Ross Jolly

Alongside a busy theatre career as actor and director, Ross Jolly has screen credits spanning five decades. One screen role stands out: likeable joker John, in hit office comedy Gliding On. Jolly first played John when Roger Hall's play Glide Time debuted in Wellington in 1976. Five seasons of the sitcom followed, plus 1998 sequel TV Market Forces. His other TV roles include early race relations drama Against the Lights, John Clarke comedy The Wonderful World of... and fantasies Cuckoo Land and Worzel Gummidge Down Under. He was also one of the writers behind A Lawful Excuse, an episode of pioneering 1970s drama Winners & Losers.  

Behind the scenes panic, clothes flying in all directions. On the set supposed professional calm ... two versions so any enormous gaffe can be edited out. Another nerve-wracking 30 minutes, laughs in different places, different things going awry... Ross Jolly on making an early episode of Gliding On, The Listener, 29 August 1981