Content Director's Top 10

I was born the year television came to New Zealand, and I've now been working in our television industry for just over half of my life. I started out in the industry as a publicist for TVNZ, then moved through directing, producing, and executive producing, and on to running TVNZ's internal production unit, followed by the role of Head of Commissioning for TVNZ. So I've watched or been involved in an enormous amount of NZ television.  This year I became Content Director for NZ On Screen - so the fact that I am something of a walking New Zealand television archive is now of great use to me!

The NZ On Screen website is amazing. New Zealand On Air has shown great foresight in funding it. We already have over 350 titles on the site and we are adding to that constantly. New Zealanders now have a free on-line screen archive at their fingertips. A visit to NZ On Screen quickly makes you realise the enormous amount of quality New Zealand television and film that has been made.

To launch our new curated collections function, I have compiled my own Top 10 television titles from the site.

So here goes (in no particular order):

• Gallery - Post Office Go Slow
• Tonight - Robert Muldoon interview
• bro'Town
• Eating Media Lunch
• Sense of Place - Robin Morrison
• 1951
• Gang Girls
  
• Gloss (episode one)
• Spot On (episode one)
• Telethon (excerpts)

My choices fall loosely into four categories - news and current affairs classics, innovative recent series, quality documentaries, and nostalgic favourites.

The news and current affairs junkie in me has chosen two classic television current affairs moments - Brian Edwards solving a Post Office industrial dispute live on air in 1970, and Simon Walker's turbulent interview with Prime Minister Sir Robert Muldoon in 1976. Both pieces have gone down in NZ television history.  Walker/Muldoon still stands up as an extraordinary example of a full-on confrontational TV interview. Muldoon is unbelievably rude and aggressive, but a very young Walker just courageously and doggedly continues. You can really see where Winston Peters learned his media tactics from when you watch this one.

I've also included two relatively recent titles in my Top 10 - the comedy series bro'Town and Eating Media Lunch. I chose these because I think they are two of the freshest and most interesting of our new series in the past few years.

I've worked a lot in the area of documentary production, and I'm seen some great ones in my time, but Sense of Place - Robin Morrison, and 1951 (both directed by John Bates); and Gang Girls (Front of the Box) are three of the best.  I was lucky enough to be the Commissioning Editor for the last two during my time at TVNZ.

And last but not least, I've gone for three of my nostalgic favourites from the site - episode one of Gloss, episode one of Spot On, and excerpts from Telethon. I'm not alone in loving these titles - they are some of the most popular on our site.  Gloss is worth a look for the bad 1980s hair alone!

A few of my favourite shows of old aren't on the website yet - but they will be soon. We're a little light on music shows, (which I love!), because the rights are difficult to clear. But we're working on that. We're hoping to have more Billy T for you soon, and Count Homogenised - which for some reason everyone is asking for - is on its way!

My Top 10 is just a sample of all the excellent NZ television on the site. I hope it inspires you to check out even more.