Brilliant Creatures, Germaine, Clive, Barry and Bob, is more than just a nostalgia trip

By Ruth Ritchie
Updated September 20 2014 - 12:08am, first published September 19 2014 - 11:45pm
Ridiculously charming: Barry Humphries and Howard Jacobson in Brilliant Creatures.
Ridiculously charming: Barry Humphries and Howard Jacobson in Brilliant Creatures.
Ridiculously charming: Barry Humphries and Howard Jacobson in Brilliant Creatures.
Ridiculously charming: Barry Humphries and Howard Jacobson in Brilliant Creatures.
Ridiculously charming: Barry Humphries and Howard Jacobson in Brilliant Creatures.
Ridiculously charming: Barry Humphries and Howard Jacobson in Brilliant Creatures.
Ridiculously charming: Barry Humphries and Howard Jacobson in Brilliant Creatures.
Ridiculously charming: Barry Humphries and Howard Jacobson in Brilliant Creatures.

Robert Hughes, Germaine Greer, Barry Humphries and Clive James: if they were young guns today, they would individually be spectacular successes and a source of national pride. As a quartet, just like the Kardashians, the sum of the parts, the accumulative effect would be bigger than a bag of Biebers. But that these four cut a swath through international intelligentsia, at a time before the "avocado pear" had been introduced to menus of posh local restaurants, is something to wrap the mind around.