00:00:00
[Music] kiwi's Love at First like Finn we're making [Music] waves generate switch online
00:00:14
[Music] today Dame Julie Christie welcome to my podcast thank you I'm very privileged to
00:00:26
be here you're a bit of a podcast Legend now oh stop it stop it the good people
00:00:31
do Dom's podcast why is that I don't maybe because I well you can answer this
00:00:36
it's because I I pissed of them and Anno who's interviewing who yeah we have had
00:00:39
a few every meeting you you did say that so I'm very happily succumbed this has
00:00:45
been not happily this has been over a year in the making by the way I went through our text exchange this morning
00:00:49
and you're um it's quite funny there's um there's like a lot of guests I have
00:00:54
that sort of like put themselves forward um which I found quite strange in the beginning um but I now I sort of
00:00:59
appreciate it then there's people like you and um Jeff Wilson's another one
00:01:03
that just think they've got nothing to say like I went back through our text
00:01:07
exchange and one of the most recent ones from a few months ago was like I've got
00:01:11
I've got nothing interesting to say but I'm going to Saudi Arabia let's um check
00:01:15
in when I get back and maybe I'll have something to say then it's like you're
00:01:18
so humble oh no I don't think it's humility I think it's kind of the poor
00:01:23
girl from gy mouth is a bit of a well trodden story and so you know you want to have something new and interesting to
00:01:30
say I guess you know I'm a Content person as well and just dragging up old stuff doesn't seem that interesting yeah
00:01:37
no but it's um it's a great story though and it's a story that's worth sharing
00:01:41
and there'll be a lot of because you've been as far as I'm aware you've only
00:01:44
done one other podcast that was Paula benett did Paul is yeah Paul is a good friend of mine like you are so uh yeah
00:01:49
that's why I did them so one of the Texs I found when I was going back through
00:01:53
our text exchange of me um bullying you to come on my podcast um is this do you want to read this one out and we can get
00:01:58
into that later on oh my God yes isn't that funny goly gosh are you going to bring
00:02:06
back every text I privately sent you and hand to me I can't wait well we don't we
00:02:11
don't have to read it out if you don't want that's all right um the best
00:02:13
presenters are the most disciplined Mark Richardson is the best ever um I was talking about Paul Henry in this text
00:02:20
wasn't I I said Paul's ability to get you drunk in the morning is astonishing
00:02:24
many a time he'd say come and have a coffee and you'd end up three bottles of
00:02:27
red wine before lunch um um my homes Henry Ridge Alice Etc as stories are he raising and they are he
00:02:37
raising Stories the most gifted uh people are always the most hear raising and we we and the most unfiltered we'll
00:02:45
get into them and do course I actually I had Matthew Ridge on the podcast maybe a
00:02:48
year and a half ago now and he said he was um overseas filming one of your shows with Mark Ellis when the whole um
00:02:54
drug charge thing sort of blew up back home it did and uh according to to told them to tell them yeah according um
00:03:02
according to Matthew Ridge you tried to get hold of Mark couldn't get hold of
00:03:05
him so you found Matthew and you were like um I'm surprised it's the other one
00:03:09
and not you something no was also the way around um um M obviously you know Matthew's recent
00:03:18
um kind of Revelations have shocked even me which is surprising because um I didn't realize I thought Matthew had
00:03:24
ADHD but I didn't realize but uh you know I I spent a decade with those boys
00:03:29
and I spent two years was John mackenro which was an experience in itself an incredibly complex man angry man but um
00:03:37
you know you can one of the world's greatest ever tennis players you can only admire him and you say to yourself
00:03:43
um you know I was I won't say luck because lucky I don't I don't believe in
00:03:48
luck but I was truly fortunate to have had that experience with him to have seen what a perfectionist is and what
00:03:53
drives him and you very much see that too as Matthew Ridge very much always been driven by Perfection especially on
00:03:59
the sports so uh you know and and Paul Holmes the same you know Paul Henry driven by
00:04:06
himself I love him I love him but he's it was so fabulously unfiltered which
00:04:11
obviously we don't have anymore God I'm so excited to get into this um yeah one
00:04:16
thing all those names had in common I'm guessing is they're all flawed as well
00:04:20
but aren't aren't all interesting people flawed all the great rulers of the world
00:04:24
all the all the really interesting you know um I guess famous people we've ever
00:04:30
had in our times are enormously flawed there's like it's like being perfect
00:04:34
isn't um you know isn't that interesting anymore um I find flaws is a I think
00:04:41
flaws now is quite a good word I think flaws used to be a little bit derogatory now I think it's a it's a it can be a
00:04:46
really complimentary world word because without flaws you know you you don't
00:04:50
really understand the ups and downs of life you know and without a roller coaster in life what stories have you
00:04:56
got to tell I remember another one of my favorite FL friends sir Bob Jones said to me once he said um I was we when we
00:05:05
were doing Dragons day I said I'm thinking about retiring and he said don't I retired when I was 32 he said
00:05:12
and it was fine for the first 3 months cuz people still wanted to lunch with me but after that I had nothing to talk
00:05:17
about and I couldn't find anyone to go to lunch with don't retire young that's
00:05:21
what he said and and obviously Bob has had a lot of stories because of his flaws would he do a podcast have to get
00:05:28
you to ask another sure actually but you know I I'd let him smoke his pipe in my
00:05:32
studio if was absolutely love him I don't think I know that he sees now he doesn't drink but he drinks Cherry I
00:05:37
don't drink anymore I only drink Sherry I'm like really yeah but I know I absolutely
00:05:43
love him last time I went to his house and saw him he was showing me the the pigeons that are out in his front lawn
00:05:47
he's a he's a very deep thinker and incredible reader Bob he just reads all
00:05:51
the time what I was most impressed to see that he had a computer on his desk because for years he fought any form of
00:05:57
Technology hated cell phones wouldn't have anything to do with them um he succumbed he succumbed yeah hey um man
00:06:06
this is going to be so much fun even though this is I know this is like your worst nightmare I feel
00:06:11
bit we going to drag up don't forget that you too were on Treasure Island Dom
00:06:16
I've got some stories about you um no this this is one thing about my podcast
00:06:21
is um uh one of my priorities is to to make sure the guest always has a really good time so you have full edit control
00:06:26
so there's um I just want you to feel as comfortable as possible I'm fine you know I'm I'm kind of used
00:06:31
to it now yeah I just want to know where all the red wine that you bestowed upon
00:06:36
Paul Henry is where's the fridge well this is this is T he was an afternoon one to be here by the end of his podcast
00:06:43
I thought he's had at least three bottles so i' I've got a quote from by
00:06:47
the way you're 63 now he you're looking great by the way is that is that
00:06:50
inappropriate to thank you for the reminder I'd forgotten yeah do you um are you are you funny about your age or
00:06:56
yeah always have been really yeah I I bring that up because um anaging I found a quote from you in 2009
00:07:03
so that's 15 years ago so you would have been what's that my math is terrible
00:07:07
49 um will I be doing it when I'm 60 absolutely not I'll be living in my
00:07:13
batch on the west coast of the south island where there's no cell phone coverage right so where did it go wrong
00:07:20
so 18 months ago they put in a cell phone tow that's where it went wrong um well I
00:07:26
did give up I did give up TV for a decade and did boards mostly government boards but then I decided that I kept
00:07:33
hearing Bob Jones in my ear and realized that I probably had retired too early so
00:07:36
3 years ago um I bought Natural History New Zealand nhnz um it was just company out of den Eden uh expressly to make
00:07:45
international documentaries because I realized that I can't be my best on the
00:07:50
New Zealand Market that I'm at my best on the international market so and they
00:07:54
were already had a big international business it's the oldest production company in New Zealand's 47 years old so
00:07:59
it just made sense and so there I am I'm back and you're still working hard but
00:08:05
not I'm not as hard as what you used to work are you were you were maybe the
00:08:08
hardest worker I've ever met I used to do a lot of ours I was crazy ambitious
00:08:13
you know and and very much alone or we were really the only ones pushing that genre I was you know at a time I was
00:08:19
living in LA and I was coming home every weekend to see my kids and and I would just by that's a hell of a commute well
00:08:26
as long as you can sleep on a plane was like an overnighter and then back it's
00:08:29
only 4 hours difference you know I'd get on the plane at 7:30 be there at 11:00
00:08:33
in the morning you know work the rest of the day you know like it was I've always
00:08:36
been a person who gets off the plane and goes to work you know so um and travels
00:08:40
quite well so yeah I I was a crazy hard worker but I got that from my mother my mother also never believed in um sitting
00:08:48
down even when she sat down she'd been knitting she never believed in rest active relaxer active relaxer very much
00:08:55
and I think I kind of still am really that too yeah I heard that to term haven't have you not heard it no is that
00:09:01
a new term is is that a new W term is it no I think it's been been around around
00:09:05
a while cuz I'm like that as well like my girlfriend's like just sit down and
00:09:07
watch a movie but I'm I'd rather be watching the movie while wiping the bench down or you know multitasking yeah
00:09:13
you know I'm following Victoria Beckham's um lead now she she says she only watches um stuff she shouldn't be
00:09:20
watching when she's on the treadmill so when I want to watch all my crappy Netflix stuff I have to be on the
00:09:25
treadmill that's a great way to go about it you have run past me in quite a few
00:09:28
marathons so you know only do halfes you do whole ones but um and so when I think
00:09:32
about that when I'm on the treadmill you know it's Dom shooting past me yeah how
00:09:36
many have you done now I got stop trying to turn the tables it's um yeah I don't
00:09:41
know maybe about 50 or so I have you okay yeah I I know what you're doing it's like a deflection technique to try
00:09:47
and eat up the time no it's fine um yeah you brought up your mom said we'll get
00:09:52
into the early years of um Dam Julie Christie but first of all um since you um we were talking about your work ethic
00:09:58
just before I did hear a story about you and it's probably one of those stor that
00:10:01
sort of changed over the years but story about you when you're involved with um
00:10:05
this is your life you had something like a like a last minute rehearsal in the morning went away for a um elective
00:10:12
cerian at lunch and was back for the show that night close oh my God that's Savage
00:10:20
didn't have Electro cerian had had the baby induced had the baby induced in the
00:10:25
morning um two three day three days out from this is your life thinking he would
00:10:30
be there and I could still do it he took a very long time to come so I was left with a day and a half before the live
00:10:36
this is your life so yes I did do um this is your life the day after my son Tim was born but I wouldn't advise
00:10:43
anyone to do that now and I've seen some pictures of me at that time and I looked
00:10:47
very very stressed and very hagged but it was um it was gr Fox's this your life
00:10:52
it was one of the ones I did with um Bob Parker um because obviously I've went
00:10:56
through three this is your life different this is your life host and um you know and it was it was a great it
00:11:01
really was a great episode but yes that is true but I wouldn't be that silly now
00:11:06
no but I think that speaks a lot about your your I suppose your drive or your work ethic or your desire to you know be
00:11:12
the absolute best at that particular time in your life yeah probably but I also was determined that you know having
00:11:18
children really wasn't going to make um any difference you know I to me I never
00:11:23
saw it stopped my mother you know who had seven Under 12 and my father died so I just always believed that
00:11:29
I I could just do it it was just part of life yeah okay which brings us to this card I took a whole two weeks off for
00:11:35
the second one wow God you must have been bored shitless um what was it like medical
00:11:42
reasons like you must have yeah you must have been real I also may have got her in Juiced as
00:11:48
well okay I've got this card I I've written early years but I suppose that
00:11:52
we could call this um the poor little girl from Greymouth is that what you C it before yeah so you're from Greymouth
00:11:58
um your dad died uh at the age of 32 from a brain 47 was 32 okay so she was 32 at the time he was 47 you were 5
00:12:07
years old at the time what are your memories what are your memories of that do you remember anything of your dad oh
00:12:12
yeah I remember him especially visually and I remember him vaguely not nearly enough but I also grew up with um a
00:12:17
picture of my father on the television it's probably told you something about families like ours there was a
00:12:24
black and white television and and that was kind of that was a centerpiece of the lounge in fact it was such a
00:12:29
centerpiece that I remember the cat would catch a bird and bring it in the house and put on the television cuz
00:12:34
that's what everybody looked at all the time so I grew up we didn't we didn't
00:12:38
really have holidays and we didn't kind of have any other FM entertainment so I
00:12:42
grew up watching television I grew up watching all those great which you're probably too young to remember the great
00:12:48
um Studio shows which used come out Avalon like new faces and Studio One and happen in and we used to they used to
00:12:53
make a lot of variety shows um out of Wellington and and and I grew up with those and New Zealand television that
00:13:01
time was so vibrant we used to just watch it all the time my mother used to watch a soap opera called pton place
00:13:07
which was terribly supposed to be terribly adult at the time and I was never allowed to watch it so it always
00:13:12
Mis mystified me but um but he' always get sent off to bed so Mom could watch
00:13:17
pton place but um but yeah th those I think it's the that television was such
00:13:23
a huge part of my life growing up is the reason I drifted towards it especially I
00:13:28
guess the the common touch um form why why do you think um that is do you think there's like a degree of escapism in
00:13:35
there because you know your life was so like sort of Bleak and miserable and well certainly wasn't Bleak and
00:13:39
miserable it was loving and we were never like cold and starving but you just didn't you know you didn't there
00:13:46
wasn't money for holidays you know there wasn't money for jeans there was was
00:13:50
homemade clothes there you know it was just the way it was um you know it was an incredible struggle for her she was
00:13:56
on a Widow's benefit she would she wouldn't take charity but she believed
00:13:59
so much in education so everything was about getting us educated so we you know we always you tried really hard at
00:14:06
school because mom wouldn't have it any other way and you never had any sickness
00:14:10
or any days of school because she believed so much in education and to this day I think of parents believe that
00:14:16
much in education we would have a lot less problems in this country because it's so important and so that is the
00:14:23
answer to getting out of poverty you can talk about everything else but it's all
00:14:26
about education because it it it it changed everything and so for my entire family we were all educated I mean I
00:14:32
don't have a University degree but um I went to journalism school only for a
00:14:36
year but it's the education that changed everything yes so your mom um so widowed
00:14:43
at 32 um at the time seven kids under the age of 12 um I believe she raised you guys on like a diet of like silver
00:14:51
beat and porridge oh I hated porridge I hate porridge this day I cannot stand even looking at porridge no she was
00:14:58
great with you know Mom could take any steak and make a great stew or a great vegetable soup but she did insist on
00:15:05
porrige every morning and I hated it I didn't like milk and I didn't like and
00:15:08
therefore you know porridge without milk and oh I hated it and I still to this day cannot stand Silver Beach brussel
00:15:15
sprouts corn beef um yes and I may have once called them Poor People's food yeah but and
00:15:23
which just sounds really derogatory but you know when you when you grow up like that m but at the same time honestly you
00:15:31
know she she also would make some great stuff too you know Jam sandwiches Jam jam and cream sandwiches actually you
00:15:37
know things like that but and you you know every birthday should still make a cake and it was um it was just it was
00:15:45
just a different life but she did everything she possibly could for us and we certainly were never hungry and she
00:15:50
did so well um I I I know your brother um bit better than I know you four of them yeah uh and particular your brother
00:15:59
who's um ran forland Mir a couple of years ago and runs a a bar called HQ inland's Vu I've known him since like 30
00:16:05
years or so to North boys I believe yeah yeah I first met him when he was like a
00:16:10
um a mobile bet vet then he opened up a bar with the fat lady's arms um but um I
00:16:16
believe all the other siblings have done very well for themselves in their respective Fields as well they are I
00:16:20
mean my brother um Mike so who's started working for me in 1995 actually when I
00:16:25
when I not long after I set up touchdown and when I left um television 2013 he took over him Greg Heath his co-managing
00:16:33
director at at Warner Brothers television so he you know he's um continued on yeah they all have they're
00:16:39
all you know we're we're a really close family but everybody is very much um a
00:16:44
product of her mother you know because I guess because Dad Drive died so young so
00:16:49
there's there's a really big work ethic and there's almost I feel sometimes I
00:16:54
feel there's almost a guilt if you're not working a guilt over relaxing because to been driven into me there
00:17:00
some but then I you know even when I'm relaxing some idea for a TV show is still winding around in my mind God
00:17:07
there's some parallels hey I'm I'm I'm much the same like like yeah I do I feel
00:17:11
sort of like guilt or even a little bit of Shame if I'm like relaxing or not
00:17:16
like progressing my goals or whatever um there's there's another thing this is
00:17:20
this is certainly the case for me and I'm wondering if it's the same for you
00:17:22
as well I've always had kind of a maybe like an unhealthy relationship with money because I just like I it felt like
00:17:29
I I look back now I think we were very middle class growing up in palon north but I felt like we were poor like I'd
00:17:34
run out of a 50 sheet refle pad and I'd need to buy another one and i' I'd
00:17:38
sometimes let like spend three or four days plucking up the courage to ask D for the four bucks to buy it cuz I knew
00:17:42
that had snap at me so it always felt like there was um like a a definite shortage of money in our household and
00:17:48
that's made me sort of like money focused to a degree is do you think it's
00:17:51
the same for you like very I get that now I didn't see it at the time but that's been you know Financial
00:17:58
Security's been a huge driver for my success I saw my mother age from when my
00:18:02
father died she aged very very quickly I mean I think she went gray within about
00:18:07
3 months she was just and the stress that of of um excuse me the stress of earning enough whether she be cleaning
00:18:16
at night or earning enough to ensure that she could look after her children definitely aged her and I um I I have
00:18:23
always been driven by wanting to be financially secure you know money doesn't buy you happiness but it does
00:18:28
Buy freedom and there is a trap in not being financially secure so yes it's it's always been a big driver and and
00:18:36
you know I'm not ashamed to say that that's why I chose the television genre
00:18:41
I chose because I knew I could take that internationally and therefore I could earn a really good
00:18:47
living yeah yeah and you're um God your mom she must have been so proud of you
00:18:52
like she I she passed away 10 years ago right she did yeah she was very proud of
00:18:56
me she she was there when I got my own zum when I got my first honors and she was so proud um yeah it's isn't it it's
00:19:03
strange because she was also incredibly loyal when she died very suddenly none of us saw it coming cuz she was
00:19:09
seemingly so healthy but um when I went to her house we clearing out her things to I found um I found a some a letter
00:19:19
she had written to Paul Holmes had um there was you probably remember well when um Lana kok got sick on Treasure
00:19:26
Island and um you stood on some Coral yeah well no one even know how it happened but yeah POS quite very
00:19:32
possibly and um Paul Holmes kind of began kind of a bit of a campaign um blaming me even though I wasn't actually
00:19:40
on that on that series and um mom had written this letter to him this fiercely defensive letter of her daughter and
00:19:46
thank heaven she had never posted it and then she written another one and never posted that and I found these letters
00:19:50
and it was very insightful and she's also a woman who she wrote wrote letters
00:19:55
to both of my children when they were babies and when you read that and you hear her tell a story of how my father
00:20:00
died and that it's it's um you know it's it makes you're incredibly close to your
00:20:04
parents that's wonderful imagine if she was alive now with a Twitter account it
00:20:09
should be I know oh can you imagine we did not long before she died we finally taught her how to use an iPad and she'd
00:20:15
write the whole email into the subject line but um at that time we had a race a race horse with Leo and and mom was able
00:20:22
to watch the horse when the horse one mom was able to watch it again and again and again on the iPad so she was able to
00:20:28
feel like it was winning again and again so yeah um yes so so you were you were in your 50s when she passed away so
00:20:35
you're you're a grown ass woman very well established in your own career um
00:20:40
yeah does the grief still hurt though well I think it did because I think at that time I was I was kind of a little
00:20:45
bit more worried about the rest of my family you know um why are you the oldest no I'm Fifth Fifth what are you
00:20:53
worried about everyone else a bit of a matriarch perhaps um I think you know um um my mother probably saw quite a lot of
00:21:02
personal strength in me and um but yeah I I was very worried about others and me
00:21:10
my my younger brother and younger sister both lived in Greymouth when mom lived where mom lived and they were obviously
00:21:14
very close to her so so I I still now it still hurts now that it was so sudden you know it was um the day after um
00:21:24
Mother's Day actually so yeah but it means everybody bone had spoken to her in the last couple of days so yeah yeah
00:21:30
yeah was there um yeah was there anything left unid oh no I I think Mom knew how much
00:21:37
we all appreciated her you know I tended to when things got quite stressful I'd
00:21:41
go home wouldn't need to say anything to her but she'd be making the veggie soup
00:21:44
and making the stew and cooking your sausages for breakfast and all the things that she knew you loved and there
00:21:50
was no porridge to be seen not a silver be inside I'd go down to KFC and grab her a couple of bits of
00:21:56
KFC cuz she loved KFC yeah um yeah I guess must must sting when big things happen like
00:22:04
um the day that we're recording this um you're you're you're getting an award
00:22:08
this week like a basically a Lifetime Achievement Award um and you're being um
00:22:12
given the Dame title uh like yeah it must sting at moments like that that she's not around to see these things oh
00:22:20
mean my mother was quite a traditionalist I don't think she would have cared about the television one but
00:22:23
she would have loved um she would have loved the damehood her biggest throw when I got my ownc was actually me
00:22:28
meeting the governor general that was what she really loved um cuz he was a good Catholic so um yeah that's what Mom
00:22:34
really loved um yeah but yeah you you do you know you you care like when I got my
00:22:39
dam Hood I got there was a little bit of criticism and um you know my mother would have felt that probably more
00:22:45
deeply than I did oh she would have been she would have been writing more letters
00:22:49
writing letters hopefully not sending them yeah we we'll get to some of that
00:22:52
um some of that criticism because yeah some that was really really personal and actually you look back now like quite
00:22:57
offensive and yeah un for um yeah can't you let someone have their [ __ ] moment you know oh yeah and can't you
00:23:04
actually do a bit of research before you yeah riping but anyway that's all fine
00:23:09
so early career so um your first job was um working a hospital laundry yes is this when you at school is this like
00:23:16
school this was before I between school and journalism I spent a summer work in hospital laundry so it was it was it's a
00:23:23
good way to discover what you don't want to do with your life it is it is and it
00:23:25
was but it was a job you know it was a job and so I worked there and then I went off to Wellington to um to just a
00:23:32
one-year journalism School Wellington poltech for a year yeah why not Teachers College you wanted to be a teacher I I I
00:23:38
actually applied for journalism which was one year graphic arts which was two and and teaching which was three years I
00:23:44
got into all of them but I figured I could only stand poverty for one year was literally that's that is literally
00:23:49
why I became a journalist because was only one year that's how I guess I was
00:23:55
trying to escape my childhood yeah and yes your teachers College some might say poverty for 3 years in a lifetime of
00:24:01
poverty exactly and I would have been a terrible teacher can you imagine I do not have the patience I admire great
00:24:08
teachers um but I do not have the patience for teaching you know yeah so you become a journalist where do you
00:24:15
work is it Ackland start no I started at the Evening Post and then and then um went down to Christ Church actually to
00:24:22
the community newspapers down there and then off to England where I worked on the London sun and for and on The Daily
00:24:28
male in their Sports departments and then when I came back I worked at the Orland star and then the Orland Sun so
00:24:33
I've been through quite a few newspapers mostly in sub editing by the time um you
00:24:38
know before I went to television and really you know probably being a headline writer actually taught me quite
00:24:43
a lot about certainly I've used that skill many times when thinking of the titles for TV shows right you have write
00:24:50
headlines you see yes yeah and they're a great way of summing up a story and
00:24:53
dragging people into the story H well that's interesting I never thought of it
00:24:57
that way and now with um I've got a social media going with YouTube like the
00:25:02
the like the thumbnail and the caption is everything it is yeah yeah it is I've
00:25:06
just done um a series with the nzr plus um and um it's it's called Poise stories
00:25:13
it's it's where the black Fon I'm not sure if you remember the women's rubby
00:25:16
World Cup how big po was we gave away 33,000 in this the the stadiums you know Eden Park was full of poy you know that
00:25:23
was probably at least equally one of the greatest achievements of My Life The Women's rby World cup two years ago and
00:25:30
and we and seven of the black ferns probably the biggest names in the game have gone back to create a PO troop to
00:25:35
see if they can you know become um great exponents of Po and um and you know I I
00:25:41
look at that and I you know I I kind of started out first TV series I ever produced was m and Glory great rugby
00:25:50
stories and the last one I've done is po stories you know with the black Fern so
00:25:54
it's gone gone the whole I've gone a full circle but um certainly yeah when I
00:25:59
I I look at that one and I see there's there's kind of great possibilities but when I look at it on
00:26:05
YouTube where where it's it's on the All Black's YouTube channel I'm like it's so
00:26:10
you know like you say the taglines that they have to put on it I'm like how's
00:26:14
anyone going to find their way here but obviously YouTube now the biggest platform in the world they do and
00:26:19
YouTube is only getting bigger and it's pretty much going to be the platform but
00:26:24
for me personally still hard to find stuff that's so go watch po stories on YouTube the channel on YouTube please
00:26:31
yeah yeah I I don't fantastic I don't understand it that's why I I Outsource
00:26:36
like it's you when you understand the importance of the caption and the thumbnail and everything else it's like
00:26:40
someone else can do that for me I don't have the band it's brilliant but I mean
00:26:44
obviously under 25s use it more than all the other platforms put together yeah absolutely you know wow okay so from
00:26:52
journalism you end up in TV is this where was you was your first job with communicado and Neil Robert yeah I got
00:26:58
made redundant for when Oakland Sun newspaper closed down so the share market crash in ' 87 was a launch of
00:27:05
that coincided with the launch of that paper and it closed down 333 Days Later wow um and um and I tried to freelance
00:27:15
but I end up you know lying on the sofa and watching soap operas I wasn't very
00:27:18
good at freelancing and I end up getting off at a a job on a corporate video actually just doing a bit of research um
00:27:24
for Neil Roberts and um the rest is history it's like the light came on suddenly I was like wow this TV stuff I
00:27:31
can do this cuz I suppose it was always sort of sitting there due to your you know the impact that TV had on your
00:27:37
growing up and yeah I think the common Touch Too was always sitting there and so common touch how do you mean the
00:27:42
ability to create content for a broad audience is what I'd call it really now
00:27:46
that's the long version I just call it the common touch definitely had that because I am part of that audience I
00:27:53
always have been and very few critics or junos are part of that broad audience who uses television as an as an escape
00:28:02
as I did when I was growing up so um yeah I kind of feel like I understand that audience yeah oh you do better than
00:28:10
anyone else less now cuz they're all on I'm I don't go to a Tik Tok I know
00:28:15
you're a tweeter I'm not Tweeter no I'm not not I thought you were a twer just a
00:28:21
rumor I just found it too I I used to love Twitter but I I just found it too negative in the end it added nothing to
00:28:26
my life and it's like so you get to the point you're like why do I like these aren't people I know in
00:28:32
real life like no one speaks to me like this in real life like why would I why would I why would I get worked up and
00:28:37
have my day ruined by someone I don't even [ __ ] know exactly um so Neil Roberts what was he like I've
00:28:44
um like I've heard it sounds like he was tough and uncompromising but did he sort
00:28:48
of shape the person you are or the person you became as a boss oh no no no he was um talk about a tremendously
00:28:57
flawed character don't come any more floyed you know he was a big drinker a big socializer you know loved women like
00:29:04
he loved life itself um he a product of the time late ' 80s was quite hedonistic
00:29:08
eh well he spent a lot of time in the Press gallery and he was kind of like the anti- Press Gallery guy and I
00:29:13
actually made a documentary with Rob malun once and Rob malun and my father were in the same platoon on the Army and
00:29:17
when I mentioned that to Rob malun then he really you know he loved me then because you know he remembered my father
00:29:22
um and and S too good you probably they were all in the same platoon in the army so so I made this
00:29:30
this um I was part of this documentary called Magic kiwis and Neil in spite of spending a lot of time in the Press
00:29:36
Gallery had this kind of begrudging um respect for Rob mun and um we were sitting there the Parliamentary Chambers
00:29:44
and Neil was really really nervous and I'm like wow I've never seen this guy
00:29:47
nervous like he was Mr Suave suits Mr i' hadn't ever tasted Ballinger until I
00:29:52
worked there you know like I see most of my time driving him around in his left hand por because he was was always
00:29:58
losing his license you know when he decided him and Bob Jones decided to Belt some taxi with a piece of wood you
00:30:05
know I'm like on pickup when his cat ran away so they called me I think my number
00:30:10
was on the cat's collar this is how ridiculous it was really so I wasn't I
00:30:14
ended up being like a crazy 24/7 PA there but um yeah but he he he kind of he taught me taught me a lot he used to
00:30:25
say tell them what you're going to tell them tell them then tell them what you
00:30:27
told them well it's never that simple but he did obviously being so close to
00:30:32
him um and being I I guess a degree to to a degree his Protege I just I did learn an enormous amount uh quickly but
00:30:42
I learned I saw tremendously bad behavior as well which I just Shrugged my shoulders
00:30:50
and off I went cuz I suppose at the time like there's there's words for it now
00:30:54
like toxic Behavior or you know power imbalance or whatever the the catchphrase is but I suppose at the time
00:31:00
it's was just you know just get on with it yeah which I did and I didn't really
00:31:05
think much about it at the time um but you know I absolutely loved him you know for what he taught me and the
00:31:13
opportunities he gave me but in the end you know by after 3 years I I'd started
00:31:18
to get you know I I got the Rachel Hunter Covergirl documentary up and I started to bring in more and more work
00:31:24
and I asked for a pay rise and they said no yeah I heard the story so you were on
00:31:28
um they said no I was 45 which was good money at the time pretty good and then you wanted 70 I did I wanted 70 I said
00:31:36
no so you were like they said no and I was like all right then stamp my foot off if I went yeah yeah before we get
00:31:42
into the the next chapter because um yeah I feel like this is a pivotal moment in the Dame Julie Chrissy story
00:31:47
um the racial Hunter C Cav girl documentary I um I tried to find that on en it on screen or YouTube I couldn't
00:31:53
find it anywhere but I I vaguely remember that that it was a it was an event was huge sheive she only be married to
00:32:00
rod for 3 months and I got him do an interview and he hadn't done one for um
00:32:04
for many years I think at that time I mean she was you know we were all obsessed with that story you know she
00:32:09
was marrying the rock star and um yeah it's like it's hard for people to
00:32:13
imagine now just how famous Rachel Hunter was it was like and she was like she' then done like four Sports
00:32:18
Illustrated covers you know her and you know she was here in ELC first and we kind of The Girls Next Door and she was
00:32:24
you know and I went to their house in LA and you know and I absolutely loved her
00:32:27
down to nature and I I you know I interviewed her her agent who said you know it's such a pleasure to deal with a
00:32:33
girl who doesn't order crstal you know you know all every day and you know like
00:32:38
she was so down to earth and and you know she really was the tip toop ice cream girl you know and and he was great
00:32:45
I always loved him I'd loved him before that was a tremendous thrill to me for
00:32:48
me to meet him I was incredibly um excited when I met when I met Rod um but yes and I think it's still the highest
00:32:56
rating documentary ever I mean we didn't have many channels in but it's still it
00:32:59
was it it's huge it was huge everyone watched it yeah like over a million people I'll be more would have been more
00:33:06
than that a 37 I don't even know what that is now but nothing would ever do a
00:33:10
37 now lecture night wouldn't do a 37 now I don't think anything incredible
00:33:14
how did you how did you convince Rod Stewart to get to come on did you did you was a man newly in love he was boted
00:33:20
he he came to every shoot I did with her and I guess he would have he did you know he would do anything for ra yeah
00:33:27
yeah okay so so after that you leave communicado did you did you start touchdown straight away yes on the dummy
00:33:33
spit yes I did so you're how old at the time I have to tell you this though when I when they
00:33:39
found out I was serious about leaving they offered me 120 oh that's so cynically but by that
00:33:45
stage i' already lined up my first show so it was yeah so so yeah I did and and
00:33:50
you know um tvnz gave me let me use some offices opposite the ears and you know gave me a couple of small shows and and
00:33:56
it and it really Grew From there um it grew reasonably fast for about 4 years until there was a change of management
00:34:03
at tvnz and then they took all the shows off me and put them inside in house and
00:34:10
that was my biggest learner because I learned that I've been signing contracts
00:34:13
where I had no rights to my own shows and so I never did that again so that was this the pivotal point where
00:34:21
everything changed if I could own my own IP own my own shows and then a little bit later um I started getting criticism
00:34:30
for the genre I chosen to make and I went to see a woman called Jenny Raina she was like PR Guru and I said you know
00:34:36
what am I going to do they all hate me this is after a ridiculous headline In The Evening Post in Wellington crap TV
00:34:42
thy name is Julie Christi said I was like oh what am I going to do and she said to me you know what unless you get
00:34:49
run over by a bus tomorrow they're never going to see anything nice about you so
00:34:53
she said that you know she had I won't say who it is but she she quoted a very
00:34:58
very famous client of hers at the time who had the same problem and no appreciation in spite of his
00:35:05
achievements and she said you just got to go overseas just got to do it overseas and um sure enough you know
00:35:14
then I started to focus on what what genre what what could I take overseas and I realized I can make shows in New
00:35:20
Zealand and then reversion them overseas so I off I went to middle march with Mark Alice actually uh Middle March I
00:35:26
don't know if you know they have a single ball there where um cuz there's
00:35:30
not enough women in that area um where's it like Canterbury Oro no no noo not
00:35:35
couple hours from to Eden and there's a big shortage of women and they needed
00:35:38
nurses they needed more women for little farmer boys so the farmer boys don't
00:35:42
leave home you know and so they um they' run this ball the singles ball and we
00:35:48
took five girls single girls from Oakland you can see the show before every show did that and um and and it
00:35:56
was her husband hunt basically and we spent about four or 5 days there and came back and made it a TV show and I
00:36:00
looked and I went I could take that somewhere else so I cut it down um called a husband hunt and took it to the
00:36:08
states and sold it to Fox who called it looking for love bachelorettees and Alaska and next thing it has three
00:36:15
helicopters 11 Crews and a whole bunch of incredibly beautiful women and bridal dresses walking up a mountain in Alaska
00:36:23
um they just obviously when you take a small idea that we have here and take it to the states it gets super sized and so
00:36:31
that was the beginning really that was the first and then I thought wow I can make television I can make television in
00:36:36
New Zealand for the world I just wasn't that much into making New Zealand television I wanted to make television
00:36:42
for the world and that's what that's what it's always been and that's what it
00:36:45
still is and I've I've got nothing to apologize it's it created all my value
00:36:51
all the value of my company CU you don't make money making shows you make money
00:36:53
when you sell a company yeah which I sold twice that's one thing um you just
00:36:58
just um looping back to something you said before yeah one thing before I um before I knew you personally I from like
00:37:04
from afar you you just struck me as a person that wouldn't give a [ __ ] about
00:37:07
what anyone thinks because you're so self assured and so confident what you're doing but um those negative
00:37:12
reviews and things they they they really do hurt you a and and mean mean remarks
00:37:17
about reality TV and things over the years you've you you you you're way more
00:37:22
sensitive you're like a marshmallow I guess thanks I better sit up straighter
00:37:27
so I don't look like no you know in the middle that used to they used do much more I think I did care
00:37:35
incredibly what my clients thought so the client is actually the broadcaster so I always had very strong
00:37:41
relationships with the broadcasters and so I would um so I did care incredibly what they thought I just the just the
00:37:49
newspaper Journey Journal were so whiny and what I really wanted to say was clearly it's because you can't make it
00:37:54
on television you got a face for radio where you to say before lovely people like you came on and before being on
00:38:00
radio for audio included pictures um it's what amaz me about podcasts how come they all have the pictures too now
00:38:06
anyway YouTube YouTube and um but yes uh was I sensitive um sometimes when it was very unjust I
00:38:17
was hurt um but then it didn't matter because in the US they love me and so I
00:38:21
was doing so well overseas it kind of erased it and then I didn't care and what do you know I come back having made
00:38:28
it overseas and suddenly I get an ozm from a labor government like make me fall over please like so so you know I
00:38:36
um I I was kind of uh and then I started to do some things like my first government board was New Zeal tradeing
00:38:43
Enterprise and then New Zealand story and then I started doing more and more things in my country cuz I'm so
00:38:48
patriotic and um and the flag consideration panel when you had to be crazy to go on that you couldn't win you
00:38:53
were going to get bashed I didn't care I was like let's get a flag that's doesn't
00:38:58
look like it's Australian and I cared and and so I I was able to T myself out
00:39:04
of it by um but St myself out of caring really I mean it's been brought up to me
00:39:11
now we might as well address it sh we what that Simon Wilson called me a cultural culture
00:39:16
vulture I've got that I've got cultural vulture was it a cultural Vandal
00:39:20
cultural vand I mean For Heaven's Sake when I got my when I got my dam hoodie
00:39:25
wrote this big article about why I shouldn't have got my dam Hood oh oh yeah yeah yeah I've got that that's
00:39:30
that's coming up and um and I go you know nothing nothing like example this great example you know of a man who
00:39:37
could never make it in television and has been kind like jealously picking away at it ever since um but it didn't
00:39:43
bother me but it would have would have bothered my mother um yeah the headline nothing like a Dame why why Julie Chris
00:39:49
Christie's honor as an insult to our TV industry yeah I mean that's that's got a
00:39:54
sting well he missed he missed the four movies that my success and unscripted has
00:40:00
funded he missed you know the drama I've done how can you call this is your life
00:40:04
and the greatest formats ever made and insults the industry how can you call fact that I won an AIDS award for the my
00:40:09
Mr and Mr documentary how you so you ignore all that you ignore all the government boards all are slaving away
00:40:16
when they pay lousy let me tell you because I care so much about our country and just say oh I don't like Treasure
00:40:22
Island so she doesn't deser a Dame Hood that's just it's just ignorant yeah but
00:40:27
even take away all all the um all the stuff the boards and the movies and whatever
00:40:33
and take the reality TV stuff for what it is it was um your job was to make like a commercially palatable product
00:40:39
and you kicked ass had to be more than had to be a lot more than palatable it had to be incredibly commercially
00:40:45
successful and it was treasure treasure it's in it's in its 20th season you know
00:40:50
in three countries it's in its 20th season um you know game toah was 11 Seasons it didn't get 11 season
00:40:58
for no reason it got 11 Seasons cuz people loved it and um I think my house my castle was seven seven years you know
00:41:06
like a lot of these show you know you you make them you don't last five minutes if a lot of people don't watch
00:41:13
them you know it used to be 9:30 every morning the ratings would come out and you lived and died by your ratings we
00:41:18
were judged every single day you know what radio ratings alike we only had what twice a year twice a year we had
00:41:24
them every single day and if you're show went in on Sunday 7:30 or mon or Monday
00:41:30
Tuesday Wednesday at 7:30 if you didn't win that slot it was over and how are you going
00:41:37
to pay your staff so actually it was it was by far the hardest genre to be in I mean jury Brer who's probably one of the
00:41:44
greatest um drama producers ever out of the states he also makes Amazing Race and he will say I'd much rather make
00:41:51
drama because you know what's going to happen the next day you got a script you
00:41:54
know what they're going to say says as soon as you go into unscripted which is
00:41:57
no I don't call it reality unscripted he said you don't know so it's not it
00:42:02
wasn't an Easy Choice it was a choice to to make things for the broadest possible
00:42:08
audience it's like I'd be really proud if I invented Barbie you know because of
00:42:13
the joy that she's brought to the widest possible audience you know why why don't
00:42:19
we celebrate that why are we Nast and jealous yeah it's weird like I'm I'm I'm
00:42:25
at an age now um you were never nasty and jealous no I'm at an age now we're
00:42:30
like I I don't understand like my partner loves love Island and I I I I I find it tedious and I can't I can't
00:42:37
watch it but I'm I'm not going to [ __ ] on it cuz I understand there's a market
00:42:40
for I only worry about the parents watching their children on it imagine if you're a dad watching your
00:42:46
daughter um so it's not called reality what did you call it it's not reality
00:42:51
unscripted unscripted you you very very seldom hear it called reality anywhere else in the world um
00:42:58
it's pretty much called unscripted yeah and that's what I think of it as because
00:43:02
it's everything from you know the Chaser which you probably watch everybody watches that you know like that's just
00:43:07
wouldn't you just most people just call that a game show yeah but what's wrong
00:43:10
with her it's fantastic isn't it and it's gone on for years and it's remade
00:43:14
all over the world it's brilliant the thing I love about the chase is um first
00:43:17
episode you watch it you're like what the [ __ ] going on here it's really
00:43:20
hard to follow and then are you only allowed to make shows which are very Earnest and bleach at you I mean I come
00:43:25
home from working in a factory and you know like and I have my dinner and I want to sit down on the sofa do I want
00:43:30
to sit down and be bleed at or do I really want to imagine I'm on a Treasure
00:43:35
Island competing for $50,000 and laugh at everybody else's mistakes and it's
00:43:41
it's it's escapism and we should be really proud of it yeah absolutely so
00:43:45
what are the keys to making good unscripted television finding unfiltered people
00:43:50
which was quite hard in New Zealand easy in the US market cuz most people unfiltered in other words they
00:43:57
they um verbalize the every thought they they say what they think they don't
00:44:03
necessarily think before they say we're a little bit more guarded but as you'll
00:44:07
know having done Treasure Island um and you were by the way on the um season where I think arguably the best
00:44:15
competitor ever and you'll know who I mean I think Lance oan L Lance and briard oan yeah they were incredible
00:44:22
probably the best competitors ever prob closely follow followed by Josh cronfel but they were I still look at the
00:44:28
winners and think you know Lance and Bridget would kill it even to this day um you know you you go you kind of I
00:44:35
can't remember what I was talking about now you um what would you ask me I got
00:44:38
confused oh what the case yeah so they unfiltered but also as you know you go on at thinking I'll never say anything
00:44:44
dumb or that and then two or 3 days in you forget about the cameras being there and everybody thinks they can go in and
00:44:50
be really stoic and then two or 3 days and and you just forget don't you you
00:44:55
know yeah I can't remember what year I was on Treasure Island but I I remember
00:44:59
very early on I think it was um Greg is that the guy that was GRE yeah so um he sent me down for like one of the little
00:45:06
interviews and he was like oh what do you think of Simon do and I was like oh well we're on different teams I haven't
00:45:10
had a lot to do with doly but he seems like a nice guy so yeah and then he was like cut cut cut he goes hey Dom we just
00:45:16
spoke to Dolly before he thinks you're a [ __ ] [ __ ] he thinks you're a
00:45:20
backstabber so he goes we can stick with what you've said but um if it comes out
00:45:25
you you're going to look like your full of [ __ ] so you want to go again and then
00:45:30
suddenly it's like this like day two or day three it was like oh okay game on
00:45:34
did he really cuz we what we did used to do is we were a bit naughty we did used
00:45:37
to we was of our te do you remember in the A and if you got someone to cry you'd go 50 bucks you
00:45:43
know but I think um in terms of I can't you it was it's very emotional your your
00:45:48
your series was a very emotional series and Dolly had a hard time in that one um
00:45:52
he really did have a hard time um he had a bad back I think oh yeah back is and you know we were running all over that
00:45:59
darn Island up that hill there was no water on that island me we lived on the island next to you remember was was
00:46:04
Matthew the host when you were there or was that was John Stevens John Stevens was the host yeah Rockstar host um and
00:46:10
you know but you really hope that people you want to bring out the things that people like doly are incredibly
00:46:16
competitive another absolute favorite of mine was Eric Murray oh and he poor Eric
00:46:22
Murray was on the edge of woke and the fact that Eric Murray only knew how to compete but he had several people
00:46:29
against him who thought that he was playing on their mental health by competing too
00:46:35
[Laughter] hard oh yeah you um you you you'd hate it now like it's changed quite a lot
00:46:43
like can think we like we were starving the year that we I did give you a bottle of wine at night to shut you up
00:46:49
though I think didn't I we absolutely not yeah I think we went the first three days without any food at all
00:46:56
like no rice no flour anything now they have like a camping platform and it's
00:47:02
the whole judia care thing and no one wears it's a bitsy bikinis all that sort
00:47:06
of thing you know like um you know recently there was an article published an old photo from Treasure Island and
00:47:13
there were like there was Nikki Watson and Sally Ridge and Louise Wallace and they're all like wearing like you know
00:47:19
cargo pants way down past their you know hips and bikini tops and big sunglasses
00:47:25
and you know like the whole the whole everyone very much they would all wear bandanas they looked like they could be
00:47:32
marooned much more I guess on love Island yes which is which is a format that's working pretty well wend sailor
00:47:42
wore one pair of Maron speedos for the entire month and they had a a hole ripped in the butt about halfway through
00:47:50
the series but he kept wearing them anyway that's all he wore so you know you guys didn't have a lot it was
00:47:55
different now they would say that it doesn't give you a lot of content depriving you of things um but I liked
00:48:02
that but when when um when I did the series of Treasure Island and you were there I I think had you sold your
00:48:08
company at that that that point you were very successful and a very rich woman but you I this is the thing that stands
00:48:12
out to me you were you were Hands-On like you were there first thing every morning on the boat that came over from
00:48:17
crew Island you were like overseeing every every little bit of the operation I I that was very much off the back of
00:48:23
the chair so the chair was the Big John Mack Andro game show so John fronted it in the US and in the UK and Matthew
00:48:29
Ridge did a version of it here here here um and then it went all around the world
00:48:33
to 29 different countries so were different hosts in the countries different countries and it lasted for I
00:48:38
think five years in France and so so was it I'll just I'll just pause you there
00:48:41
so it's a game show where the contestant have a heart rate monitor on if you
00:48:45
can't keep your heart under control you're not allowed to answer the question and therefore your money starts
00:48:50
going backwards MH so imagine imagine you're looking you know the host ask you
00:48:55
a question you're so excited your heart goes pump pump pump if your heart goes
00:48:59
over 120 I don't if you know your normal is 60 to 80 you probably know that being
00:49:03
an athlete goes over 120 you've got to get under 120 in order to give the answer to get to get money if you've
00:49:09
already got money your money starts sticking backwards so you would see people on
00:49:13
$250,000 get so excited and all the money would tick away so it was great you except in some
00:49:21
countries like I'll never forget Iran they made it in Iran and it like people's heart rates didn't go up they
00:49:30
could keep their hearts under control and also we learned some things like clearly I won't do it cuz it l really
00:49:35
bad but crosseyed looking at your nose during various yoga um tips helped keep your heart
00:49:41
under control we found and then we also start to drug test people and people have taken beta blockers in the US they
00:49:47
did all sorts of crazy things so it was um yeah it was it it was a great time though and so it was that really that
00:49:54
made the company incredibly successful that which brought I works for a Dutch Media company in and they bought the
00:50:00
company in 2007 so that was really the be you know that was how all of that unfolded and I stayed for another six
00:50:08
years but I also own the own the living Channel and food TV the two Sky channels
00:50:12
so um that it kind of rolled on from there really yes so your your company your baby touchdown that sold for 40
00:50:20
million no no is that a rumor no did I it was a really bad rumor no but that's
00:50:26
that's reason you should never believe the NBR rich list cuz it was so far not
00:50:30
true there's no production company in New Zealand anything like worth that sort of money but how much how much did
00:50:35
you get out of it do you say or no I did all right you know it set me up it set me up well I went bought an
00:50:43
EST Martin DB9 found that actually wasn't very good on the roads because our roads are so bumpy keep scraping
00:50:49
along the roads but I mean as you as you said at the beginning like money you know the the stress of money is not a
00:50:54
good thing to have but money doesn't actually buy your happiness I you need to make a lot of money to realize that
00:50:58
it doesn't it does buy you it does buy you a degree of freedom but you know it
00:51:01
came at a lot of at a lot of cost I you know my kids would say to this day I wasn't you know that I wasn't around
00:51:07
enough when they were growing up and you can out end up having regrets but at the
00:51:11
same time they've also had privileges they traveled the world with me because
00:51:14
of the fact that I was able to afford it so it's kind of you can't have all mom
00:51:19
and being a school teacher they would have had a different life so um and I think only now they really appreciate
00:51:27
that you know that they that they had that privilege but at the same time they would say like my daughter told you know
00:51:32
told the story that you know they um they'd hear the garage door open they go
00:51:37
rushing down the hallway hoping it would be me and it' be their father and they
00:51:39
go oh you know so I know and like break your heart especially when she tells it to the woman's weekly then it really
00:51:45
breaks your out oh my God that is heartbreaking it was do you CU you you've never been like a a work life
00:51:51
balanc person um no I am now yeah but um I mean times time's non-renew you can't
00:51:57
you can't get those moments or that that time back actually I had but Dom you
00:52:00
can't achieve like decisions you I couldn't have I couldn't have been a
00:52:05
normal mother we always had a living Nanny um we always had you know right from the very beginning in the same
00:52:11
Nanny all their children's lives so I don't think you know the children were
00:52:14
never lacking in love especially with my big close family but but at the same time I I did make compromis especially
00:52:21
with working in the states yeah I found this photo online oh yes yeah they are yeah what do you think when you Timothy
00:52:28
and Lexie I think how thin am I no I think yeah I know that time yeah they were they were 9 and 11 yeah yeah
00:52:37
what's what's your relationship like with them now do they do they res resent
00:52:41
you not being there enough for no no they they'll tend to remind me at convenient times but no now they're both
00:52:48
great I mean my son's um 30 so he's a he's a cardiac scientist he lives in um
00:52:54
in um Colorado he's about to come home for a month actually so I'm really
00:52:58
excited and my daughter is um she's still here in Oakland and she's fantastic she's a chip off the old block
00:53:06
though she has absolutely no filter so she'd be a fantastic contestant on a reality show but they they're both great
00:53:14
you know we have a really very very strong relationship oh that's cool I'm
00:53:17
sure they understand um yeah I think they do they understand now the Privileges they've
00:53:23
had you know um and they understand the places that been and honestly they used to say mom can we just I'm not a person
00:53:30
who like I don't go to Fiji because I don't like lying in the sun I'm a person
00:53:34
who I like to go places I love theme parks I love doing stuff kids would say man can we just do
00:53:39
nothing so that to them it was like oh no here she goes again you know we'll be
00:53:44
going on holiday and I used to make them write a diary every night of what they'd
00:53:47
done you know here she goes again she'll just have activities every day so I'm
00:53:52
like we had great experiences didn't we cuz your mother forced you to yeah to go
00:53:56
to every Disneyland in the world yeah um so the chair getting back to the chair so that was that the chair is your most
00:54:03
successful show financially by far I think how many countries was it sold to 29 wow at that time that's the format of
00:54:11
course so that's to make the the show in all those different countries and that
00:54:16
was that was the sort of Television I wanted to make and we sold a lot we sold um so you want to be a pop star which B
00:54:22
celebrities into to try and be a pop star and that became a finalist and Rose to which is the biggest um International
00:54:29
um unscripted um Awards and we you know we we kind of we you know Treasure Island was made in austral an Australian
00:54:37
version and an Irish version um as well as New Zealand and to me that was always
00:54:44
the idea is that I'd be able to make a show in New Zealand and then sell versions of it overseas did the money
00:54:50
game here in um Australia in South Africa you know same with going straight here and and also in South Africa and
00:54:58
and what's going straight so that was a um that was a game show where you had to
00:55:03
follow a straight line no matter what you just had to go over or under or whatever but you couldn't leave the
00:55:07
straight line random how does that work I have to find that maybe it's on New Zealand on
00:55:14
screen it is it is it's quite hard um um the cheer though yeah so 23 million in royalties is that a figure or
00:55:22
no yeah yeah would that be about right [ __ ] wow I think that was one year this
00:55:27
best year that doesn't happen again no um so that does show you know that does
00:55:33
show but you know I I mean I read a story that um that you know I think ITV is it ITV collected was it might be BBC
00:55:43
um represented Who Wants To Be A Millionaire internationally and collected 200 million in one year for
00:55:48
who Wants To Be A Millionaire so it's the chair came on the back of the huge
00:55:53
success of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire which is why it was relatively easy to sell into the states um but I loved I
00:55:59
loved working in the States because to them unscript is at least as important as drama and it's very very respected
00:56:06
and very much a store wart of every television schedule because you you have to have it because drama cost so much
00:56:12
money so you have to have you have to balance it out so yeah and the same in England it's obviously really important
00:56:17
we don't really have a game show mentality here but there do we not no how long since we've had a local G show
00:56:24
Family Feud maybe would that have been the that would in the last one you're
00:56:27
right and we hadn't had one for a long time before that whereas in England they're all all all the time and it
00:56:31
slightly annoys me that we see them in our prime time we got English why are we seeing so many English game shows and
00:56:37
we're seeing a lot of Australian content too now and I think the issues in our
00:56:42
television mean that's pretty much all we're going to see we will have more
00:56:47
Australian and English content and we're going to have far far less local like
00:56:52
things that we need we need the block we need Treasure Island you know it's great
00:56:58
to have a local Married at First Sight we need a lot of those shows many critics will say no we don't we can just
00:57:03
have worthy documentaries shall we no but it's nice to have them there and you
00:57:07
don't have to watch you don't have to watch any of the stuff that's the thing
00:57:11
some people love it like me yeah that's right yeah and but we are you know we
00:57:16
are going to have a lot less local and that's that's a tragedy and I can't see
00:57:19
a way out of that because there is no more money coming into New Zealand television unless we go a bit more down
00:57:26
on my track which is to say okay why don't we take every concept and say how
00:57:30
can I internationalize that and that could be a game changer that's certainly
00:57:34
what they've done in Australia and Ireland they've created a a Content image for themselves which is very
00:57:39
salable to the world we haven't done that did you um was was pop stars yours
00:57:44
the you know the the making of true Bliss do you wish it was I wish it was and it's fantastic because you know what
00:57:50
that was the beginning of idol yeah 100% so they ripped it off so yes I was um it
00:57:55
it went from New Zealand to Australia the right the rights were actually sold to Australia and then it went to England
00:58:01
and then it was successful in England and they ripped it off and called it pop Idol and um and look at you know I think
00:58:07
that was Jonathan darling pop stars and I actually that was really was the beginning you know I see Joe Cotton
00:58:13
quite often you know as you know since you got HQ the half of um half of true Bliss still sing together and um yeah it
00:58:22
was it was a fantastic time but at that time that's what New Zealand was doing
00:58:25
we were we were punching above our weight we were creating these things for the world we don't do that now did did
00:58:31
um in a hindsight like Jonathan what's his name Jonathan daring yeah did did
00:58:36
did he did he Fu up by like selling the rights too early or could he not see the
00:58:40
vision you said that but it's really hard to take would he be kicking himself
00:58:44
it's hard to know how big something can be I don't know I don't really I don't
00:58:47
know really but I it's also scary CU like I got ripped off when I to my first
00:58:54
one to the states I ended up still earing just 25% of it that's when I was looking for love bachelorettes in Alaska
00:59:02
and I didn't really know how a deal should be done by the time I got to the chair I was a bit more Savvy and I kept
00:59:08
all the rights but but also you know you don't necessarily I don't know if
00:59:13
Jonathan that went in into it with a vision for the world whereas I went into everything with a vision of if I if I
00:59:21
can get my content around the world I don't have to go bigging for money from
00:59:26
New Zealand on air which was my worst nightmare why was it your worst nightmare because I'll tell you I okay
00:59:35
this is get it's probably going to be really boring but I I bought a format out of England called Pioneer house I
00:59:41
remember that it was filmed just around the corner from me on richond roide I bought a house we stripped it all back
00:59:46
to what it would have been in 1860 I think it was it was it 1900 it was 1900 it was called 1900 house in the and we
00:59:54
called it Pioneer House and we put a family in there you know to live right anyway I went to New Zealand on air
01:00:02
asking for funding to do it and at the time a man called um the late David beatson was the chair and anyway they
01:00:08
let me um it was a reality TV show so they were struggling it wasn't worthy enough for them even though what it was
01:00:15
doing it was bringing history to life they could only have the same food the same everything we didn't even
01:00:21
let them have real toilet paper they were living as they would have lived in um 1900 the family who were fantastic
01:00:27
and I went to them they let me talk to the board and um at that time the board thought they were very groovy because
01:00:35
they had just appointed their first young person to the board and he said uh and I'm trying to remember his name now
01:00:41
because you will know him he said um are you concerned that the children are going to suffer mentally from being
01:00:47
deprived of deprived of PlayStation and I was like stopping my s from saying what the and I was like um
01:01:00
in my experience my children haven't suffered from being deprived of PlayStation and then and then David
01:01:06
beatson piped up with what would you know about being deprived and I stopped myself from turning and
01:01:12
going you try my childood but I didn't say it I said nothing but being me I didn't forgive them for that stupid
01:01:23
Behavior are you a bit of a grudge holder like that or you just don't forgive things I don't forget yeah but
01:01:27
but being me I didn't give up I was like well you know you can do and off I went
01:01:31
and we made it anyway in in fact the bizarre things I think they funded it after all of that after putting me
01:01:36
through this torture but that sort of niggly torture um is is something that you know I I think was a bit emic at
01:01:47
that time in in television and we made it and was hugely successful and actually so much so that buses of people
01:01:53
would come along that street and the family would sit out on their on their front deck on Su cuz it was it was
01:01:58
showing on air at the same time and they would sit out on their deck on Sundays and wave to the people there were buses
01:02:02
of of you know people from Hamilton coming to see the Pioneer House people so yeah it was that was great
01:02:09
breakthrough television yeah it's a great show and and um just the the um exponential um advances in technology
01:02:16
since that show was made in now um it' be fantastic to do it again now you think like kids without their Vapes and
01:02:22
their I know their phones wouldn't it no Wi-Fi in house but you'd have to give
01:02:27
them 3 years counseling mental health counseling after it of course which I think they do on marit at first side
01:02:32
Australia I heard that now they get three years counseling are you you what do you when you watch TV now do you do
01:02:38
you watch it with a critical eye like do do what shows do you watch and think [ __ ] I I wish that was my show like
01:02:43
mared at First Sight love Island no The Voice Lego wars Lego wars Ninja Warrior oh Ninja Warrior is great don't
01:02:54
you love Ninja Warrior I love it I just love Lego WS cuz it's so simple and and
01:02:58
you know I love heish I love the host this Australian Legos absolutely love him but I just I
01:03:05
love the the Simplicity of the concept oh you know what I really think is I wish I wish I i' thought of that that's
01:03:11
how I that's how I think about a lot of those shows um but you know when it comes to some of the more emotionally
01:03:17
charged shows you know even treasure iseland is quite hard to handle the mental health of contestants behind the
01:03:22
scenes they must be very very difficult to handle and that is always the hardest
01:03:27
thing about making real television is you know handling the the effect that it can have on contestants who go in with
01:03:38
their eyes wide open especially now they know exactly what they're doing you know
01:03:43
usually it's their dream to become an influencer but you know people are way more fragile
01:03:50
than they were then yeah because back when I did Treasure Island with you like I don't think the phrase duty of care
01:03:57
was even like a thing yeah we we knew how far to push you cuz we had a lot of um medical advice and as you know we had
01:04:04
a medical team on there um and which is why I'll never forget I think we came
01:04:08
down to a semi-final and we had I think it was coxy the late John Cox the Builder
01:04:15
and um Josh corfield and um Brent Todd I think they were and I looked at Josh conord and Brent Todd and I saw two big
01:04:25
men who had got really skinny in a matter of a month you know and I gave them quite a lot of meat to eat
01:04:30
overnight just to try and we we were very conscious of it um but really you know no one was ever I don't think no
01:04:40
one was in danger like that but it was people were just expected I guess to be more I think people took more
01:04:49
responsibility for their for themselves and for their own behavior and their own
01:04:53
decisions now people are very quick to want to offload that responsibility yeah I'd agree with that
01:05:00
I think that's very fair that would make me worry yeah you know but something I
01:05:04
love irland all I can think about is oh my God don't hope that little hope that
01:05:08
girl's dad isn't watching this what does he think you know oh what about what
01:05:13
about merid first merid first side Australia um some of the the best non-scripted in the world yeah do do you
01:05:20
that's like I feel like that's that's what that's what that's what you'd be
01:05:23
doing if you were doing this no no they need three years counseling after that but do you watch then and go my God
01:05:30
this is I wish this was mine I watch it and I go this is brilliantly brilliantly
01:05:35
cast it's hard for me to watch a TV show and just watch it for enjoyment like
01:05:38
other people I I can see how things happen I can see how I mean people think it's not real but actually it is real
01:05:45
the way um people react to things is real but in those constructed reality shows what they do is they'll put an
01:05:50
obstacle in front of you and they get the content from how you handle that obstacle it's no different from the
01:05:56
Kardashians you know they only shoot two days a week but they just load all the obstacles in one day you know here your
01:06:02
sister's doing this get you know what are you going to do so it's so it's not
01:06:06
faked what is introduced is the obstacle or the hurdle and that creates all all the content you know as you can see and
01:06:13
that's what they do in Mar First Site some of those you know they'll ask them
01:06:17
a question which is completely crazy um that's just to create content so yeah but I believe the
01:06:24
reactions it's not nearly as faked as some people think it just isn't um yeah what what are some of the
01:06:31
trick tricks they use like the Australian one it's like you see the dinner party and often it'll start and
01:06:36
it's daytime outside and then it's night time oh really there right yeah have you
01:06:41
noticed how much they drink yeah on merid on love Island I think it's I don't know if they have alcohol or maybe
01:06:47
they have like one one drink I think I'm not an ID Watcher yeah cly you are or
01:06:53
your girlfriend my girlfriend always has it on but it's just feels like the same
01:06:56
I I don't even understand the concept as well how they decide who wins anyway I
01:07:00
they shoot it in Fiji right too yeah um it's yeah there are there are lots of
01:07:06
things um but there are little things really but human nature pretty much delivers you don't have to you
01:07:14
definitely put obstacles in their way otherwise people would just lie around the pool all day or do nothing all day
01:07:18
but human nature um even if people have got nothing to do especially if you take
01:07:22
away their devices they won't be able to stop themselves from talking gossiping
01:07:26
and then somebody said he said she said and then you know you've got content I
01:07:30
can see some of that now but you know when I watch television so many amazing techniques have you watched Martha the
01:07:37
Martha Stewart docko on Netflix no I've been meaning to you yeah why they was
01:07:44
probably 80 or 90 minutes long they've done a master interview one interview
01:07:48
with Martha the whole rest is they she clearly gave them her archive so there's
01:07:52
a bit of archive um video footage and rest is still everybody else is Audio Only it's like
01:07:58
they mixed a podcast so they've interviewed everybody else in her life including her daughter but you never see
01:08:04
them you don't see them you know an interview you just hear them talking over these Stills and I look at and go
01:08:09
how clever is that you know Netflix keeps raising the bar all the time for documentary makers how clever is the way
01:08:15
it's constructed so when I watch Martha not only did I love the content and I
01:08:20
must say I saw a little bit of myself and there perhaps not a I'm not extreme
01:08:26
but um I did relate very much to her kind of loner the way she was a loner which I've kind of been a loner um but
01:08:33
when I watch the techniques and go wow you know how the bar has been raised on documentary Making now why why is that
01:08:41
CLE just have the audio only with some images playing because you know if you've done a a flash you know what we
01:08:46
see now we see beautiful Talking Heads in every documentary don't we they thought no we'll just say there's only
01:08:50
one star here everybody else will just hear them talking like they've called up
01:08:54
on the radio station that's how it sounds right and they're talking over
01:08:58
still photos and it works so beautifully right and you you watch this and you think [ __ ] why why did I never think of
01:09:03
that through my really do you you struggle to watch TV for fun yeah yeah except I I must confess to
01:09:12
having watched all series of Queen of the South have you seen that oh the drug dealer one yeah yeah yeah yeah a strong
01:09:19
female lead uh I and I and I sometimes I drift in and out of Virgin River good old Martin Henderson isn't it good he's
01:09:27
fantastic oh and isn't he just getting older and handsomer handsome is a word
01:09:32
aging very well he and and so I I sometimes I watch a little bit of that so but um like you say if you want to
01:09:39
get on the treadmill you need those long running series oh we even got I mean there's so
01:09:45
many shows we could we're not going to be able to bring up all the shows you've
01:09:47
been involved with but another one that's actually just been bought back for a reboot game of two halves that's
01:09:51
one of your shows yes yeah God you created a lot of careers didn't you those two Matthew and Mark so I think
01:09:59
their Brilliance is underrated I think and and I'm not sure did I say to you that I had to make my
01:10:07
own show real for this um honor last night so I had to go back and find all those old shows so I got to see a lot of
01:10:12
them again Matthew and mark the very first shoot I did with them they said what do we do and I said
01:10:19
there's only one rule there are three of you you you and the camera is your third
01:10:23
mate you will always treat the camera like your third mate it'll never be inward it'll never be about you and we
01:10:30
still have problems with New Zealand television with people making TV for themselves not for the audience Matthew
01:10:35
and Mark always treated the camera like the third person and that was their absolute gift and it remained their gift
01:10:41
the whole time and that's why they were brilliant but you know I found the episode the famous episode and there's
01:10:47
all sorts of Facebook pages about them the famous episode where the the walk out you know where Matthew where they oh
01:10:54
from the episode of gam 2 yeah mat Matthew's marriage had broken up and they played back footage of Sally
01:10:59
talking about him and they teased him so much and replayed it so much he you know
01:11:04
dropped his chair had a Hy fot and walked out and he could do that then cuz that's what they used to do and the Mike
01:11:09
King and Martin J were screaming with laughter and it I can't stop myself from
01:11:13
laughing about it and so many people talk about it you know um they could do that and then one episode I remember now
01:11:20
Matthew had a new love of his life and so every Qui question the answer was either her first name or her last name
01:11:29
this is I must to say this is Nikki Watson so the answer to every question was either Watson or
01:11:34
Nikki and we did that we did that sort of stuff now you couldn't do you couldn't do the sort of stuff we did now
01:11:42
so the why because it's bullying or it's defamation or no I just think it's like
01:11:48
people are too sensitive yeah people are not actually sensitive people would think oh I'm not I I just I'm not sure
01:11:55
they their humor probably wouldn't travel as well it we be seen as as as so bloky but it was a lot um when I listen
01:12:04
to Matthew talk about as it just happened it didn't just happen you know he was very disciplined um Mark probably
01:12:10
less so but he was very disciplined he was always on time and all that like as I said at the very beginning how much I
01:12:16
love Matt Richardson you know always on time and always well prepared and um and
01:12:21
I think that it looked chaotic and it was recorded like it was half hour show was recorded in like 40 minutes they
01:12:28
were incredibly efficient but they really knew what they were doing and they knew what that sometimes didn't
01:12:34
know what was acceptable and what wasn't they pushed their luck um but they really knew how to entertain they were
01:12:42
you know they they were exceptional and I think you know we should look back at them and and realize that really how
01:12:49
exceptional they were but we don't you see because I don't think the Dan show
01:12:52
ever won an award because people were too shitty and jeal you know like people were people are
01:12:57
terribly um you know and I think that's s yes very much yeah very much especially amongst th you know in those
01:13:05
two but yeah there were lots of careers like Jeremy cit's first show was with me
01:13:11
he cl play Clark CL B on the paradise yes um April yir Bernard Oliver Kirby um even Andrew sevil his first TV
01:13:21
show um with me so there was there've been lots of them you know I I kind of
01:13:27
came from an era when I was executive producer rugby at tvnz where we were trying to get more and more ex players
01:13:32
to talk about it and so you know I I introduced a lot of those um ex players into into um television but it's been a
01:13:43
great ride yes so TV careers you started um Mark and Matthew definitely right um
01:13:49
yeah Mark had um done Mark was doing Sports Cafe it was originally Matthew and Brook and then zenan pulled out and
01:13:57
so that's how Mark came in that was anet New Zealand time of your life um with
01:14:01
Petra beist um yeah h m you started her career from palon North yeah that's the second time
01:14:09
the first time he was supposed to be doing Mountain jaw on the edge but he was too
01:14:13
scared so it became Lana and Wendy Botha because hch was too scared he was he's
01:14:20
like we got him to the first bungee jum he's like I can't do this I'm going to
01:14:23
wet myself so he never made it so he got a show and then lost it on on day one of
01:14:28
shooting because he didn't he wasn't brave enough but um yeah so he got taken
01:14:33
over by two girls and then Jan Carie joined the cast and there were three of them so yeah you so for for anyone that
01:14:40
doesn't um remember the mark and Matthew stuff think um like Hamish and Andy
01:14:45
before Hamish and Andy John B before John B so they were these two ex Sports STS that just had this amazing Charisma
01:14:51
and oning chemistry and it was like they they dare each other to do stuff they would and you know they always they
01:14:57
always laughed with people not at people um and send themselves they were actually at the same time as havoc and
01:15:02
news boy but they were very different um and yeah they were they were and the Australians quite often say to me some
01:15:09
Australians say to me you know what Matthew Mark were the precursor to heish and Andy they started when they saw
01:15:13
Matthew and mark the Australians started looking for their own Matthew and Mark um but you know they did um and you said
01:15:20
on time of your life and then they did um obviously we doing game and then they did Rocky Road all over the world you
01:15:26
know um and I went to some places with them India and I probably clearly should have gone to Japan with them Matthew
01:15:33
might not might might have got might not have gone as astray um but he but what he did say that in that recent article
01:15:39
he did say that he that's where he first uh found the drugs but um he he did say
01:15:44
that Treasure Island saved him which is kind of nice how yeah how did how did you Wrangle all these all these people
01:15:49
did you just turn a blind ey I think like I've had Mike King on the podcast and he talked about how much coke he was
01:15:54
doing during game of two halves did you see this stuff going or was it all sort of secretive or well well I did actually
01:16:01
I looked back and I I did the same thing actually with Paul Henry who was somebody who needed a lot of discipline
01:16:07
to get the best out of them I was kind of like their friend but I always held a little bit of fear so that when I said
01:16:16
don't don't they didn't and I think that's because I I I never got too close to
01:16:24
them I was probably closer to Matthew and all the rest them put together because our families were friends but he
01:16:29
um but yeah they knew that there was a line that never cross and I guess they also all thought that I would probably
01:16:39
cut them if I wanted to I mean I I was you know Mike worked for me on I did a chat
01:16:45
show Mike hang chat show with Mike during the worst time he was very he was a very difficult man to Wrangle too and
01:16:50
we argued a lot you know but we still had that I think they had respect that I knew what was going to work and you know
01:16:59
Martin develin as well and you know and they used to give poor Tony Vach such a hard time you know when I heard
01:17:07
Gamu hares coming back I was like holy moly you really need a host who's going
01:17:12
to be able to take every slap because that's what they used to do but it was
01:17:16
good nature yeah the the reboot hasn't um really worked that well do you I don't know is that fair to say I feel
01:17:25
hasn't had the cut through I wonder if that's just because of you're where
01:17:27
things are at now with I'm I'm not sure really I I know that um I know that it's really important in the format
01:17:35
to make the sports stars look like stars so what we used to do is we used to give
01:17:39
them give the sports star some answers because when you're competing against
01:17:43
Devin and King and Regin Alice the those boys their Sports knowledge of All Sport
01:17:51
they were like encyclopedias they they knew everything you know American sport any sport so no
01:17:57
sports star who had a real job could compete with them so we just give them a few answers so they felt
01:18:05
better um otherwise you would find yourself that you'd paid all this money for a sports to be the third
01:18:11
person and they didn't get a word in one one famously gave all the answers to
01:18:18
the write them all over their hand and then when we asked a question about themselves they couldn't they didn't get
01:18:24
the answer H certain Olympic um twins that was certain Olympic twins one of the yeah but also very hard being in
01:18:33
that environment where these these established relationships and you know they could finish each other's sentences
01:18:38
and being thrown sport Stars love sports STS that's what I've discovered um and
01:18:43
and so so these people that you work closely with and whose careers you sort of help shape um yeah what's your sort
01:18:50
of role when when Scandal hits whether it's a drug scandal or um Brent Todd with um there was a poking machine scand
01:18:58
when he ended up on home D at Matthew R's house or V with domestic violence yeah like how do you um well vichi that
01:19:04
was long after me um and I wasn't close to beichi but I was very close to Brent
01:19:09
Todd um and you know you have no idea but in the end you can't I I don't dump people because they
01:19:16
made mistakes you know um and yeah you're fastly loyal aren't you I am really loyal and I'm loyal to people who
01:19:22
have been incredibly loyal to me you know um around that time Brent Todd who was probably just about the most popular
01:19:28
you know New Zealand League player we'd ever seen with a thousand friends when
01:19:32
he was on home D he had Matthew and me they just disappeared into the sunset you know and and and I saw that people
01:19:38
think Home D is really easy but I saw how incredibly isolating it was for him you know um it was just him and Matthew
01:19:47
and Matthew was always out but you know Matthew would go away for a week and he would be home alone he was allowed to I
01:19:53
think they allowed him to go on a run once a day on a specific route um but it it's I would argue it's could be well be
01:20:01
harder than prison because you are so alone and it's so isolated so I mean I
01:20:07
you know and he's he's done really well since then and he volly learned his
01:20:10
lesson and and in the um celebrity drug scandal is it was called oh For Heaven's Sake what was it
01:20:18
that marked couple of tablet procuring pills whatever so basically H hooking up your mates would you four I mean you you
01:20:25
look back you look back now now I think the way the way policing changed like it
01:20:30
wouldn't even be a thing actually you can take your pills to a festival and get them tested that's right they would
01:20:34
have got them they wouldn't have got charged but also um they would have looking be looking for who supplied them
01:20:38
more than anything but um yeah there's been plenty of scandals but well that
01:20:44
seemed like a particularly hard time for Mark um Mark's Mark's got real personal
01:20:50
strength and Incredible family um you know he's an only child he's got really
01:20:54
really strong strong strong family ties and and also he had you know business confidence marks incredibly confident
01:20:59
and and really sure of himself so like none of those neither of those boys and I may be wrong I don't think either of
01:21:06
those boys suffer greatly from self-doubt and they and they have a lot of personal strength which enabled them
01:21:12
to get over things like that well thanks for sharing that yeah reminds me of um there's a documentary I
01:21:18
saw about Lance Armstrong you know the disgraced cyclist and he talked about um people leaning in or leaning out and
01:21:23
he's like when they the fan you will be surprised at how few of your circle actually lean in that's right you're a
01:21:29
leaner in I always lean in well you know you I mean I've got I mean I know that
01:21:34
shit's never going to hit the fan with someone like Matt Richardson and I only
01:21:37
see him once every six months but to me he was always he helped me make the block what it was you know when I
01:21:42
started the block he he was always and actually the network wanted Mark Alice to be the host of the block and I chose
01:21:48
M Richerson because I was like I need someone who's always going to be there
01:21:52
on time you know lines learned and he's so disciplined and he was like that so
01:21:55
he made my life better he made the show better and he was someone who was always
01:21:59
looking to you know what else can I do to make the show better and and I you know and now I have nothing but
01:22:06
admiration for him but the ones I admire are always always the ones who gave me something you know
01:22:12
um homes um B hry just cuz he makes me laugh you know you you know that old game Who Would you
01:22:20
like at a dinner party I mean who wouldn't want him you know yeah he's he's fabulous did he try and talk you
01:22:25
into being a nudist he tries to talk everybody into becoming a nudist no but he's um yeah he
01:22:32
he just has no people are like um oh Paul Henry would Tun Up to the opening of an envelope but he wouldn't like he
01:22:38
actually it was hard to get him on my podcast actually he doesn't like people
01:22:40
that much yeah but also he says I bought a boat cuz I can I can't can't exactly
01:22:46
go to no speeches because of who I am so bought a boat I'm I I absolutely uh you
01:22:51
know when they have talent and um and that great company it's a it's fabulous
01:22:56
I mean April you're May we're still great friends that she's another person
01:23:00
so he's she's director of sport at Westlake girls high now W so she's out
01:23:03
of Television but she's another person who had something incredibly special you
01:23:07
know and was never there was never any tokenism there you know she was um obviously Simon but she was she was
01:23:13
great at what she did and um so you get a bit proud and only I'm feeling that
01:23:18
now because with this Legend thing I've had to look back on all the all the old
01:23:23
shows and see um and see those shows and just realize you know there were so many people who who
01:23:32
passed through our company in those early days yeah and so many careers that you had a hand in in in in making it
01:23:39
should fill you with pride um are there any shows that you're you look back now
01:23:42
and you're regret making what are the ones you what I'm laughing because when
01:23:48
I made the show real about myself I put on the two that got canceled as well so I thought let's just lay it all out
01:23:53
there shall we what two got canel you could easily leave them out the foot show the Footy Show got cancelled oh
01:23:57
right like a New Zealand version of that and um do you not remember why I'm not
01:24:02
going to tell you and then the second one that got cancelled was called you be the judge we did a DNA test live on
01:24:08
here Oprah had done it the week before Jerry Springer it's okay for Oprah it
01:24:13
was Oprah yeah yeah a lot of people forget before Oprah was Oprah she was like a trashy show like along with Phil
01:24:19
donu and Ricky Lake and hey that little boy's got a father now but anyway we we
01:24:23
did do [Laughter] not everything's good and I what happened with the footage show how many
01:24:30
episodes oh was terrible so we we we actually borrowed a little Challenge from a British game show where two
01:24:39
players would be blindfolded and they would touch another player to work out who it
01:24:44
was probably shouldn't have done it with two former all blacks and a female cricketer there was no inapo nothing
01:24:53
inappropriate about it but you were strictly where but you could work out who it was
01:24:59
from I know bet you live in should never have done that you live and learned AR you well you know everybody saw it
01:25:07
everybody saw it you know the network had seen it it was and it went to air two weeks later and suddenly Everyone's
01:25:12
an uproar I'm like you all saw it and you didn't say anything we could we
01:25:16
could have cut it out but anyway um but to be honest in the hundreds of shows to
01:25:20
have now I laugh at those shows it's funny cuz you know 10 years ago if You'
01:25:23
bought that up I would have bked at it and refused to talk about it now I like go you know nothing ventured nothing
01:25:29
gained you know nobody died yeah and there's that saying fortune favors the brave like you yeah for it does actually
01:25:36
that's a good oldfashioned saying and you know now I do feel Brave you know even um going back um even you know
01:25:45
obviously I own a company that um has been based in natural history and even though now we're doing True Crime we're
01:25:51
doing all sorts of stuff um and and to Sports stocks we're doing one with Auckland FC you know the new football
01:25:57
club which has been fantastic they have they are just wonderful and I don't know
01:26:01
if you've seen if if you see much of the port their fan base is amazing um and so
01:26:06
they done they've done an incredible job eh Wonder it's wonderful to see and
01:26:10
because Allie Williams you know allly and Anna and you know Allie's absolutely
01:26:13
determined that he's going to do it right and and I love seeing that um and and then to do po stories with the black
01:26:19
F so still doing a little bit in New Zealand but really almost impossible to survive a company be a good employer be
01:26:27
able to pay your staff you know over Christmas when there's no work coming in
01:26:31
being able to invest in people we have to um have a lot of programs from overseas with bigger budgets what um
01:26:39
yeah what needs to be done to um to save the future of New Zealand TV like do does like can the government Force
01:26:45
Netflix to spend more money in New Zealand or is there anything that can be done like that to make more local the
01:26:50
Australian government was successful in that which is why Netflix I don't think
01:26:53
Netflix isn't doing virtually nothing in New Zealand now they took all the money
01:26:55
to Australia to satisfy the Australian government I don't think I I think if
01:27:00
our government said to Netflix um either put more into production or you have to
01:27:04
leave the country I think they leave the country oh my god um or actually actually there
01:27:11
an outrage and it wouldn't happen I that's not going to happen our only way
01:27:15
forward and this is just my personal opinion is we need to stop Naval gazing as much and make much make all our shows
01:27:25
with more International appeal we can do it what we've done it what would give us show more
01:27:32
International appeal how do you mean um making salability and like what you did with the cheer and yeah yeah well not
01:27:39
that's that's formats but you know think carefully about will will will the
01:27:43
international audience understand this understand what's going on you know or
01:27:47
is it just an inward joke you know um how can I um how would I make this appeal to America if Americans are
01:27:55
watching this show what would they think you know even on PO stories for example
01:27:59
we use a lot of even basic translation just because even though um because the black funs naturally use too in their
01:28:07
everyday conversation we make sure that it's in context so it's really easy to
01:28:12
understand what they're talking about um and that's that's really important
01:28:15
because anything on nzr plus is for an international audience at the same time we've made a um 30% Terr version of it
01:28:21
for For Cami um which is of the same show but we definitely have our eye on the international audience
01:28:28
even something is you know as kind of like you'd think is New Zealand as po um
01:28:35
we do that and I think you there's there many things you know our funders have
01:28:39
got to be more commercial and funding you know we we've got a if we look at what what what does the world want now
01:28:45
the world wants dating shows and True Crime True Crime oh my God the massive pod most massive podcast genre
01:28:53
right are you are you a podcast lady oh yes oh yeah what are you into I do listen to quite a few um I listen to a
01:28:59
few True Crime ones I listen to the BBC ones because I like when they push the boundaries like I I'm I'm more into um
01:29:06
audio documentary so I like um there's one the Sha shamima ban one from the BBC
01:29:12
now she's one of those three girls from Birmingham who went off to thinking they
01:29:17
could become Isis Brides you know um and I don't know if you know that they're
01:29:22
quite famous it's quite a famous story 15 years old and three of them went off
01:29:26
um to Iraq and became brides and two of them I think are dead and one lived and she's now still in a refugee camp in
01:29:33
Iraq and and England has said has got rid of her citizenship um raised it or whatever so she's got nowhere to go
01:29:41
she's sitting there um jamaa B and she's now gone from wearing the full burer
01:29:46
back to you know the baseball caps and the Lululemon and that and um I know where the Lululemon came from but um and
01:29:52
and so and you can feel feel him walking through that refugee camp you can hear him you can the kids come up to him and
01:29:58
he talks you know I'm I'm kind of into that adventurous sort of thing and then
01:30:02
also into some other ones which changed the genre like do you know who Lucy leby
01:30:06
is so Lucy leby is a British nurse who's been oh yeah they killed all the babies
01:30:10
yeah of all the baby killing well two actually daily male journalists followed it every day but they weren't allowed to
01:30:17
give their opinions they were only allowed to tell you what actually happened in court and I found that
01:30:22
actually as a different way of doing a podcast quite fascinating um and then there's other ones like one of my famous
01:30:29
is um one of my favorites is up in Vanishing out of the states which is a true crime one where they um there's a
01:30:37
Tara grinstead their first series where they actually 10 years later they solved
01:30:40
the crime they solved the crime and so you I I quite like those ones too but I'm a bit of a audio documentary kind of
01:30:51
you know person when you listen to them do are you I listen to yours of course which most people say did you just hear
01:30:57
what Paul Henry said about you you I think you've been you you've probably
01:31:00
been mentioned in more podcast episodes than anyone else uh yeah Mark Richardson
01:31:05
Paul Henry Matthew Ridge yeah you you've come up a lot oh you Paul Henry told a
01:31:10
story about you about um something that he why did you raise an eyebrow it's not
01:31:14
a bad story cuz we had a we had a text interaction about the story which I read out to you of course I love Paul Henry I
01:31:20
love the way he embellishes stories he's fabulous Storyteller isn't he but he
01:31:24
wasn't throwing you under the bus the the if my memory serves me correctly it's something like he was he was on
01:31:28
hosting this as your life and there was something wrong with the curtain and the
01:31:31
background and you're like oh we need to get that changed um and the the one of
01:31:36
the stage hands said oh that's impossible and and you were like no it's not impossible and sure enough they they
01:31:41
got the curtain change to your satisfaction by the end of the day they did and that was probably true I don't
01:31:46
spec I can only vaguely remember that but Paul I mean it was very nice that Paul said it you know that that taught
01:31:52
him that actually he should always demand high standards in his own shows and that is kind of nice but
01:31:58
um him saying he was scared of me I don't think Paul was ever ever scared of anyone do you love that though
01:32:06
do you do you love um knowing that you're terrifying to some people no I laughed I know I'm not terrifying to him
01:32:12
I laughed I I I found it funny I mean it was the old saying when you do this as your life it's the hardest show ever to
01:32:18
produce you've spent two months delving as deep as you can into someone's life
01:32:23
without them you have tried to get their wife not to tell them and I know at least half the
01:32:28
times the wives couldn't stop themselves and definitely told the subjects you're
01:32:32
trying to keep everything secret you're trying to manage people like Michael
01:32:35
Jones's mother the day before said unless you bring 30 rallies from sore we're pulling out of it we're not doing
01:32:41
it and I'm like oh you know you get all these stresses on doing it and then you
01:32:47
you know there's about a I think it was about a 20 minute delay between when we
01:32:51
shot it and when it came on air and then once Paul poor holes might have had a few the
01:32:56
night before and not being a very good nick and called Lance K's a hockey player instead of a
01:33:02
cricket player when he surprised him which didn't help and then we bought Ian
01:33:07
both of them from England for the same one and may have got way laid in Sydney when he met someone on a plane and you
01:33:14
know and like suddenly this is your life's tonight and where's both of them
01:33:20
oh he'll be on the 3:00 you know like so the stress and then zinan Brooks it starts hailing on
01:33:30
the cloud in Oakland and you can't hear the show and I don't know if you he much
01:33:35
about Zam he's got about seven kids and all the kids go into po home's dressing
01:33:39
room and start playing around and Paul Holmes has Paul Holmes was it yeah had hery fit because he all his kids in the
01:33:45
dressing room so you're managing all sorts of things and then you finally get
01:33:48
to the end of it and the person is so happy usually and you look at them and you go
01:33:54
I know so much about you and you don't even know who I am or or they're unhappy
01:33:57
the biggest problem always was you know kids would say I'm not coming unless my
01:34:01
mom comes on well your dad left your mom for his current wife and so we're going
01:34:06
to have maybe a little bit of friction here how do you manage that friction you know so you're always a lot of ex-wife
01:34:13
management um a lot of wives who didn't love their husbands that much management
01:34:18
a lot of you see a lot of flaws um and great in the face famous Grant Fox one the one where I'd had the baby two days
01:34:26
before Alan Dale who's a very famous American non-american Australian actor he he judged Miss Universe or something
01:34:34
with Grant Fox we bring him on big Australian actor Grant Fox can't remember him there no idea who he is
01:34:42
can't remember any of it and they had a big night out and it was all like Ellen
01:34:46
Dale thought they were buddies for life gr Fox can't remember we surprised Michael Jones Michael Jones says isn't
01:34:52
the show Just for Old and dead people like what so like you and then we surprised Jonah Lomo who was absolutely
01:34:59
horrified um and hated every minut but of course so yeah it exhausts you no wonder
01:35:06
the format isn't I have tried to bring it back a few times but it's very
01:35:10
expensive and quite hard to make did you did you love that um period of your life
01:35:14
though like like white knuckling it you know just yeah the qutool levels constantly being redly on that show yeah
01:35:21
yeah yeah yeah and you knew what they thought of the and I chose to do some um quite different ones
01:35:28
like Scott Dixon after he won his first the first the IND 500 which is if you realize it's the biggest live sports
01:35:34
race in the world and you know that was 10 years ago before he was a super super
01:35:38
superstar like he is now so you know you could tell by the choice of um of subject what they'd think like Melina
01:35:45
major who was an operate opera singer was like you could tell within 5 minutes you know well the next you could see the
01:35:51
audience what the audience thought about the subject so it was incredibly important who that first person you
01:35:56
brought up was you know but it was it was um I me made made a few mistakes in it but it was fantastic television you
01:36:05
know very exciting why doesn't it come back like think of the great new Zanders
01:36:10
like oh money really it's really expensive to make it's a lot of a lot of
01:36:14
prep you quite a few quite often you have to pay the people to come now I know it's astonishing but you do when I
01:36:20
first started doing it we didn't pay anyone but you do you know if you're
01:36:24
going to bring a superstar from overseas you're G to pay first class aairs is
01:36:27
you've you've you know it's a big it's a lot of cameras big kind of studio um
01:36:34
it's yeah it's probably now it would be close to 400,000 an episode to make M yeah no
01:36:45
one's got the appetite for that do they well you know we could do it once a year
01:36:49
yeah but you know now now you've got to be sure you get the adverti in it and
01:36:55
you know what's the sponsor going to you know we used to have great deals like in
01:36:58
New Zealand used to fly people in we were always scrambling for the last sense to make it but it is one of the
01:37:04
world's greatest ever formats um and you know I had the pleasure of having starting with Bob Parker then Paul
01:37:12
Holmes and then Paul Henry so had the pleasure of kind of doing it with all of them we had a lot of arguments along the
01:37:18
way with TN said they always were trying to change the presenter on me and plenty
01:37:22
of times thank heaven I owned the rights I would say no no no and well who who did they want
01:37:30
just whoever they were pushing at the time you give me a look like I should not like who like Simon Del no who he
01:37:35
was Simon Del was mentioned once yes he was yeah but um but they were always I don't know why they didn't get it that
01:37:42
how important the host was cuz the host is mostly talking to amate talent and and therefore the host has rehearsed the
01:37:49
story with the talent we you rehears the show you spend all day rehearsing the show so if it's Emma to tell them the
01:37:55
host needs to know the story back to front so when the person completely forgets the story The Host carries them
01:38:01
along yeah holds their hand you know know and Holmes particularly was a brilliant listener and so Holmes would
01:38:07
always carry along Paul Henry I was never quite sure if he was listening but um and what about um like well from
01:38:15
a personal level like criticism over the year about being like a hard female boss
01:38:19
I feel like well you know how like if you're a hard male boss the the '90s of
01:38:24
the 2000s you know you'd be just called like a a boss but you know you would
01:38:28
have been called like a ball breaker or at that that was the desperate pursuit of affection I think we always wanted to
01:38:36
always wanted to be the best and probably was too hard on people then not nearly as much now you don't think think
01:38:43
it was like um highlighted or extra unfair for you you're based on your sex no no when I was SE to producer rugby at
01:38:51
tvnz in the mid 90s and I didn't really see it then um and I just I had never
01:38:58
seen kind of a glass ceiling of being female I've I've always had male mentors
01:39:02
my mentors have been males and I've always just if I couldn't get in the
01:39:06
front door i' go on the window I was always one of those people who was so tenacious I wouldn't give up on anything
01:39:11
so um yeah I probably was but I never never expected anyone to work harder than me and I um you know we used to
01:39:19
have touchdown used to have the best parties you know when I show we'd have champagne and and sausage rolls you know
01:39:27
for for um morning tea you know they all there's a song which um You the monkey
01:39:33
song I'm a Believer used to be our theme song and you know if you believed in
01:39:37
that company you stayed there so it used to be a Work Hard Play Hard company and
01:39:41
I mean you know what it was like when you used to have your parties your raing parties especially when you and JJ were
01:39:45
absolute top of the pile you know how important it was that's exactly the culture we had was work hard play hard
01:39:52
and that's why so many people stayed there so long there's people who are
01:39:55
there then who are back working for me now there are people who stayed on at Warners ever since worked you
01:40:01
know um even when Warners bought it those there was still there so you could you could say that but if I hadn't been
01:40:10
I don't know what would would would there have been as many as much success if I hadn't been tough no but I feel
01:40:17
like there's like a culture now or an expectation where no one wants to work
01:40:21
this is a sweeping generalization I remember when Elon mus took over Twitter and tend it to ex he said he he doesn't
01:40:27
want people working from home he wants people that are going to be there be their first thing in the morning and be
01:40:31
their last thing at night and it was like raised eyebrows for for people but I don't believe in working from home
01:40:37
anymore I think working from home is um is not good in Creative Industries I'm
01:40:42
absolutely anti working from home yeah going forward I mean I have the pleasure now going forward of knowing having had
01:40:47
so many people work for me over all these years I can really pick and choose now and that's fantastic you know so now
01:40:53
I pretty much know that I've got a wonderful um you know staff now of you know one of them one of them who's just
01:41:01
come back to work for us actually was a contestant and I we used to quite often employ contestants you know um was a
01:41:06
contestant and um in uh Miss Popularity was which a show we made many years ago and you know that was her big break to
01:41:13
have ever gone on a reality show and then came in come and work for us and now she's still working for us so oh
01:41:19
yeah actually on the the series of Treasure Island that I was on there was um a guy there working on that like
01:41:24
building sets called Sam and he was he was a contestant on a like a Truman Show living the dream yeah living the dream
01:41:30
so it was a reality show but he was the only contestant and it was all actors around him yeah in this house yeah that
01:41:35
was a great that was my house actually we did that in my house it was a yeah that was a really great um format we
01:41:40
actually bought that from the states it was called the joeo show and um yeah Sam
01:41:44
went on to continue I think he's I'm not sure if he did the last Treasure Island
01:41:47
but he's done the last few Treasure Islands he's a police dog handler now in
01:41:51
pal to North he lives in Fielding he's he's a police dog handler now but yeah I
01:41:57
mean that sort of that show was such a risk and we don't have those sort of big
01:42:04
risks anymore we haven't even talked about the government stuff yet how how much of a hurry are you in have you got
01:42:09
um I'll just what's your next thing probably got another 15 okay yeah it be
01:42:14
good to talk about this the um hold on second being on the board for the 2011 World Cup the women's Rugby World Cup
01:42:19
and also the flag I love the women's Rugby World Cup do do you get paid for these things or is
01:42:23
you so I started the first one was um New Zealand trading Enterprise um which obviously helps New Zealand companies um
01:42:32
um get into the overseas market and then next one was Rugby World Cup 2011 where
01:42:35
I was the only female on the board and quite a lot younger than anyone else um so I've always
01:42:42
been I I sat out on boards I was still a working CEO and that's very different
01:42:46
when you're doing governance cuz most people are retired so and I liked that
01:42:50
because it makes you match fit you know what it's like to have to pay findy pay
01:42:53
the wages and things like that so that worked quite well and then um New Zealand story which helps New Zealand
01:42:59
companies Market themselves overseas and then World exposed to by 2020 and it kind of went on and on and the flag
01:43:04
consideration panel and yeah what was that I had um Sir John ke on the podcast recently and um he talked about the flag
01:43:11
thing and I think the country he gave as an example was Canada where they just changed it without a referendum and he's
01:43:16
like no said I should have just changed the flag he should have you know what and you know what we I was so I I I
01:43:23
walked in there I walked into that committee with an open mind I left thinking we missed a great great
01:43:28
opportunity and there was so much bitching about the $21 million you know cost what I what knowing got was that
01:43:37
actually 14 million of it was a paper trans transaction to New Zealand post to deliver the you know it was actually all
01:43:43
about to deliver the ballots it was actually all about you know it's government Department essentially
01:43:48
government to government right so so that was all rubbish um but I you know T said I think did that poll in New York
01:43:55
and they showed the flag to 50 people and 50 people said it was Australian and that to me was like what are we doing at
01:44:00
that time our economy was in great shape we were we were you know we were really
01:44:04
showing Australia up on the world stage and we missed our chance H Insanity I so
01:44:10
wanted that silver Fern on the flag but mostly I didn't want that Union Jack on
01:44:14
the flag do you do you think part of the issue in hindsight was um just people voting against John ke people that
01:44:19
didn't like John ke saying no it's a John ke vanity project the difference was only 4% we forget or
01:44:26
was it a design thing cuz the design they were going with was kind of well we you know we we looked at hundreds and
01:44:31
hundreds of designs laser kiwi was the winner yeah we had you know the one I see quite a lot still the white on black
01:44:39
the the the the white fern on the black that's one I loved in the end you know
01:44:44
but um you see those flags around all the time you still see them and I went to the following World Cup and I had the
01:44:49
one I liked you know like I like I've still got all the flag you know it was
01:44:54
our chance it it really didn't matter which one but it was our chance to come
01:44:58
out from under the shadow of Australia and what are we doing with the Union Jack on our flags still I mean I'm in
01:45:04
spite of bless your dear heart I got my damehood from the queen on that um I'm
01:45:09
not much of a royalist these days I don't and I relate that to you know to the RO to to being a royalist so um yeah
01:45:18
I I that that was I was I was disappointed but not devastating and then um obviously I applied for the
01:45:27
applied for the New Zealand Rugby board and they gave me a job in their commercial committee and then I applied
01:45:31
again they and they offered me um uh I was chair of the All Blacks experience which was set up in Sky City and then
01:45:37
they offered me the women's Rugby World Cup and that was the most amazing experience of my life you know we had a
01:45:43
big strategy three words Phil Eden Park and it worked and set world records for women's rugby the feeling really gave
01:45:51
rugby huge lift and man I was so so proud um of that yeah and you didn't have to like give away tickets gave away
01:46:00
none no because we didn't want to we we felt like you know it was kind of no one
01:46:06
had never ever paid to be in a woman's rug to be women's rug B so we didn't
01:46:10
want to and I think the lease were $10 but we gave away 33,000 Po and you know it
01:46:16
was for so many of those players we not the show recently made po stories four of those those women were in that team
01:46:24
and they look at that footage I made them look back at it and they cry now they like when they see you know the
01:46:31
crowds the PO and Stacy Walker said an interesting thing she said they actually knew our names people were calling out
01:46:37
our names she said we who cheering before but they were calling out our names so I think they will we get that
01:46:43
Euphoria back into rugby probably rugby needs to look a bit deeper at why it worked yeah that must be like just
01:46:53
immensely satisfying though because it's easy to take for granted in hindsight
01:46:57
what what happened with that tournament but uh yeah before that women's rugby
01:47:00
was kind of a token thing it was like the curtain Razer in the afternoon before the men's yeah and it sort of
01:47:06
really showed them up but you know Michelle Hooper was a t director was incredible she an incredible team I was
01:47:11
just the chair but very much on the strategy you know when you're on boards it's actually all about um the strategy
01:47:19
and the strategy was to feden park and then we thought if we do that then they'll all come and they did and what
01:47:24
about Rita Ora's outfit do you remember that no no I don't it'll be on YouTube
01:47:30
I'll look you need go and have a look and you go wow well clearly taer saw her
01:47:34
and went wow were they together then or was that they were yeah yeah they definitely were um what about um biggest
01:47:41
adversity and challenges like personal and professional you you've had a couple
01:47:45
of marriages eh is that the biggest adversity well I know what I'm no not good at put it that way but you're not a
01:47:52
quter won't be going again oh really really yeah that's true so your first
01:47:56
one was is that the your the baby daddy no second one John chrisy was the first s was where I got my last name right how
01:48:03
long was how long did the first one last well I me I was with him for um N9 years yeah and the second second
01:48:10
one 13 yeah and the second one you know he's always been a great dad to my to my
01:48:13
two kids so they have have a great relationship with him so yeah I mean I I know that my job put stresses on my
01:48:21
marriage M you I've been told your work's more important than me more times
01:48:25
than you can count but you know did that hurt like a gut punch at the time or you
01:48:30
s like well yeah I actually is I think my fear of poverty was probably greater H which I don't have so much now
01:48:40
but yeah the fear of poverty yeah was probably a driver there but you know I'm
01:48:46
you know I appre you know the relationship I've been in the last 10 years he knew me you know long before we
01:48:51
had a relationship so he's he knows what he's getting it doesn't matter how many
01:48:55
shopping bags I walk in the house with he's never going to say how much that
01:48:59
cost well it's your your money as well but also um yeah I think you're you're
01:49:03
probably a calmer person now than what you were oh yeah yeah you know the the sting goes out I don't know apart from
01:49:10
your brother I think he's the exception to the rule but I think people mellow as
01:49:12
they get into the you know sort of mellow that's mellow for him he M um yeah what about um yeah so you've just
01:49:21
won this award that like basically Lifetime Achievement Award the legend award um there's the damehood The Verve
01:49:27
Cleo entrepreneur of the Year award um You've Won lots of stuff what about Legacy what are your thoughts on that um
01:49:35
the moment I feel like the legacy is the people that have learned from our shows
01:49:40
and my experiences and there are so many of them not just the front of the the the presenters but much more the people
01:49:46
behind the scenes there literally hundreds of people have worked on those shows you know and I went through the
01:49:51
awards I I had a last night who's nominated for awards so many of those people were part of the early touchdown
01:49:58
and ey works and that's why that's probably the Legacy I think um but you
01:50:04
know I also I mean one of the stupidest things I've has ever happened to me in
01:50:09
my life is I was asked to speak at a a conference and I followed Steven Tinder which is always a hard act to follow and
01:50:16
Kim Hill was the um host and she said we all know what Steven Steven Tindle contribut to this country what good are
01:50:23
they going to say about you and I thought which shows of the deeply bitter woman that she was anyway right more
01:50:29
than it says anything about me and I couldn't think of anything and I was like and she went what will I say on
01:50:35
your grave and I I'm hopeful I'll say I entertain some people and I was a good
01:50:40
mother and I was like I can't believe that I was flabbergasted you know um but
01:50:47
they asked me to do the next one and I said who's who's uh hosting it who's the
01:50:51
MC I said no yeah well um well you sort of covered this off I guess in a roundabout way but
01:50:59
um I I had uh this guy dug Ellen on the podcast who's like a part of Team New
01:51:04
Zealand um that just won the America's Cup and he's done some adventure sports
01:51:07
races with Richie mcco and he said I'm one of the adventure races with Richie
01:51:10
in the middle of the night Richie came up with a game that everyone had to give three words that they'd like to be used
01:51:15
about them at their funeral wow and one of Richie's words was integrity and DG
01:51:19
was like that's funny cuz that's what I would have said about him what about you
01:51:22
three words at your funeral loyal yeah loving probably um especially towards my family and generous I
01:51:34
guess three great words yeah I mean I don't I I just care more about myself as
01:51:40
a person than I care about myself as a TV producer you know the older I get the more I care um you know about being a
01:51:49
good person I mean I always have because I was brought up that way but now I'm
01:51:53
not um you know I'm not intimidated honestly you could say what you like now
01:51:57
you could call me a um a cultural Vandal yeah that's another one so gez they sting they stick with you these
01:52:06
these they don't stick with you to to get an award like this and everyone brings them
01:52:09
up no I was I had them to bring up but you bought them up you front footed it oh I might as well you know I laugh you
01:52:16
know well I've always found you a very good person you you must have found over
01:52:20
the years there's a lot of people that um like a lot of ass kisses that you are
01:52:24
nice to you because they feel like you can give them a job or something or oh yeah not so much I mean I'm I'm um you
01:52:31
know I I have a lot of mean I've made some great friendships most of my friendships about television and then I
01:52:37
have a whole friend group of women of about 15 women who have nothing to do with television who who I spend a lot of
01:52:45
time with and they never pitch me a TV show which is really good ever they never say don't you know so I have two
01:52:52
sides my life cage never pites me cage pitches me all the time yeah well I yeah I think those words those words are
01:52:58
great you are definitely one of the most loyal people I know and um yeah and you're kind and you're sensitive and
01:53:03
it's finally got you in how's it been not too punishing it's good and it's
01:53:07
been really good and I actually I meant to bring this up but you know we talk about storytelling and I hope this
01:53:11
doesn't hurt you Dom but one of the greatest current affairs story I've ever
01:53:15
seen on television was the story about you and JJ in your fertility battle you know at a time when you know we it was a
01:53:21
Sunday night current affairs show I think it was Sunday Sunday yeah yeah John HS I'll never forget that story you
01:53:27
know and how you know and I kind of you know I knew you obviously but you know when it's a bit of a Pity with Cent Fair
01:53:35
stories they don't stay out there forever because that was one of the great stories they ever did about a
01:53:39
relatively soft and you know a subject a lot of people have been through but it was absolutely brilliant I remember
01:53:46
seeing it and going oh my God that is phenomenal storytelling and it was really about your honesty and I I think
01:53:53
in radio maybe it was radio that enabled you to show your real selves and you showed your real selves and not a lot
01:53:58
not a lot of people do um maybe you do less as you've got older but um but yeah
01:54:04
certainly in that and then you know I used to listen to you you guys on the edge every morning when I was driving to
01:54:11
work just to see what stupid thing you would do I think one day you had a mass in the um Studio or something and you
01:54:18
were describing in great detail what was going on and I was screaming with laugh
01:54:22
in my car so so you two have made a great contribution to to the business I don't know I think we're cultural
01:54:28
vandals as well God wouldn't life be boring if we didn't have cultural vandals hey this
01:54:34
this has been wonderful Dame Julie Christie um thank you so much thanks St