George Andrews
Producer George Andrews has been making documentaries about New Zealand for more than 40 years, including legendary documentary series Landmarks. In 2002 he was made an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to television.
Roger Hall
Roger Hall began writing and acting on television in the late 1960s. In 1976 his debut play Glide Time became a sellout. Later Hall turned this satire of bureaucrats into Gliding On, arguably New Zealand's most successful sitcom to date. Play Middle Aged Spread became a film in 1979. Hall went on to write marital comedy Conjugal Rights for English television. He remains the country's most successful playwright.
David McPhail
David McPhail's television resume is that of a genuine stayer. Working with Jon Gadsby, his longtime comic partner in crime, McPhail co-starred — and famously impersonated Sir Rob Muldoon — in landmark sketch shows A Week of It and McPhail and Gadsby. Later he helped create the Barry Crump-style yarns of Letter to Blanchy, and played the no-nonsense teacher in Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby.
Derek Morton
Derek Morton is one of those happily unsung industry all-rounders who has tried a little of everything: from documentaries and children's TV to underground films, doing time as a cameraman, editor, writer, producer and director (from commercials and docos, to trucking drama Roche), as well as running his own production company.
Ray Schofield
Gisborne-born reporter/newsreader Ray Schofield added TV to his resume in 1962, when the NZBC launched a TV station in Dunedin. Schofield interviewed PM Keith Holyoake, tutored a teen Dougal Stephenson, and was rushed in to announce the death of John F Kennedy. He was also a champion shooter. Schofield left broadcasting in late 1970, and reinvented himself with data-processing company Databank. He died in 1997.
Gordon Bick
English-born journalist Gordon Bick arrived in New Zealand in 1964. Within two years he was producing current affairs show Compass. His Kiwi career came to an abrupt halt when he resigned in protest over claimed government interference in a special about decimal currency. Bick put his side of the story in book The Compass Affair, and crossed the Tasman to produce current affairs for the ABC and Channel Nine.
Malcolm Kemp
Malcolm Kemp's expertise at covering live events took him from New Zealand to the sports department of the BBC. The one time head of entertainment at TVNZ masterminded TV coverage of concerts, Top Town competitions, elections, World Expo and the Commonwealth Games.
Dave Smith
Dave Smith was a law student at Victoria University when he was "accosted" by fellow student Roger Hall to join him onstage. Later the pair acted in university revue One in Five. The popular show, which also starred John Clarke, was released on vinyl. Smith's first television gig was In View of the Circumstances (1969), New Zealand's first comedy sketch show. He went on to write for Edwards on Saturday and Public Eye. Controversy ensued on the former when ex Prime Minister Jack Marshall sued the NZ Broadcasting Corporation, after Smith wrote a sketch calling Keith Holyoake's dog Sir Jack.
Austin Mitchell
Yorkshire born and raised, Austin Mitchell began winning attention in New Zealand by hosting current affairs shows in the 1960s, while teaching history at Otago University. Back home in England, he began an eight year run as a television journalist, and wrote 1972's The Half-Gallon Quarter-Acre Pavlova Paradise, a love letter to New Zealand which became a Kiwi bestseller. Thirty years later Mitchell returned to see how the country had changed. The result was TV series and book Pavlova Paradise Revisited. Mitchell began a 46 year political career in 1977, as Labour MP in the English seat of Grimsby. He retired in 2015.
John Terris
John Terris, QSO, moved from radio into television when the new medium hit New Zealand in the early 60s. Starting as a continuity announcer, he went behind the scenes, directing on the first seasons of TV staples Country Calendar and Town and Around. In 1978 the one time Hutt City mayor began 12 years as Labour MP for Western Hutt, including time as the deputy speaker. These days Terris heads advocacy group Media Matters.