The Casketeers - First Episode

What is Francis like when he's stressed? He's like a lady . . . he's a typical lady that's having a...yeah a fit.

– Fiona Bakjulich ('Nona') describes her boss Francis Tipene

A messy chapel can drive me crazy. Having said that, it's allowed to be messy, and it should be messy sometimes because we know that's a sign that something's happened, and that a family have celebrated and that it's been used. But when it remains messy for some time? No...

– Francis looks forward to his chapel being spick and span again

You know there are so many things that might make your day, but getting a stain out of a side set for a funeral for the Royal family? That makes my year.

– Funeral Director Francis Tipene

The funeral business is generally always busy. Why? Because people die.

– Funeral Director Francis Tipene spells out the facts, at the start of the episode

I don't know how I do it, aye. Actually I don't know how we both do it.

– Kaiora Tipene on working with husband Francis, early in this episode

Lucky I'm here — you would have left his glasses in here.

– Francis notices something awry in a funeral casket

I feel like Francis is the ultimate counterpoint to Jake ‘the muss’ Heke from Once Were Warriors. I am so proud we can show this other representation of a Māori man that is Francis and how wonderful he is.

– Consulting Producer Annabelle Lee-Mather on Francis Tipene being a role model, The Guardian, 25 January 2019

Being Māori, the images of our loved ones are very sacred, and they shouldn’t be exposed in vain, or having any disrespect. Francis was initially a hard no. I saw some benefits, I felt funeral directors were misperceived.

– Kaiora Tipene on agreeing to film series about their lives and work, The Guardian, 25 January 2019

I started talking to the bodies while I was working with them, having little chats. That’s how I was able to overcome the whole morbid feeling . . . it passed and like Francis, this became my passion.

– Kaiora Tipene on how she came to love her job, The Guardian, 25 January 2019

Francis has given me fat burning pills. His definition of it is 'not just fat burning — it actually gives you energy from the beginning to the end'. And I was going 'the only thing that bloody tablet gave me was diarrhoea'.

– Fiona describes Francis's special 'pills'

For Kaiora, the greatest motivation for agreeing was the chance to break down lingering taboos, and introduce viewers to a warmer, funnier side of life’s only certainty.

– Guardian writer Eleanor Ainge Roy, 25 January 2019

The first season — tasteful, moving, candid and hilarious — saw the humble family became celebrities in New Zealand...

– Guardian writer Eleanor Ainge Roy, 25 January 2019

It’s initially jarring to hear people speak with such joy and humour about something that terrifies so many of us, but The Casketeers eases the audience into the subject of death with the same care that they take with each of their polished mahogany coffins . . . By the end of the episode, it makes total sense that the people that deal in death would also be such a life-affirming bunch of folk. Nobody wants to die — or even think about dying, really — but being in the safe, hilarious hands of The Casketeers seems like a bloody good send off to me.

– Spinoff writer Alex Casey reviewing this episode, 14 January 2018