Marcia Russell: behind the revolution...

Interview – 2011

Marcia Russell, OBE, was an award-winning journalist and producer with a long career in New Zealand's media. She began as host of 1970s talk show Speakeasy, then moved into news and current affairs, and later helped set up TV3's news department. She worked on notable documentary series such as Landmarks and The New Zealand Wars, and produced Revolution, which chronicling the Lange Government's impact on New Zealandy. She was awarded an OBE for services to journalism in 1996.

Marcia Russell died in December 2012. In this ScreenTalk interview conducted the previous year, she talked about:

Being the first 'live' presenter on TV2 in the show Speakeasy
How the show debuted future politician Jeanette Fitzsimons and TV cooking superstars Hudson and Halls
Being a panelist on Beauty and the Beast and how it enabled her to be subversive
Helping set up TV3 news, and having the new Minister of Broadcasting pull the rug from under them
A slight falling out with Catherine Tizard on documentary Dame Cath Moves Up
Her passion for history leading to her involvement in ambitious series Revolution
How James Belich resisted script changes in the award-winning series The New Zealand Wars

This video was first uploaded on 27 September 2011, 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

..iIt was just at that time with the second wave of feminism when we needed to have more voices everywhere. I think what it achieved was simply gave women a voice, at a time when their voices had been robbed to some extent.
– Marcia Russell on how panel show Beauty And The Beast gave women a platform

Marcia's Full Profile