Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hello, my name is Vanessa Scammell and welcome back to part two of Not Guilty, the Craig McLachlan case.
Chapter 2: What led to the allegations against Craig McLachlan?
On January the 8th, 2018, an article by Fairfax Media and the ABC was published featuring three of Craig McLachlan's castmates from the Rocky Horror Show of 2014, claiming they had been victims of indecent assault, harassment and bullying during their time on the show. Fast forward to September 2025 and Craig McLachlan was finally set to tread the boards again.
After a long period out of the industry, he was cast by producer John Frost to appear in the play Cluedo, a production which was scheduled to tour for five months around Australia. It was time to celebrate.
Chapter 3: How did Craig McLachlan plan his return to the stage?
His comeback was finally about to happen. But rather than opening the show in January as planned, a shocking turn of events led instead to this podcast being made. In part two of this series, the episodes feature interviews with Craig McLaughlin and Michael Caine, originally filmed for YouTube and now presented here as part of the audio podcast series with some additional materials.
Chapter 4: What was the purpose of the unfiltered interviews with Craig?
After nine episodes of Not Guilty, which examined the criminal proceedings against Craig McLaughlin, a case in which he was ultimately found not guilty, it felt important to step back from the legal analysis and hear directly from Craig himself. Not the stage character, Dr. Frankenfurter the Transsexual from Transylvania, but the man behind the character.
Chapter 5: How did Craig McLachlan feel about the backlash from his return?
Because behind every case, there is a human story. It should also be noted that Craig McLachlan had no involvement in the production of the Not Guilty episodes beyond reading portions of evidence he presented in court and certain text messages that had been exchanged with his accusers.
The series was conceived and produced entirely independently of Craig to ensure factual and evidence-based accounts were given. My goal has always been to bring the facts to the forefront, many of which have never been heard. Eight years ago, Christy Whelan-Brown, Erica Haynitz and Angela Scundi went to the press to air allegations against Craig.
Chapter 6: What insights does Craig share about his relationship with producer John Frost?
Just as they were given a chance to be heard, my goal in presenting the podcast all these years later is to reveal aspects and insights of the story that have previously been overlooked or ignored. People ask, why have I done this series? The simple answer is this, because no one else would. In the unfiltered interviews, all questions posed by Michael Caine are not shared with Craig in advance.
His responses are spontaneous, unscripted and not rehearsed or coached.
Chapter 7: How did the media coverage affect Craig's mental health?
There was no director or producer guiding these sessions in contrast to the interviews the ABC conducted all those years ago. We've explored the case, the evidence and the rulings. Now it's time to hear from the man at the centre of it all, Craig McLaughlin.
Craig, it's the 8th of January, 2026. Eight years, the eight-year anniversary of the hardest time of your life.
Chapter 8: What were Craig's thoughts on the allegations made against him?
Just around this time of year, especially, I suppose, the way things could have gone, you would have been in the final throes of rehearsing for the play Cluedo right now. Right now, as we speak. How does that sit with you?
I have had to... accept what's played out, but that doesn't make it right and that doesn't mean I'm happy about it. I have to be at peace with what happened. One of the things the producer John Frost, I've known John Frost since the 1990s, that's the previous century. and I've done a number of shows with Mr Frost.
Do you know when we first met, I made a pledge to him, and I'm smiling while I say it. I can remember it like it was yesterday, and he laughed, and I said, whenever I'm in your employ... I will never miss a show. I held a record for the number of performances in London without ever missing a performance. I was very proud of it.
Because for me, it's always been about the audience parting with their hard-earned dollars to come and see it. We never missed a show. Second, never missed a show. And on and on and on. The Greases, the arena shows, Chicago, Rocky Horror. until 2018 when I had to step down, my last performance being January 7th, 2018.
But in relation to Cluedo, Vanessa and I had conversations with John, and I actually said to him, I said, you know, there's a small squad, to use a military term, because they weaponized the situation and they planned their attack using social media. I said, there's a small group of people who will kick up a stink that you're going to put me in this show.
And he said, and I quote, you're an innocent man. Why shouldn't you be on the stage, particularly when Australian audiences want to see you? I said, well, I'm just letting you know, you know, I hope you'll have my back on this. Of course I'll have your back, lovey, of course I will. The director came and met with Vanessa and I months before the announcement was made.
They started the casting process. Mr. Frost even called Vanessa and said, hey, listen, we're thinking of these people. Any names waving any red flags for you? Certainly the people who were eventually announced in the press along with me. And I said, you know, this could get hot for them.
knowing the nastiness of schadenfreude and he said no no they're on board they're looking forward to doing this with you they can't wait the director we had a lovely day with him up at the house and he was well on board and we had a good chat so you're right i should be in the final stages of rehearsal now it was definitely your decision to pull out you weren't pressured by john frost i was left with no choice
To me, I just think that had it have gone on, the fact that you're coming back into the spotlight again would have been the biggest thing in Australian showbiz after what you'd been through. It would have went through the roof. If I was John Frost, I'd be going, no, we need to continue this hooker by crook.
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