Neighbours at War - Series One, Episode Four
Every story in this popular TV2 reality show saw warring neighbours each give their side of a border dispute, before a well-known local tried to mediate. In this first season episode the affray is over Parakai willow trees, accused of blocking sun and busting sewer pipes (narrator Bill Kerton calls them the "herbaceous equivalent of herpes"). The mediator is Helensville MP John Key. Struggling to sit on the fence, and amid accusations of racism, the future Prime Minister is unable to forge a driveway détente: "sometimes people just don’t want to see eye to eye".
Neighbours at War - Series Two, Episode One
Neighbours at War was a popular and long-running TV2 reality show. In this opening episode from the show’s second series, an Otara fence is a battle line in a bitter territorial dispute between Lois and Alec. The mediator is Labour MP for Otara Ross Robertson, who draws on Winston Churchill, General Douglas MacArthur and aroha in an effort to broker peace — amidst allegations of rubbish and porn mags on one side, and swear words and brown eyes on the other. Narrator Bill Kerton’s puns and some choice sound effects punctuate the neighbourly nastiness.
Neighbours at War
Neighbours at War was a popular reality show that ran for 10 years and eight seasons on TV2. Narrated by long-serving director Bill Kerton, it offered a quirky Kiwi take on a UK concept: take a seemingly unsolvable dispute over a boundary/ fence/driveway, and get a famous Kiwi to mediate the neighbours who can’t agree. Mediators included Mark Sainsbury, Tom Bradley, Police Ten 7's Graham Bell, and John Key. The purposefully cheesy music, and emotion worn on the sleeve, helped make the Greenstone TV show a “much-loved New Zealand staple” (The Spinoff's Duncan Greive).
Cuckoo Land - The Neighbour (Episode Two)
Petunia and her daughters Patch and Polly have moved into their decidedly unconventional dream house in the second episode of this surreal children's fantasy drama written by Margaret Mahy and directed by Yvonne McKay. Their idyllic new life of music making is soon shattered by their home handyman neighbour from hell Branchy (Grant Tilly). But he has problems of his own with the unwelcome arrival of his three long lost, grasping and perpetually hungry sons. Special guest Jon Gadsby contributes an energetic performance as pie magnate Chicken Licken.
The Neighbours
The Neighbours were formed around the pairing of Ponsonby’s Sam Ford-led country rockers Local Heroes and Wellington musician Rick Bryant. The band toured extensively and went through numerous line-ups, winning fans for their grunty R&B sound. EP The Only One You Need was followed by sole album Vocal at the Local, recorded live at the band's base, The Gluepot. Trudi Green took lead vocals. Sax man Bryant left in mid-83 to form Rick Bryant and the Jive Bombers, and focus on a soul-inspired sound.
Alan Dale: NZ to Neighbours to Hollywood…
Dunedin-born Alan Dale always had his sights set on brighter lights: first Auckland, then Sydney, then Los Angeles, where he now lives. He started out performing in amateur theatre, but came to professional acting late, taking a DJ slot on Radio Hauraki in his late 20s, followed by a role on the Hauraki-inspired series Radio Waves. Moving to Australia, Dale appeared on The Young Doctors, before playing the fondly remembered solo father, Jim Robinson, for almost a decade on Neighbours. Since moving to Los Angeles, he has often played bad guys, authority figures and moguls on series including ER, Lost, NCIS, 24, The X Files and Entourage, plus high profile roles on The OC and Ugly Betty, and parts in feature films including Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Dale has returned to New Zealand for only two series: Plainclothes and Auckland Daze. He also appeared in Flight of the Conchords on HBO, playing the Australian Ambassador.
Debra Kelleher: From Neighbours to Dancing with the Stars...
Debra Kelleher is an award-winning drama and entertainment producer who has worked on both sides of the Tasman. Beginning her career with Grundy Productions, she worked on a number of Australian TV shows including Neighbours, Sale of the Century and Perfect Match. Back in New Zealand, Kelleher has produced everything from Dancing with the Stars and Good Morning, to sci fi hit The Tribe.
Morgana O’Reilly: From success in Housebound to the set of Neighbours…
Morgana O’Reilly is an actor and playwright who began her screen career performing in comedy series such as The Jaquie Brown Diaries and Super City, as well as the comedy drama Nothing Trivial. O’Reilly starred in TV movies Safe House and Billy, and in comedy horror hit Housebound. In 2014, she scored a role on long-running Australian soap Neighbours.
Black Gold
For a small country from the edge of the world, achievements on the Olympic stage are badges — silver fern-on-black — of national pride: precious moments where we gained notice (even if it was Mum’s anthem playing on the dais). This legacy collection draws on archive footage, some rarely seen, to celebrate the stories behind Kiwis going for gold.
Kiwi Comedy On TV
This collection celebrates Kiwi comedy on TV: the caricatures, piss-takes, and sitcoms that have cracked us up, and pulled the wool over our eyes for over five decades. From turkeys in gumboots and Fred Dagg, to Billy T, bro'Town and Jaquie Brown. As Diana Wichtel reflects, watching the evolution of native telly laughs is, "a rich and ridiculous, if often painful, pleasure."