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Profile image for Peter Coates

Peter Coates

Director, Producer

A bayonet charge from 1971's War In The North, one of the earliest TV productions directed by Peter Coates.  The docudrama was based on wars between Māori and Pākehā. 

Kindly supplied by Peter Coates

The Producers' Course of 1970. From left, back row: Peter Sharp, ?, Donald Hope Evans, Wayne Tourell, Alan Lyne, John Whitwell, Michael Noonan, and Bob Blair. Front: David McPhail, Peter Coates, Roy Melford, Murray Reece and Mike Mune.

Kindly supplied by Peter Coates

Designer Logan Brewer's model for the set of 1980's Pagliacci, a 65 minute television adaptation of the opera by Ruggero Leoncavallo.

Kindly supplied by Peter Coates

Portrait of Peter Coates

Kindly supplied by Peter Coates

The miners walk towards the Okarito goldfields in 1973 docudrama Hunt's Duffer, directed by Peter Coates. Based on a riot which occured in Okarito during the gold rush, the production used as many as 50 extras for some of the beach shots, which were shot mainly in Hokitika. Sam Neill and Sam Hunt also had small roles. A small town set was built on the beach south of Wainuiomata, after battles over whether Coates could pull it off for a budget of $300 in materials.  The village was almost destroyed by floods and visiting bikies, before being burned down on screen. A critic for The Dominion argued that "so good were the shots and shading that it might have been filmed in the 1860s". 

Kindly supplied by Peter Coates

Peter Coates directs a television special for TVNZ on world-renowned pianist and conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy.

Kindly supplied by Peter Coates