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Bob Jane and his son at his Calder Park race base.
BOB Jane has been in the news a lot in recent years - and not for the right reasons.
The retired racer and tyre tycoon has led a very colourful life and his most-recent family feud has been dragged through the courts and splashed over every area of the media. Now we're going to see the full inside story, complete with a set of family interviews with all the major players, thanks to a new program on ABC television.
It's called Family Confidential and the Bob Jane episode, called The Janes, airs next Monday night (November 22) at 8pm. It promises plenty of early background on Bob Jane, who dragged himself out of the Depression and the mean streets of Brunswick to become a champion bicycle racer, touring car king, car dealer and then tyre tyro.
But the real meat is the recent stuff, including his latest marriage - to a woman who was 40 years younger - and its disastrous disintegration through a series of nasty court appearances. The show promises to be more like a train wreck than a snuggly family story like The Waltons, but should be compelling stuff.
The ABC is already touting some of the headlines from the show, such as Bob's own words. "Shit happens, as they say. I suppose without being pathetic, I am a victim of it," he says.
Then there is ex-wife Geraldine, who says "He loved us all, but he gave very little of himself." For someone who knows Bob Jane, and has followed his story for more than 30 years, the idea of a television show is no surprise. But there will be plenty of surprises in the show.
It will be good to see and hear the truth, or their version of it, from the Jane family. Even so, the program could raise just as many questions as it answers.
Bob is now 80 and confesses he is "a bachelor again" but there is no sign of him running out of steam. He is still working hard, stirring the pot on the motorsport scene, and has big new plans for his Calder Park race base.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the The Janes will be one more chapter, and definitely not the final chapter for big Bob.
