Robert Boyd-Bell: veteran TV newsman...

Interview – 2014

Robert Boyd-Bell has made many contributions to the development of TV news reporting in New Zealand. He began in the mid 1960s as a reporter with the fledgling NZ Broadcasting Corporation news service, and later headed TV One's northern newsroom. Boyd-Bell has also worked as a documentary producer, was key in setting up educational television services eTV and The Knowledge Breakfast, and has been a keen advocate for public service broadcasting.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Boyd-Bell talks about:

Why the NZ Broadcasting Corporation had to set up its own news service
The slow journey international news took to get on air, in the days before a national network
Bringing changes to the newsroom
That infamous Tonight interview with Sir Robert Muldoon
Establishing educational television service eTV
How The Knowledge Breakfast became the first online TV show in New Zealand
How family dynamics proved a challenge making Billy T: Te Movie
How his fascination with Kiri Te Kanawa led to documentary My Breathing is Singing
Why New Zealand needs a non-commercial TV service

This video was first uploaded on 28 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, Camera and Editing – Andrew Whiteside

That famous interview . . . with Simon and Muldoon in different places in a remote interview was a classic example of all the mistakes a production could ever make: of giving the politician the questions in advance, of being in a remote location where you don't have complete control because the people are talking over each other and they don't see each other and whatever...and a young upstart who was desperate to try and prove that he's better than the Prime Minister, and a Prime Minister who was desperate to put this little boy down....
– Robert Boyd-Bell on the infamous 1976 "nuclear submarines" interview between Robert Muldoon and Simon Walker, on current affairs show Tonight

Robert's Full Profile