Hope and Wire - excerpt (episode three)

Drama Hope and Wire follows 11 disparate Cantabrians reeling in the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake, which devastated Christchurch and killed 185 people. In this excerpt, Ginny (The Strip's Luanne Gordon) is still mystified about the wherebouts of her husband (Stephen Lovatt) when the quake struck; her daughter (Lucy Wyma) admits where she was. Len (Bernard Hill) and Joycie (Rachel House) are sharing their campsite with Monee (Chelsie Crayford Preston) — until on/off boyfriend King (Kip Chapman) comes calling. Director Gaylene Preston mixes drama with documentary footage to portray the broken city. 

Hope and Wire certainly has real strengths. Rachel House is simply tremendous as Joycie: she carries the drama and embodies the terrible mix of anxiety and fatigue that people in Christchurch know. The rendering of the earthquakes themselves and the blending of real-life footage with acted drama are a technical triumph...

– Writer Russell Brown on the first episode of Hope and Wire, Public Address website, 4 July 2014

Key Cast & Crew

Rachel House

As: Joycie Waru

Gaylene Preston

Director, Writer, Producer

Dave Armstrong

Writer

Luanne Gordon

As: Ginny Smith-Robinson

Chelsie Preston Crayford

As: Monee

Chris Hampson

Producer