ScreenTalk

Jeremy Wells made his broadcasting debut on student radio station 95bFM, reading the news on Mikey Havoc’s breakfast show. The pair teamed up again for Havoc, a talk and music show on the fledgling MTV, before hosting travelogue/social commentary shows Havoc and Newsboy’s Sell-Out Tour, and Havoc’s Luxury Suites and Conference Facility on TVNZ.

Wells then worked with producer/director Paul Casserly to produce seven seasons of the media satire show Eating Media Lunch, which won Best Comedy Programme at the Qantas Film and Television Awards in 2008. He also presented the satirical series The Unauthorised History Of New Zealand in 2005, and an episode of Intrepid Journeys in 2007.

In this ScreenTalk Interview, Wells discusses:

• Being sent to boarding school for possessing marijuana
• Being expelled from boarding school for possessing marijuana
• Starting out as a newsreader on 95bFM
• The fun he had working on the Havoc shows
• The ideas behind The Unauthorised History of New Zealand
• The challenges of making seven seasons of Eating Media Lunch
• His experiences in Libya on Intrepid Journeys
• How the Birdland series came about and observations on the birding community
• His career path
• TVNZ

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

Credits:  Interview, Camera & Editing – James Coleman

Comedy legend David McPhail began making New Zealanders laugh in pioneering 1970s sketch show A Week of It, and then moved on to McPhail & Gadsby with his comedic mate Jon Gadsby. The two comedians also produced and starred in the sitcom Letter to Blanchy. In later years, McPhail starred in the mock documentary The Waimate Conspiracy, and played the appallingly politically incorrect teacher Gormsby in Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby. In 2007 McPhail donned a spandex super hero costume to fight crime in Amazing Extraordinary Friends, directed by his son Matt McPhail. As well as acting, McPhail has written many of the shows he has been involved in. His other writing credits include A Haunting We Will Go, and he has also worked as a comedy director on such shows as The Life and Times of Te Tutu.

In this ScreenTalk interview, McPhail discusses:

• The excitement of filming A Week of It an hour before it aired each week
• Using satire to prick the ego of former Prime Minister Rob Muldoon
• Why the concept behind the first season of McPhail & Gadsby was a mistake
• The real life stories behind Letter to Blanchy
• How Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby shocked the TV network but delighted fans
• Getting caught in public in a very revealing spandex costume while shooting The Amazing Extraordinary Friends

This video is available on YouTube to embed via a Creative Commons licence.

Credits:  Interview, Camera & Editing – Andrew Whiteside

Comedian Te Radar (aka Andrew Lumsden) has made his mark in stand-up comedy, documentaries, and the top-rating popular factual series Off the Radar. His other screen credits include Pulp Comedy, Homegrown, Intrepid Journeys, B & B, and Hidden in the Numbers – a three part documentary series about statistics.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Te Radar discusses:

• The genesis of the name ‘Te Radar’
• Why he thinks Pulp Comedy was one of the most important NZ comedy programmes
• Why it took years for him to appear in an episode of Intrepid Journeys
• His fight for life after being bitten by a scorpion in Mali
• The chaos and fun of the talk show/sitcom B & B
• How Hidden in the Numbers made statistics ‘fun’
• His delight that Off the Radar was a hit with children
• And the state of NZ TV comedy

This video is available on YouTube to embed via a Creative Commons licence.

Credits:  Interview, Camera & Editing – Andrew Whiteside

New Zealand inherited 15-year-old Jaquie Brown from England. Following a stint at Auckland’s 95bFM in her late teens, Brown soon became ensconced in the intriguing world of New Zealand television. Her first TV role was as co-host of youth culture show Space with Dominic Bowden in 2000, before becoming one of the two main anchors on burgeoning music channel C4.

From there, Brown moved into “grown up” TV with John Campbell and Carol Hirschfeld, in the series A Queen’s Tour, before becoming a reporter on the current affairs show Campbell Live.

Brown then stepped into the challenging realm of programme-making, forming her own production company with Gerard Johnstone. One season later and The Jaquie Brown Diaries is a hit with critics and viewers, and was named Best Comedy at the 2009 Qantas Film and Television Awards. The series was released on DVD, played on SBS in Australia and is part of Air New Zealand’s in-flight entertainment.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Brown reveals:

• how she looked as a 15-year-old
• how she handled her first live broadcast
• how a shocking night club revelation helped secure her role on the TV show Space
• the joys of live TV, working with Clark Gayford, and the subsequent trials of being mistaken for Jackie Clarke… before beating her up
• what it’s like working with John Campbell
• which of her character’s mortifying experiences in The Jaquie Brown Diaries actually happened
• some of the behind-the-scenes challenges of making TV

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

Credits:  Interview, Camera & Editing – James Coleman

Hori Ahipene could perhaps be described as New Zealand’s most ‘diverse’ actor, having played both male and female characters in TV comedies and dramas.

In the 90s Ahipene gained a loyal fan base by appearing in the TV sketch shows Away Laughing, Skitz and Telly Laughs. Two of Ahipene’s popular gender-swapping roles were Mrs Semisi in Skitz and The Semesis, and Beverley Best in the Maori Television sitcom/chat show B&B. Ahipene has also appeared in TV dramas such as Maddigan’s Quest, Mataku, and Shortland Street. In 2009, Ahipene returned to wearing a frock on screen playing ‘Angel’ – a transgender prostitute in Outrageous Fortune. Ahipene’s film credits include Jubilee and The Piano.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Ahipene discusses:

• His love of Skitz and the chance it gave him to become a director
• Why hosting the 1998 Hero Parade terrified him
• Dedicating his role in Jubilee to the memory of his father
• How satisfying it was to work with Māori crew on the TV series Mataku
• Working with Te Radar on the sitcom/chat show B&B
• Learning acrobatic skills on the set of Maddigan’s Quest
• And playing a transgender hooker in Outrageous Fortune

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

Credits: Interview, Camera & Editing – Andrew Whiteside

Jon Bridges was born in America. Since moving to New Zealand at the age of three, he has made hundreds of hours of television for NZers – not only from in front of the camera, but also behind it.

Bridges’ comic dexterity came to light on our screens in the early 90s with TV shows like A Bit After Ten and Away Laughing, but his first big TV role was as co-presenter of the long-running TV3 series Ice TV, which debuted in 1995.

Since Ice TV, Bridges has written, directed, produced and starred in numerous documentaries, dramas, game shows and films. He is currently producing TV3’s well-received comedy panel show 7 Days.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Bridges shares his experiences on:

• Working with the fledgling TV3
• The evolution of TV skit comedy in NZ
• How back room reservations meant a change from Ice TV’s original name
• Working with director Mike Huddleston on the documentary Who Ate All the Pies?
• The perils of being cast twice on Shortland Street
• Writing for the youth dramas S.A.M. and Amazing Extraordinary Friends
• Regretful moments in NZ television
• Producing the TV panel show 7 Days

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence

Credits:  Interview, Camera & Editing – James Coleman

John Leigh is one of NZ’s most versatile and experienced actors, with over 40 NZ TV and film credits to his name including roles in Outrageous Fortune, Lord of the Rings, Serial Killers, Stickmen, Shortland St, The Frighteners, Diplomatic Immunity, Eating Media Lunch, Mercy Peak, We’re Here to Help and Xena, plus numerous theatre and voice-over appearances.

From early beginnings in the Wellington theatre scene at Taki Rua, through his first major TV role as core cast member Lionel Skeggins on Shortland Street, to dozens of gritty character roles, Leigh is a very familiar face on NZ stage and screen.

His talents also extend to voice-over with several character appearances on Power Rangers, along with numerous national TV and radio advertising campaigns.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Leigh shares his experiences on:

• Playing Lionel Skeggins on Shortland Street, and a theory on his own disappearance
• The challenges of fast turnaround TV show Spin Doctors
• A real fire on the set of Outrageous Fortune
• Bringing Serial Killers to life
• Upstaging Michael J Fox in Lyttelton
• Playing Hama in Lord of the Rings, and working with Sir Ian McKellen

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence

Credits:  Interview, Camera & Editing – James Coleman

Actor/director Danny Mulheron has acted alongside drug-addicted frogs, haunted automobiles, and “force of nature” David Fane. After appearing in early Kiwi soap Close to Home, Mulheron went on to act on television, stage and film – including in the cult Peter Jackson puppet movie Meet the Feebles. In the late 80s he found himself working on both sides of the camera on a run of television sketch shows. Mulheron’s lengthy directorial CV now includes drama, comedy, and documentary.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Danny Mulheron talks about:

• working with a stuntman, while acting in Gaylene Preston’s haunted car movie Mr Wrong
• helping write the “outrageous script” for Peter Jackson puppet movie Meet the Feebles, then filming it in a freezing railways shed (Mulheron plays a homicidal hippo)
• working as a writer and actor on a run of sketch comedy shows for producer Dave Gibson, and beginning the move into directing
• directing “force of nature” David Fane on shortlived comedy show The Semisis, about a dysfunctional Samoan family
• moving into drama directing with The Strip, and The Hothouse
• co-creating un-PC TV series Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby, and finding an actor who could play Mr Gormsby, a racist, sexist schoolteacher at a low decile school
• showing films in a different way with personal documentary The Third Richard, made with wife Sara Stretton

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

Credits: Direction and Interview by Ian Pryor, Camera and Editing by Leo Guerchmann.

Producer Elizabeth Mitchell set up Firehorse Films to produce the popular TV3 animated comedy series bro’Town.

Mitchell was a print journalist turned television promotions director, and she explains that her only experience in animation prior to bro’Town was a TV ad on the white spotted tussock moth.

Mitchell outlines how the original idea for bro’Town came about, and talks about her long friendship with Naked Samoans and bro’Town star Oscar Kightley.

She also talks about the early development for the series, how she got the animation team together, and what the production process for bro’Town is.

Mitchell discusses audience reaction to the series – thinking it would be watched by “young brown people” only to find that it was also enjoyed by “old white people”.

Lastly, Mitchell discusses the future for bro’Town now that the last TV series is on air – a future that includes television specials and a bro’Town movie.

This interview is also available on YouTube.

Credits: Interview by Clare O’Leary, Camera and Editing by Leo Guerchmann.