Jon Gadsby

Jon Gadsby's career as a writer and comedian for television spans three decades, decades which have seen him impersonating everyone from the angel Gabriel to poet Sam Hunt. He first came to the screen in A Week of It, one of the most successful Kiwi comedy shows of the 70s. Next came the long-running McPhail and Gadsby, ensemble skit show Issues, and sitcom Letter to Blanchy.

Gadsby was born in Derbyshire, England. His family moved to New Zealand while he was a child, and he began acting in capping reviews while studying law at Otago University. Gadsby left university in his final year to work for Radio Dunedin, and met David McPhail and many of the team who would work on A Week of It, one of New Zealand's earliest successful skit shows.

A Week of It debuted in a graveyard after 10pm slot in July 1977, but its popularity soon saw the show moved to primetime. Daring for its time, the show mixed political satire - including the debut of McPhail's Robert Muldoon impersonation - potshots at Kiwi culture and sport, and a regular skit in a bar. The latter traditionally ended with Gadsby's character saying something so gormless, the others are moved to reply with the immortal line "Jeez Wayne".

A Week of It won Feltex Awards for best entertainment programme in 1978 and 1980. The show's writing team included McPhail, Gadsby and offscreen partner in crime A.K. Grant, who quit his job as a barrister after the show ended, to concentrate on comedy.

The McPhail/ Gadsby/ Grant trio would be key to the creation and writing of a run of successful comedy shows, including the award-winning McPhail and Gadsby, various permutations of Issues, and Letter to Blanchy. They also provided material for The Billy T. James show.

McPhail and Gadsby lasted seven seasons. Some series based each episode around a particular theme, others relied on more topical humour. In 1983 it won a Feltex Award for best entertainment show. The same year saw the debut of Gadsby's own creation: Rabbiter's Rest.  A sitcom set in a country pub, the show was based partly on Gadsby's memories of bar work in the Southland town of Dipton. Rabbiter's Rest ran two seasons, and included a cameo by Gadsby as a highly-competitive rugby coach. 

In 1987 Gadsby was a foundation shareholder of TV3. The plan, later abandoned, was that the third channel would be run on a regional basis, with the Christchurch studio concentrating on making comedy and children's programmes.

Gadsby made his feature film debut in children's romp Nutcase (1980), as a policeman helping defeat plans to reignite Rangitoto. Four years later, he worked with Nutcase director Roger Donaldson again, with a small role in his big-budget remake of the Mutiny on the Bounty.

In 1983 veteran English director Michael Anderson (The Dambusters) flew to Auckland to shoot little-seen Adam and Eve comedy Second Time Lucky, one of the most expensive films shot in New Zealand up till that time. Gadsby took one of the main roles, playing the Angel Gabriel opposite Robert Morley as God (Gadsby would play Gabriel again in this episode of McPhail and Gadsby).

In the 90s, Gadsby reteamed with David McPhail once more on Issues, a skit based comedy series which weathered a number of variations of title and running time, and at least one return from the dead. The show's impressive cast included Rawiri Paratene, Mark Wright, Rima Te Wiata, Alison Wall and Willy de Wit.

Gadsby's second situation comedy Letter to Blanchy began as a one hour special. With extensive outdoor locations, the series took a new angle on previous sketches, which had seen Gadsby playing rough-edged diamond to a posh-talking intellectual (McPhail). During the same period, Gadsby formed corporate video company RMG, with McPhail and longtime acting collaborator Peter Rowley.

Gadsby has also played on-screen tour guide - on the Clutha episode of Great NZ River Journeys (1991), and travel show Intrepid Journeys (2004) which featured Gadsby fishing with spears in Myanmar (formerly Burma). His latest screen role is in 2008 British movie comedy Sisterhood, in which an uptight Englishwoman finds a hairy Kiwi half-sister in her living room.

The same year, McPhail and Gadsby re-teamed to write and star in the play Letter To Blanchy: Stir Crazy, based on the awardwinning Blanchy TV script Sojourn at Starvation Hut. When the play debuted at Christchurch's Court Theatre in March, audience attendance averaged 95 per cent.

Gadsby has also written more than 20 books for children, including the best selling Book of Beasts, and the Kapai Kiwi series. In 1992 Gadsby was awarded the Queen's Service Medal (QSM) for Public Services to Broadcasting, in the New Years Honours List.