First, there was Richard Hughes, a talented Melbourne ventriloquist who forever regretted leaving the stage for a real job.

Then, there was the second Richard Hughes, one of Australia's most lauded foreign correspondents, who got a front page scoop in every major newspaper in the world when he interviewed the British Soviet defectors, Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean. His personality was immortalised in the character of Dikko Henderson in Ian Fleming's You Only Live Twice, and as Old Craw in John le Carre's The Honourable Schoolboy.

The third Dick Hughes is a jazzman and journalist, who fell in love with ''the devil's music'' at a young age, became one of the founding members of the Sydney jazz scene, and is still seen sharing his prodigious piano playing and encyclopedic knowledge of jazz with Sydney audiences.

His daughter, Christa, inherited her father's love of music and first found fame as the frequently nude singer with the astronomical voice - K.K Juggy, in the Australian band Machine Gun Fellatio.

Dick and Christa Hughes entranced audiences last week with their renditions of 1920s jazz and blues numbers at Slide nightclub on Oxford Street to simultaneously launch a documentary on their family and their new album, 21st Century Blues.

Christa's beautifully clear, honeyed voice accompanied her father's keys, and transported the audience back in time. She said it was an honour to perform with her father, ''a living legend,'' to which Dick quipped "I don't know if I'm a living or dying legend.''

You Only Live Twice: The Incredible True Story of the Hughes Family, directed by Brendan Young, premieres on the ABC on Thursday, allowing viewers to peek in the Hugheses windows and glance at what makes this special family tick.

It includes hilarious, candid and heartening interviews with Dick, his beloved wife Fay, and three daughters, Vashti, Christa and Stephanie.

It is a rare insight into an Australian arts dynasty, and leaves you wondering where the road will take them next.

You Only Live Twice: The Incredible True Story of the Hughes Family

ABC, 9.25pm Thursday February 18.

Dick and Christa Hughes live at the Basement

February 22, Tickets: www.thebasement.com.au

Dick and Christa Hughes, 21st Century Blues

Out now through ABC Music.