also written about ageing hippies and murder, Natural Causes (AFI Award and Australian Writers’ Guild Award winner) and Palace of Dreams, about an Aussie pub in the Great Depression (Australian Writers’ Guild Award winner.)
His first novel, a thriller, The Devil’s Companions, was published in 2005 by Hachette. It is the story of a young detective who is convinced a group of nuns are guilty of child-abuse.
