JohnLye
- Director
- Producer
A meticulous, unflappable producer and director, John Lye’s career spanned three decades – most of it spent with TVNZ in Christchurch and Avalon. Lye did time as a cameraman and floor manager. Later he commanded two major productions of the 1980s — That’s Country and McPhail and Gadsby. After leaving TVNZ in 2000, he helped launch Big Brother Australia and live broadcasts of New Zealand Parliament.
Biography
John Lye was born and educated in Christchurch, a second cousin to artist Len Lye. On the basis that he could draw and rule straight lines, the Post and Telegraph Department recruited him from school to train as a draughtsman, working on intricate plans mapping the city’s underground cabling.
Screenography
Awards
1986 National Mutual Gofta Awards
Nominated for Best Entertainment Programme: McPhail and Gadsby
1985 Feltex Awards
Best Entertainment Programme: McPhail and Gadsby
Nominated in the same category: That's Country
“He was the only person I fully trusted with transforming a script into a finished sketch… I had complete faith in John’s judgement. If the plants needed light, then let there be light and if John said a sketch wasn’t working, we knew it wasn’t working.”