Tim Ferguson. Paul McDermott. Richard Fidler. Three giants of Australian comedy.

A lot older, maybe a little wiser, definitely just as funny. Sitting around a table, talking of times past, present and future, while their friend and sometime collaborator Paul Livingston, aka Flacco, looks on silently.

From busking on the Canberra streets to becoming the darlings of the Edinburgh Fringe and stars of Australian TV classics such as The Big Gig and DAAS Kapital, the Doug Anthony All Stars for 10 terrific (terrifying?) years, from 1984-1994, held us all captive.

Nothing was sacred, nobody was safe from the All Stars’ brave, abrasive, anarchic form of comedy.

Then, just as true international stardom and success were finally within their grasp, Ferguson pulled the plug. He offered no explanation. McDermott and Fidler were heartbroken. It wasn’t until more than a decade later Ferguson revealed he had been suffering from multiple sclerosis.

Camera Icon Paul McDermott, Richard Fidler and Tim Ferguson of The Doug Anthony All Stars reunite for Tick F***ing Tock. Credit: Supplied

That’s just one of the fascinating and potentially painful subjects the boys confront as they sit around that table, before the cameras, in new two-part documentary Tick F***ing Tock, which takes in the highs and lows of life as the Doug Anthony All Stars, as well as the cards fate has dealt them since.

“It was originally going to be a ‘fly-on-the-wall’ documentary capturing where we are at the moment,” McDermott says. The “almost” All Stars had recently reformed, with Livingston replacing Fidler. McDermott felt the challenges of travelling with someone confined to a wheelchair and their return to Edinburgh Fringe would make an interesting story.

“Then my old friend Ted Robinson, from The Big Gig, DAAS Kapital and other shows, got involved,” McDermott says. “It turned into something quite different.”

That “something” now included lots of archival footage and interviews with some of the boys’ other former collaborators, such as The Big Gig’s Wendy Harmer. Some lovely guitar playing by the talented Livingston. And some very emotional moments as McDermott recalls Ferguson’s abrupt departure.

Camera Icon The Doug Anthony All Stars in action. Credit: Supplied

“It was a low point,” McDermott says. “A bolt out of the blue. I didn’t learn about the MS part of it until years later. I still don’t really know all Tim’s reasons for leaving the group. I don’t know if I ever will.”

Though he does break down at one point during the documentary, Ferguson is more matter-of-fact.

“Reliving the busting-up of the group, that didn’t worry me,” he says.

“I wrote the memoir (2013’s Carry a Big Stick). I’m not afraid to look at all that stuff. And actually it really wasn’t all that bad.”

I still don’t really know all Tim’s reasons for leaving the group. I don’t know if I ever will.

He says making the documentary was more joyous than anything. “Just remembering everything we did, seeing all our old friends, going through all that footage and seeing how much fun we had.”

McDermott and Ferguson remain especially close friends — something that is evident not just in the way they talk about each other but in the way they jokingly abuse each other on stage.

Camera Icon The Doug Anthony All Stars were the bad boys of Aussie comedy. Credit: Supplied

Rather than avoiding the elephant in the room — Ferguson’s MS — they’re happy to be trampled by it.

Sometimes audiences are offended. But most of the time they get it. Far from being a form of raging against the night, it’s what these ageing enfants terribles have always done.

Camera Icon Richard Fidler, Tim Ferguson, Paul Livingston and Paul McDermott turn back the clock in documentary Tick F***ing Tock. Credit: Supplied

“It’s the same sensibility,” Ferguson says. “The audience feels the same discomfort. When we walk and wheel onstage, people don’t go ‘I can relax and sit and watch some enjoyable comedy and afterwards think that was fun’. No. People tense up. They wonder what’s going to happen.”

He says too many people feel like they’re treading on eggshells around people experiencing disabilities.

“But most of the time people with disabilities are the ones making the jokes so everyone else can relax. So when we’re making these kinds of jokes onstage, people in the audience in wheelchairs have a great time,” he says. “It makes it their show.”

Tick F***ing Tock airs on October 2 and October 9 at 9.30pm on ABC.