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NeilRoberts

  • Producer
Neil-Roberts-Key-Profile.jpg

Neil Roberts discovered that he loved making television programmes while working as a parliamentary journalist. In the mid 1980s he founded independent production company Communicado, whose staff grew to more than 60. Later Roberts oversaw a period of change at Television New Zealand, during a short stint as the organisation's Television Manager. He died of cancer on 8 November 1998.

Screenography

Crump
1999 Subject Television
The Way We Were
1996 - 1998 Producer, Executive Producer Series
New Zealand at War
1995 Producer, Narrator Television
Robert Muldoon: The Grim Face of Power - Part Two
1994 Director, Producer, Writer Television
Robert Muldoon: The Grim Face of Power - Part One
1994 Director, Writer, Producer Television

Biography

Neil Roberts began his career as a print and television journalist, then founded independent production company Communicado, whose varied output ranged from a run of popular magazine-style shows (That's Fairly Interesting, Magic Kiwis) to classic movie Once Were Warriors. 

“Like him or loathe him, he will be remembered as a quite extraordinary human being: a New Zealander who did much to remind us who and what we are.”

— Warren Barton in The Dominion, 9 November 1998

Related images

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A shot from the Once Were Warriors premiere. From left to right: Neil Roberts from production company Communicado, actor Cliff Curtis, producer Robin Scholes, actor Temuera Morrison, Communicado's Garry McAlpine and director Lee Tamahori.
Thats-Fairly-Interesting-Gallery-01.jpg
That's Fairly Interesting reporters, from left to right Neil Roberts, Sue Kedgley, Phil Gifford and Tim Shadbolt.
Kindly supplied by The Dominion Post.
Thats-Fairly-Interesting-Gallery-04.jpg
The presenters of the third season of That's Fairly Interesting: from left to right, Khali Winitana, Neil Roberts, Juliet Monaghan and Mark Leishman.
Kindly supplied by The Dominion Post
Thats-Fairly-Interesting-Gallery-06.jpg
That's Fairly Interesting second series presenters (from left) Phil Gifford, Eliza Bidois, Neil Roberts and Kerry Smith.
Kindly supplied by the Dominion Post.
Communicado.jpg
The leadership team at Communicado. From left to right: Garry McAlpine, Murray Roberts, Robin Scholes, Neil Roberts, and Mike Hucheson.
Supplied by Robin Scholes