David Harry Baldock: PMs, Russian subs, and psychics…

Interview – 2014

David Harry Baldock’s long TV career includes submarines, sea rescues, psychics and Prime Ministers. The onetime editor began making his mark as a director and producer on current affairs and documentaries. In 1988 he left state television to launch production company Ninox, whose prolific output would grow to include Sensing Murder, Mitre 10 Dream Home, award-winner Pacific Rescue and ambitious series Our People Our Century.

In this ScreenTalk, Baldock talks about:

The car accident while at high school that helped shape his attitude to life
How after moving from hometown Dunedin to Wellington he was given three months to sink or swim, directing current affairs
His Anglican-inflected take on the feisty Tonight interview where Simon Walker dared to challenge PM Robert Muldoon about Russian submarines
August '74 - The Death of a Prime Minister, his documentary on PM Norman Kirk’s final week — and how it confirmed his sense of how to get great interviews
Deciding to take the bull by the horns and leave his TVNZ job, before learning if he was going to be made redundant
Setting up production company Ninox in 1988
Managing to win major sponsorship to complete award-winning series At the Risk of Our Lives, only to have the offer turned down by TVNZ
How hit show Mitre 10 Dream Home proved a win win, and a life-changer
His fear of making history series Our People Our Century, and how the programme almost brought Ninox to its knees
The “fantastic brain” of producer Ray Waru
Sensing Murder: a passionate defence of the show’s integrity, and remembering the stresses of making it

This video was first uploaded on 7 July 2014, 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 and editing – Ian Pryor. Camera – Jess Charlton.

We'd seen the evolution of these new renovation shows that were happening, and we were looking for some edge, something that we could do on a local basis. I went 'well, what if we renovated a house?' And that was kind of the genesis of what we could do with Dream Home, you know. You get your mates in, you get everyone to help . . . But it was also an opportunity to really bring in the commercial relationship; it was the first real example of product placement e were looking
– David Harry Baldock on the birth of hit show Mitre 10 Dream Home

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