Tony Holden: TV comedy veteran...

Interview – 2011

Tony Holden has produced and directed hundreds of hours of television, from pioneering comedies A Week Of It and Gliding On, to Radio with Pictures, Shortland Street and Dancing with the Stars. Holden’s roles over his long screen career include Head of Production at South Pacific Pictures and General Manager of Commissioning and Production at TVNZ.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Holden talks about:

Auditioning and inviting Karyn Hay to host Radio with Pictures
Learning the art of comic timing
How office comedy Gliding On struck a chord with New Zealanders
Shooting live to tape on A Week Of It
The early days working with Billy T James
His emotions producing Billy, the tele-movie about Biilly T James
Heading commissioning at TVNZ
The future of New Zealand television

This video was first uploaded on 22 August 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 – James Coleman

I got a letter from this woman saying 'Phil O'Brien is rubbish, I could do miles better than him.' . . . so I got her down for an audition. Her name was Karyn Hay. . .
– Tony Holden on Karyn Hay becoming the new host of Radio With Pictures

Tony's Full Profile