Bill McCarthy
Bill McCarthy’s wide-ranging television career spans 50 years and counting. McCarthy won a keen following when he anchored coverage of the 1974 Commonwealth Games. After five years presenting Television One’s network news (alternating with Dougal Stevenson), he became a producer and director, and did time as TVNZ’s head of sports. McCarthy set up his own company in 1990, and continues to make shows for cable television.
Arthur Everard
Arthur Everard spent almost two decades making films for the National Film Unit, including directing award-winning rugby short Score and joining the team behind Commonwealth Games doco Games ’74. In 1984, Everard became New Zealand’s Chief Film Censor, a position he held for six years.
Rachel Weston
Rachel Weston was one of the child stars of kidult TV hit Children of Fire Mountain, playing grandaughter to a Brit aristocrat in a thermal spa town, circa 1900. Later the classically trained singer and Mobil Song Quest finalist hosted music show Opus and classical music contests for NZ TV. She is now a UK based singer. Weston has also read news for BBC World Service, and presented Proms concerts for BBC Four.
Peter Sinclair
For three decades Peter Sinclair was one of New Zealand’s leading TV presenters. A radio announcer by training, he was the face of music television, fronting Let’s Go, C’mon and Happen Inn from 1964 to 1973. He reinvented himself as a quiz show host with Mastermind — and hosted telethons and beauty contests until the mid 90s. Sinclair returned to radio and wrote an online column until his death in August 2001.
Geoffrey Cawthorn
Geoffrey Cawthorn has directed drama and documentary on both sides of the Tasman, including crime (Lawless - Beyond Justice), soap (Shortland Street), fantasy (Maddigan’s Quest) and award-winning shorts (Philosophy). His documentary work often reflects Cawthorn’s musical leanings, including pieces on everything from classical and jazz to Kiwi love songs.
Peter Coates
If director and producer Peter Coates was a superhero, he’d surely be ‘Renaissance Man’. His contribution to championing the arts on television is arguably heroic, and his career multi-faceted. From 1971 to 2004 Coates produced, directed or scripted hundreds of TV productions covering a smorgasbord of topics, from operas to soap operas, and from portraits of New Zealand artists to rugby coaching films.
Brian Latham
Brian Latham was behind the camera on some of New Zealand's earliest drama series, including Pukemanu and Section 7. Latham left his native England for Aotearoa in the early 60s. He worked in Wellington for the National Film Unit and the NZ Broadcasting Corporation, then did many more years of television in Auckland. He was also a stills photographer. Latham passed away on 15 June 2018.
Les Andrews
Les Andrews, QSM, began singing with the Kiwi Concert Party during World War II. After the war he studied at London’s Royal College of Music, and sang on BBC television. Back home he was one of the first faces on air when local television began transmitting, and later spent four years hosting quiz show Personality Squares. With his wife Sonia, he was a busy patron of the arts. Andrews died on 28 February 2014.
Dave Fraser
In the 1970s and 1980s, the multi-talented Dave Fraser brought his multiple musical talents to score everything from features and National Film Unit documentaries to television dramas and commercials. Image credit: Alexander Turnbull Library, 1/2-215042-F (Detail)
Kelly Martin
Kelly Martin is chief executive of leading New Zealand production company South Pacific Pictures. Martin rose through the network ranks from photocopying to international acquisitions, before she became director of programming at TV3 — where she oversaw local drama successes like Outrageous Fortune, and comedy hits bro’Town and 7 Days. In 2012 she left TV3 to head up South Pacific Pictures.