On Wonder World
Jonathan Coleman was one of the four reporters who launched Wonder World in 1979, the original team Simon Townsend built the show around. He was quick and funny on camera, and the field reporting gave him the timing he would spend the rest of his life putting to use.
Townsend always said the job was to talk to children as equals and never down to them. Coleman took that instinct into everything that came after.
After Wonder World
From Wonder World he moved into radio, first as a presenter on the ABC's youth network Triple J, where he co-hosted the comedy program Off The Record with Ian Rogerson. As Jono and Dano the pair became a well-known double act on Sydney radio, on stations including Triple M, and later took the act to television. He acted in Australian films including Young Einstein, fronted the Saturday morning music program Saturday Morning Live, then built a second career on British radio before coming home again.
He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for his work in broadcasting and charity, and he was loved on both sides of the world. He died in Sydney in 2021, aged 65.
