First published in New Zealand TV Weekly July 25, 1966.
Auckland
Now well into its second half century, Town and Around continues to remain lively and imaginative; but viewers could well start suffering from a surfeit of Barry Crump, a good keen man though he may be, despite his constant affectation of couldn’t-care-less boredom..... Apologies for a blooper we made a while back, giving Colin Hill credit for a kookie Navy band parade instead of Mike Bellinger. Ever meta belligerent Bellinger?..... Michael Scott, Sportsroom producer, off on the trainee course in Wellington. Former Auckland continuity announcer Edwina Rumforid Myers is another at the school ..... Ian Watkins is pruning Yo Heave Ho down to a less waffly show for the small fry . . . A medical series has been shelved for a time in favour of an imported series. But the job the medicos are doing in New Zealand deserves TV coverage. Much of their work at Green Lane and also in Otago is world standard if not world pioneering ..... Roy Woodward has headed south again after a spell as temporary chief announcer and Bill Leathwick is holding the fort pending Bob Irvine’s return from the Lions tour.... Auckland’s Advertising Club didn’t ask for just one TV personality as, a luncheon guest. They had the lot at a recent noon get-together ..... Vague rumours of possible top level changes locally ..... Possibility of some N.Z. productions finding sales overseas, notably the Ngaio Marsh profile and the documentary on Dr David Lewis’s Pacific voyage
Wellington
Bluff and hearty Bruce Crossan, the NZBC’s district editor in Wellington, made the news himself the other day -he became the first radio journalist to win a national journalism prize with his story on earthquake risks in government buildings. He picked up the New Zealand Journalist Association’s cheque for the top investigative story of the year. It was the first time the rules had allowed radio journalists to compete for the Association’s competitions. Crossan was one of the first senior journalists to switch from daily journalism to the NZBC...... The incisive, intelligent and down-to-earth comments by Winston McCarthy on the British Lions matches are winning plaudits in Wellington. “The Voice,” silent for a number of years, has returned to WNTV1 to dissect the play of the Lions each Monday. Unlike so many NZBC types, he doesn’t pussyfoot around when he has something harsh to say. He’s a breath of fresh air around the place. . . . . And talking about news and sports services, have you heard the NZBC’s silly rule that no interviewer may appear twice on the evening television news bulletin? Something the backroom boys dreamed up in their campaign against the “cult of the personality,” I guess....Town and Around’s Mike Minehan continues to win fans around the city with his bright and breezy interviews. But, oh, save us from some of those dreadful puns. Incidentally, just the other day Mike was seen standing outside a coffee shop in earnest conversation with the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Kirk. Girl inside coffee bar: Who’s the big chap with that gorgeous Mike?
CHRISTCHURCH
There have been brighter parties at Russley Hotel’s swimming pool than that thrown recently by CHTV3 with Come Along for the Ride. Hayseed Sebastian S. Sweedlepipe (David Hindin) brought along musicians (the Neal Totty Sextet), in his jalopy to join vocalists Zarleen Todd and Gary Wakefield. Music not all that bad, but too much water and very little spirits in this Bill Taylor production.... Crayfish town, Kaikoura, will be getting the picture loud and clear shortly when a translator now being built at Lincoln is installed... New viewing for the nine-to-twelve age group with Get-Together. Youngsters get chance to show off pets onscreen, learn something about musical instruments and their history, maybe win a ride in or on transport of their choice and let their less fortunate mates see them enjoying it and, finally, learn something about cameras, including TV models... If Channel 3 has anything coming up for teenagers, either in the way of education or entertainment, in the new future, no one is talking about it ..... The Frank Capra Season, which wound up on July 1, provided better Friday night viewing than most anticipated. . . The way Danger Man is shaping would appear to indicate that Wednesdays will soon become stay-at-home nights again. Some of those complacent theatre manager smiles, seen with the demise of The Avengers, are reported to be getting almost as frosty as a July morning in Christchurch!
DUNEDIN
Methinks we espied our esteemed Auckland correspondent lurking in the, murk of a recent London Report which DNTV2 screened in the spot allocated on other channels to Town and Around ..... However, at last this DNTV2 sets its own Town and Around in motion with David Beatson and Graeme Wilson as commentators... At the time of writing, no host had as yet been selected for the southernmost Town and Around, but DNTV2 decided to kill as many birds as possible with one stone, and advertised for Male and Female Comperes for various types of programmes
. The idea, says producer, Roy Melford, is that people are always saying there MUST be somebody around
, and the ads were placed to see what undiscovered gems might turn up ..... We’ve heard whispers of a possible new local quiz show, a musical one with Carl Stirling indicated as the compere, but héar there’s a certain amount of opposition "up North". It’s all very vague and intriguing.... Bernard Buck and Kevin Mills, both well known on local radio have become new continuity announcers for DNTV2 ..... Chris Thomson and Trevor Peters are sampling the North Island winter while on a two months production course in Wellington ..... They tell me the Production and Design Department at DNTV2 is like a miniature tower of Babel housing Scottish Jim Paton, Irish Kevin Robinson, Bernadette Close, and Welsh Bill Aaron, all of whom have retained their native burrs, brogues and lilts ..... And English Stella Haymes in the Film Department not only sounds as though she is an- emigrant from Coronation Street, but she looks so much like Elsie Tanner of the serial, that her colleagues call her “Elsie.”
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