Tom Parkinson: producing the legends, from Billy T to Hudson and Halls…

Interview – 2016

Tom Parkinson is a veteran television producer and director who has worked on iconic Kiwi TV shows such as Hunter’s Gold, Hudson and Halls and Telethon. Parkinson was a key force behind many of our hit comedies in the 70s and 80s, including Billy T James’ shows (he writes about Billy here), A Week of It, Issues, and Letter to Blanchy. Parkinson was also Head of Entertainment Programmes at TVNZ, and helped launch TV3.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Parkinson talks about:

The challenges of filming early TV drama Hunter’s Gold
The reason he believes the drama series Gather Your Dreams was less of a success
How Brit comedian Tommy Cooper influenced hit cooking show Hudson and Halls
The mammoth production that was Telethon
Creating a style for Billy T James’ sketch comedy shows
The success of long-running music show That’s Country
His strategy on becoming the Head of Entertainment at TVNZ
The secret behind The New Adventures of Black Beauty
The challenges of getting Letter to Blanchy up and running
Battles between TVNZ and TV3 in the early days of TV3

This video was first uploaded on 7 June 2016, and is available under this Creative Commons licence. This licence is limited to use of ScreenTalk interview footage only and does not apply to any video content and photographs from films, television, music videos, web series and commercials used in the interview.

Interview, Camera and Editing – Andrew Whiteside

It was a hard show, because there was no equipment at that time for filmmaking . . . We had three cameras — one we were using, one as a spare, and one that was being repaired — and they worked their way round. The group camera lasted about three, four days, then the next one came up and it was off for repairs, so we had a constant circuit of these cameras.
– Tom Parkinson on managing with limited equipment, while producing early TV drama Hunter's Gold

Tom's Full Profile