Skip to main content

GordonDryden

  • Presenter
  • Interviewer
Gordon-Dryden-profile.jpg

After starting in journalism in his teens, Gordon Dryden became a familiar face on New Zealand television. Earning himself a reputation as a tough interviewer, Dryden hosted coverage of the 1975 election before presenting Friday Conference. He devoted years to his dream of launching a private TV channel. A 1991 series on education led to book The Learning Revolution, which sold in the millions. He died on 26 September 2022.

Screenography

2022 Subject Short film
Cancerman: The Milan Brych Affair
2010 Subject Television
The Beat Goes On
2009 Subject Series
Frontier of Dreams
2003 - 2004 Subject Series
1997 - 2026 Subject Series

Biography

After starting in journalism, Gordon Dryden went on to pioneer the concept of a second TV channel, rub shoulders with political heavyweights, and write a book about education which sold in the millions. The common thread, as he put it: “a burning desire to do something, enthusiasm to do it” — plus Dryden’s long passion for encouraging “informed debate on positive alternatives”.

“I don't know whether it means much, but I've got a piece of paper here that says you've got a television warrant.”

Gordon Dryden quotes a 1973 phone call from his lawyer regarding Dryden's ultimately unsuccessful campaign to launch a new television channel, in his book Out of the Red, page 201