/ 21 July 2021

Vale David Leckie

He strode the Australian media landscape at a time when terms like ‘swashbuckling’, ‘abrasive’ and ‘larger-than-life’ were worn as badges of honour. And yesterday, at his farm in Bowral, NSW, with his wife Skye and 3 sons by his side, former Nine and Seven CEO David Leckie died after a long illness, aged 70yo. Leckie presided over Channel Nine in its 90s heyday – back when it was ‘Still The One’. Famously sacked from that job by Kerry Packer in 2001, it was Leckie who rose like Lazarus to take the reins at Network Seven 2 years later and turn it into a ratings winner. As famous for his long lunches and splenetic outbursts as he was for his deft ability to commission TV shows that kept a generation of Aussies glued to their small screens, Leckie was variously remembered yesterday as ‘brash’, ‘brillant’ ‘unvarnished’ and a ‘giant of Australian television”.

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