John Barningham

John Barningham was a creative force in the early years of New Zealand television. Born in Te Kuiti in 1943, Barningham grew up in Avondale, Auckland, where he got an early start with community theatre. As a teenager, he performed in boy scout revue shows and co-founded the Avondale Theatre, which later merged with the Mount Eden Community Players.

Barningham began his broadcasting career in 1961 as a radio cadet with the New Zealand Broadcasting Service, before making the jump to television in 1962. He joined Auckland’s AKTV-2 channel as an assistant floor manager, but it wasn’t long before he had moved across to presentation in 1964. It was here, Barningham later said, that he first "learnt how to put the basic principles of film editing into practice".

He quickly rose through the ranks and by the mid 60s, Barningham was directing and producing light entertainment from the NZBC’s Shortland Street studios, undeterred by their limited resources. In 1966 he took on his first role as director with episodes of the Auckland version of nightly magazine show Town and Around. "I directed this programme for the first year of its life — looking after the studio side of production, as well as directing the film content." 

In the late 60s Barningham developed a reputation for producing music and light entertainment shows. He worked with a number of prominent musical personalities of the era, including Happen Inn (1968-73) presented by Peter Sinclair, My Name is Ray Columbus (1970), and The Eliza Keil Show (1970). Barningham also produced shows featuring music from the past: Here Are The Hits (1968) highlighted hits from the 20s, 30s and 40s, and ANZAC day broadcast The Songs They Sang (1969) presented 30 entertainers performing songs from both world wars. 

Barningham was behind A Girl to Watch Music By (1969), which showcased female entertainers from Allison Durbin to The Chicks. The show is probably best remembered today for this clip featuring a quirky solution to dealing with the height difference between singers Max Cryer and Ray Columbus—having Ray sit on Max’s knee like a ventriloquist’s doll (read more about it here).

Barnigham remained active in the theatre scene throughout the 60s and 70s, producing and directing stage dramas, operettas and comedies. He directed adaptations for the Mount Eden Community Players of swinging sixties comedy The Knack, and Joe Orton's dark comedy Entertaining Mr Sloane about a bisexual man who manipulates his landlady and her brother. 

The theatre work informed his onscreen projects. He produced and directed a tribute to English playwright Noel Coward, Masterpieces, first on stage and then for television.  He also directed and produced ballet performances for the NZ Ballet Company (which later became the Royal NZ Ballet), including televised productions of The Broome and I and Encounters. 

In 1974, Barningham moved to Australia, joining Crawford Productions in Melbourne. He soon made his mark as a producer and director, with episodes of crime series Division 4 and Matlock Police. 

He returned to New Zealand in 1975. "Things were slow at Crawford, and I was curious about the two-network set-up that had been so long in the making." The project that enticed him back was a role as co-producer on Geoff Murphy’s eclectic television series Blerta (1975). The series, which featured Bruno Lawrence's touring musical theatre troupe, went on to earn a Feltex Award for Best Light Entertainment Show. Some of the material Barningham produced was later used in compilation film Blerta Revisited (2001). 

In the same period Barningham was producing live show Edwards on Saturday, presented by Brian Edwards. It combined interviews, satirical sketches and live music, and sometimes pushed boundaries (including shows examining death and sexual dysfunction, and a demonstration of psychic surgery). Barningham enjoyed working with the constraints of live television, explaining that "trying to fit everything into an hour or so makes for a livelier presentation".

With legislative moves to revert New Zealand broadcasting from a competitive system back to a single corporation in 1976, Barningham decided to return to Australia. He spoke of fears of creative inhibition and self-censorship and a return to the old days, arguing that local television had become "the bladder of a political football".

In Australia, he went on to produce two seasons of hit WWII family drama The Sullivans. Barningham knew his team was working on something "very special"; the series won multiple Australian Logie Awards for Most Popular Drama. Another period drama Carson’s Law followed, starring Sullivans regular Lorraine Bayly as a lawyer working in the 1920s. The series earned a Logie Award for Most Popular Show in 1984.

Barningham also produced two high profile miniseries: Sara Dane (1982), based on Catherinie Gaskin's bestseller about a colonial convict turned businesswoman, and Nevil Shute romance The Far Country.

Barningham eventually returned to New Zealand for good in 1986, taking up the role of Programme Controller for TV Two, where he oversaw all aspects of the channel from programming to presentation. Only a year later in April 1987 he passed away from AIDS-related complications, aged 43.

Profile written by Alexandra Paterson; published on 31 January 2025

Sources Include
Carolyn Skelton, ‘John Barningham: Local stories on stage and screen 1960s - 1980s’ (Biography) - Heritage et AL Auckland Libraries website. Accessed 7 January 2025
Robert Boyd-Bell, New Zealand Television The First 25 Years (Auckland: Reed Methuen Publishers, 1985)
Max Cryer ‘Memories of 11 Unforgettable Moments’, NZ On Screen website. Accessed 31 January 2025
Mariann Heimans 'How Success Has Changed The Sullivans’ - The Australian Women's Weekly, 17 May 1978
Robin Turkel, '‘Practical’ side of death with Edwards' (Interview) - The Press, 6 March 1976
Robin Turkel, 'Barningham leading the 'exodus'?' (Interview) - The Press, 5 July 1976, page 13
Unknown writer, 'TV head's disease A.I.D.S.-related' - The Press, 23 March 1987
Unknown writer, 'Restructuring prompts John Barningham' (Interview) - The Press, 4 September 1976, page 9
Unknown writer, 'N.Z. producer for 'The Sullivans'' (Interview) - The Press, 7 October 1981, page 19