The Ricky Gervais Show

Sunday, January 1st at 7:30pm

**New series** The Ricky Gervais Show will premiere on TV 3 from Sunday, January 1^st at 11:30pm. The animated show features Gervais and his long-time collaborator Stephen Merchant (The Office, Extras), and revolves around the world of their unusual friend, Karl Pilkington (An Idiot Abroad).

Originally starting out as a radio program in the U.K. in 2005, Gervais and Merchant decided to turn the show into a podcast, bringing Pilkington, a radio producer they had met years earlier, along. Soon the podcasts began to focus particularly on the eccentric mind of Pilkington.

The podcast became wildly popular, gaining a Guinness World Record in 2007 for being the most-downloaded podcast on the Internet.

“It’s such a natural for animation,” Lisa Ullmann explains, Wildbrain Vice President. “We worked closely with Gervais figuring out how he wanted himself to look, as well as Steven and Karl.”

Drug Bust

Monday, January 2^nd at 7:30pm

Step inside the world of the New Zealand Police’s war on drugs. Drug Bust is a fast paced factual observational series that follows New Zealand’s largest police district, Counties Manukau, as they fight the war against drugs.

The district has the highest population in New Zealand but it is also one of the poorest regions – and with this comes crime. With unprecedented access, Drug Bust follows the district’s drug investigation teams as they take on the criminal underworld in a fight to take back their communities. From children living in meth houses to drug related violence, the viewer gets a birds-eye look at the damage drugs are doing to our communities.

Kalgoorlie Cops

Monday, January 2^nd at 8pm

The show takes a no-holds-barred look at the work of the 217 uniformed police and detectives who control the world’s largest police beat on the planet. Situated at the edge of the Nullabor Plain in the West Australian outback with a population of 32,000 people, Kalgoorlie is a town like no other.

Sprouting from the gold rush of 1893, these days the town is flush with money, miners, hookers and bikers – meaning there’s never a dull moment for Kalgoorlie’s cops.

From murders to drug trafficking, organised crime, theft, prostitution, domestic disputes and old-fashioned Friday night punch-ups, to searching for missing tourists and prospectors in the huge expanse of desert surrounding Kalgoorlie, this action-packed series takes a never before-seen look at the workings of the biggest police beat in the world.

Come Fly With Me

Friday, January 6^th at 9:30pm

The hilarious Matt Lucas and David Walliams (Little Britain) airport mockumentary, Come Fly With Me, is set in an airport and following the lives of the people who hold it all together – including airline owners, check-in staff, fast-food workers, immigration officers, pilots and cabin crew, as well as the passengers.

“Sometimes members of the public gather behind the camera and like to watch,” explains Lucas about the filming process. “But what you gain is hopefully a show that looks like no other comedy show; that has a kind of authenticity and a scale about it that you could not easily create in a studio, unless you had tens of millions of pounds to build one.”

Super City

Friday, January 6^th at 10pm

Super City is the local comedy series which sees Madeleine Sami (Jaquie Brown Diaries and Sione’s Wedding) hilariously transform into five very different characters all living in New Zealand’s super city.

Directed by Taika Waititi (Boy & Eagle vs. Shark), Super City sees Sami hilariously portraying five acutely observed and very different characters all living in Auckland.

There’s Pasha, an aging cheerleader clinging to her partying lifestyle; Azeem, an immigrant taxi driver embracing Maori culture; Jo, a closeted gym instructor in love with her best friend; Linda, the runt of her “old girls” clique fostering impoverished artists and Georgie, a homeless girl whose freedom is unexpectedly interrupted.

“Hopefully viewers will get a lot of laughs and take these unique personalities into their hearts…,” Madeleine Sami says about her onscreen characters.

Documentary: Katie: My Beautiful Face

Tuesday, January 3^rd at 9:30pm

Katie was young and beautiful, but a vicious acid attack destroyed her face. Now Katie: My Beautiful Face follows Katie as she tries to re-build her life.

A model and budding TV presenter, 24-year-old Katie had a glowing future ahead of her. But in 2008, a vicious acid attack destroyed her face, and with it her career and her life as she knew it.

More than a year on, and having undergone countless operations and rounds of physiotherapy, she has now chosen to give up her anonymity and tell her own story for the first time.

“I’ve decided to tell my story so that people know what these men did to me,” Kate explains to UK’s Channel 4. “To help people understand who have ignorance about people that look different, and for people not to be frightened of burns and the stigma attached to it, to understand that it’s still the same person underneath.”

Maori Television is presenting the free-to-air exclusive premiere of the critically acclaimed New Zealand documentary  OPERATION 8 – which looks into the 2007 anti-terror raids.

The documentary screens on Sunday, 30 October at 8.30pm, four years after the nationwide raids that resulted in 18 arrests and just weeks after the Government passed controversial covert surveillance legislation.

In October 2007, more than 300 police raided 60 houses around the country, many in the Ruatoki valley in the heart of Tuhoe country.

The raids followed more than a year of surveillance of Maori sovereignty and peace activists accused of attending terrorist training camps in the Urewera ranges.

Directed by Errol Wright and Abi King-Jones, OPERATION 8 asks questions about who was targeted and how evidence was gathered, andincludes first-hand accounts from some of those arrested as well as academics and professionals involved in the case.

The case against the so-called “Urewera 18” has been mired in debate from the start. In September this year, the Supreme Court’s ruling that some evidence was inadmissible resulted in charges against 13 of the 18 being dropped.

It also led to the Government’s passing of a covert surveillance bill under urgency this month.

Made over three years, OPERATION 8 is a must-see for all New Zealanders interested in the debate between personal freedoms and national security.

Tune in to OPERATION 8 on Maori Television, screening Sunday, 30 October at 8.30pm.

New Zealand documentary feature The Last Dogs of Winter debuted in Toronto yesterday. Director/producer Costa Botes and film subjects Brian Ladoon and Caleb Ross received a standing ovation when they took the stage for the film’s post-screening Q&A session.

The films was selected to screen in the highly regarded ‘Real to Reel’ programme of the Festival, a programme renowned for its selection of the most insightful and fascinating documentaries of the year, screening alongside the latest offerings by documentary film makers such as Werner Herzog, Morgan Spurlock, Alex Gibney and Jonathan Demme.

Directed and produced by Costa Botes (Forgotten Silver, Candyman, Struggle No More, Daytime Tiger), The Last Dogs of Winter explores Brian Ladoon’s little-known struggle to preserve the Canadian Eskimo dog, the rarest registered breed of dog in the world, from extinction.

For the last three years young New Zealand actor Caleb Ross (The Tribe) has been working alongside Ladoon, committed to the dogs and Ladoon’s self-imposed task of preserving and breeding the dogs.

Jane Schoettle, a programme selector for Real to Reel said of the film: “Botes captures the remorseless northern landscape – as well as the political, financial and meteorological struggles that Ladoon and Ross face in preserving the Qimmiq – with a raw energy and relentless honestly. Captivating and compelling, The Last Dogs of Winter is a film about wildlife – and one wild life.”

Variety magazine described the film as an wilderness lover’s delight and said it was an “intimate, gorgeously rendered documentary.”

The Last Dogs of Winter has been financed by Lone Pine Films Ltd and the New Zealand Film Commission. NZ Film, the sales arm of the NZFC, is handling world sales of the film.

Maori Television will be showcasing a range of New Zealand documentaries in the Pakipumeka Aotearoa series. The one-hour documentaries will air on Saturday nights at 8.30-9.30pm.

This week, Saturday 20 August, meet New Zealand’s own version of Erin Brockovich in The Green Chain. Whakatane man Joe Harawira fought the powers of industry and government and won.

The former sawmill worker believes his exposure to poison in the workplace led to him becoming seriously ill, so he fought to seek the truth behind the death and sickness that afflicted his community. The Green Chain tells his story.

On Saturday 27 August check out a new movement coming out of Hawke’s Bay that is encouraging Maori people to get fit and healthy in IronMaori: Movement of the People.

The first IronMaori half-ironman was born in December 2009 with 288 competitors after event founder Heather Skipworth, a health professional from Pakipaki – the rural predominantly Maori settlement south of Hastings – had an epiphany to do something to reverse the negative health statistics prevailing in the Maori community.

She viewed a half-ironman (2km swim, 90km cycle and 21.1km run) as a challenge that would force a significant lifestyle change that could be continued – “one that would lengthen the time to get to your grave”, she says.

Finally, one week out from Rugby World Cup 2011 kick off, we explore the history of New Zealand rugby culture and the world cup and its affect on our psyche in The Wait of the Nation on Saturday 3 September.

The Wait of the Nation tells the story of the All Black’s inaugural world cup triumph on home soil in 1987, where the Men In Black helped heal the wounds of the disastrous Springbok Tour of 1981 and reunite Kiwis behind their national game.

As the tournament returns to New Zealand this year, only one thing matters: winning that elusive World Cup. For this rugby-mad nation, it’s a question of national pride.

So sit back and relax whanau and look in with Maori Television for these essential Saturday night viewing of some great home-grown documentaries.

Journey into Darkness – The Strongman Tragedy, a documentary currently in production about  the Strongman Mine explosion that claimed the lives of 19 men, and the subsequent Commission of Inquiry.

The 90 minute telefeature is being produced for TV3 by Paula McTaggart from A Bigger Picture Ltd in association with Gaylene Preston Productions, with funding from the prestigious New Zealand On Air Platinum Fund.

Acclaimed filmmaker Gaylene Preston will direct the dramatic content of the feature-length programme, which will blend dramatisation with interviews filmed by McTaggart along with archive gathered over the past four years.

“I am humbled by the stories of lives completely thrown into chaos by that explosion in 1967,” says Preston.  “It is an honour to be involved in bringing the story of this terrible mine tragedy and inquiry to the screen.

Opened in 1939, the state owned Strongman Mine (11 kilometres north-east of Greymouth) was the pride and flagship of NZ’s coal industry and the largest underground coal mine in the country.  On 19 January, 1967, an explosion blew through the section of the mine known as Green’s No 2.

The telefeature is a labour of love for Runanga-born and raised Paula McTaggart, who comes from a long line of coal miners.  McTaggart has been developing the project since 2007, when a visit to her uncle, the late Ron Gibb, sparked her interest in this largely untold New Zealand tragedy.  Gibb was one of five men from Mines Rescue who received the British Empire Medal for their actions during the tragedy.

“The more he spoke, the more I felt that this was a critical piece of NZ history that had been largely overlooked outside of the West Coast”, McTaggart explains.

“My Uncle and I talked about the possibility of a documentary and he shared with me his knowledge of the tragedy along with the material to go forward.  Ron had a strong desire that the truth be told.”

McTaggart began filming interviews for the project in 2008.  TV3’s Head of Factual, Sue Woodfield, says the documentary’s gripping story of bravery and human resilience in the face of disaster will resonate with all New Zealanders.

“Although this project has been in development for several years, there’s a terrible sense of history repeating itself with the recent tragic events at Pike River, and the current Royal Commission.

“This is a very important film.”

McTaggart says the production team is interested in hearing from anyone who would like to be part of the documentary, at the email address enquries@biggerpicture.co.nz.

“It is important that those involved have the opportunity to contribute to the project,” she says.  “I hope that more people will come forward to tell their individual stories, or to share photos, film footage or other materials.”

Journey into Darkness – The Strongman Tragedy is being produced for TV3 with funding from New Zealand On Air’s Platinum fund which is reserved for high quality programs of historical and cultural importance with a significant relevance to New Zealand and New Zealanders.

TVNZ 7’s launches a new local show – Raising Children In New Zealand – about parenting children from birth to age three.

The ground-breaking series is based on research that confirms the crucial importance of the first three years, will provide a ‘one-stop-shop’ for Kiwi parents and caregivers by combining the knowledge and expertise of New Zealand’s key child-focused agencies.

Raising Children in New Zealand is a joint initiative between Barnardos, Plunket, SKIP (the Family and Community Services arm of The Ministry of Social Development), TVNZ 7 and the Lion Foundation. The 10-part half hour series, as well as more than 40 short episodes, will provide a valuable source of practical information covering everything from breastfeeding, postnatal distress and how becoming a parent changes your life, to toilet training, coping with ear infections, parenting styles and encouraging good behaviour.

A free DVD of the series will also be distributed to all new parents through Plunket and Barnardos and episodes will be available to view online on TVNZ Ondemand and on a new Raising Children website which will provide additional information and links to other useful websites.

Featuring 18 core families, each of the 10 half-hour episodes will also be fronted by a well-known New Zealander and will focus on a particular age and stage of the first three years. These celebrity parents include actress Monique Bree (Kirby on Go Girls), sports presenter and former Silver Ferns’ captain Bernice Mene, All Black Cory Jane, TV presenter Sonia Gray and actor Kiel McNaughton (Scotty on Shortland Street).

Raising Children is the brainchild of producer Jude Dobson, who has been producing parenting TV shows for the past nine years. Inspiration came from an Australian resource which has been available to Australian parents since 2007.

“There has been a real need in New Zealand for a show like this,” says Barnardos Chief Executive, Murray Edridge. “It puts parenting in the spotlight and highlights what a hugely important job raising children is.

“The first three years last forever. Getting it right is hugely important – for our children, for families and for society in general,” he says.

The documentary explores disturbing research suggesting that our exposure to everyday electromagnetic fields could be hazardous to our health.

It examines how we are constantly surrounded by radiation – from cell and cordless phones, wi-fi internet, cell towers, powerlines, and even from our electric blankets. Every call you make on a cell or cordless phone is pumping radiation straight into your brain. Every hour your kids spend in a wi-fi enabled classroom is an hour spent immersed in a fog of electromagnetic forces.

Could this invisible radiation cause a devastating public health crisis? Is our new technology the new tobacco or asbestos?

Electromagnetic radiation is now being linked to a host of serious health problems – ranging from depression and miscarriage to Alzheimer’s disease and cancer.

Many scientists and health professionals are now warning that our long-term exposure at levels well below the existing safety standards could result in a massive global public health crisis – worse than crises caused by tobacco or asbestos because we are all exposed.

Is Your Cell Phone Killing You? Will screen on Wednesday, June 22nd at 8:30pm on channel 3.

BBC worldwide will be re-launching New Zealand’s documentary channel as BBC knowledge in March, in a major step forward in the developement in it’s global branded channels business. And also having no less than three channels on SKY TV at this point and time, BBC Knowledge will be joining the BBC family on SKY TV, BBC World news and UKTV.

BBC Knowledge is an award-winning, entertaining factual destination that is already a successful channel in more than a dozen territories around the world. It has quality content presented by talented and passionate experts such as Louis Theroux, Paul Merton, Bruce Parry, Michael Palin and Ray Mears.

“Creating a tailored factual offering specifically for New Zealand tastes and preferences is at the very core of our content strategy.  BBC Knowledge will have local flavour and local relevance,” said Tony Iffland, BBC Worldwide Australia’s General Manager.

“We look forward to engaging with the local production sector to discuss content acquisition and other opportunities to bring New Zealand content to New Zealand audiences. With three channels now in the market, this is a brilliant opportunity to showcase the diversity and depth of our content.”

“BBC Knowledge has so much in common with the Documentary Channel  – they are both the homes of challenging, trustworthy content that is as entertaining as it is informative,” said Richard Driver, owner of the Documentary Channel.

“It’s been a difficult decision to decide to sell the channel that I’ve established and cultivated to its present level of success, but I know that BBC Worldwide will only build on its achievements and audiences.”

“New Zealanders have a strong appetite for quality documentary programming, which has already been demonstrated by the success of the Documentary Channel,” added Karen Bieleski, SKY Television’s Head of General Entertainment and Prime. “We are delighted to be working with BBC Worldwide to re-launch this expanded version of the channel, with even richer content and the solid backing of the BBC’s exceptional programming output.”

This deal demonstrates BBC Worldwide’s commitment to the New Zealand market, based on a strong New Zealand affinity to its content and its long-established presence as a provider of quality channels.

It will build on the success of UKTV, the country’s most popular general entertainment subscription channel, and of BBC World News, the destination of choice for thousands of New Zealanders looking for authoritative and up-to-the-minute global news coverage.

BBC Worldwide’s distribution business continues to work closely with New Zealand networks to provide access to award-winning content across all genres. Its other established businesses in New Zealand extend across digital, live events, magazines and DVD publishing.

For further information and a full listing of this story please follow this link

Martin Henderson plays young Ed in "Home By Christmas"

At the HISTORY MAKERS AWARDS in New York on the 27th January 2011, Gaylene Preston’s feature film HOME BY CHRISTMAS, will be alongside a selection of many other promising historical films and television story telling produced last year.  

Selected as a finalist in Best Historical Drama, HOME BY CHRISTMAS is one of five finalist nominations competing with productions from PBS USA, the ABC and Channel 4 U.K. HOME BY CHRISTMAS is the first New Zealand film to gain a finalist nomination at HISTORY MAKERS which is the leading global annual gathering of history producers and directors in film and television.

Director/Writer/Producer Gaylene Preston will attend the awards ceremony. “I am absolutely thrilled that HOME BY CHRISTMAS has been nominated. Just being there will be a real honour.”

This is the second international finalist nomination for HOME BY CHRISTMAS which won a High Commendation at the recent Asia Pacific Screen Awards for actor Tony Barry who also won Best Actor at the Qantas NZ Film Awards.

“After a successful theatrical release here, an audience accolade at the Sydney Film Festival and warm response at the London Film Festival, HOME BY CHRISTMAS is becoming ‘the little film that could!’ “ says Preston, who made the film about her parents’ experiences during World War II.

HOME BY CHRISTMAS is a film memoir of love, war and secrets starring Tony Barry, Martin Henderson and featuring her daughter Chelsie Preston Crayford who plays Gaylene’s mother Tui as a young woman.

DIRECTOR/WRITER/PRODUCER Gaylene Preston

Co/PRODUCER Sue Rogers

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Nigel Hutchinson

A Gaylene Preston Productions Production in association with Midnight Films and The Motion Picture Company, funded by the NZ Film Commission, New Zealand On Air and the Wellington Company.

HOME BY CHRISTMAS, was released by Metropolis Films with DVD distributed by Village Roadshow and will be broadcast on TV One later this year.

” Combining documentary and narrative film-making techniques with skill and imagination, Gaylene Preston has created a boldly personal film that is both sincere and significant .” 54th BFI London Film Festival

Asia Pacific Screen Awards 2010 – Highly Commended: Tony Barry, by the Jury chaired by Lord David Puttnum.

Qantas Film Awards 2010 – WINNER Best Actor Tony Barry, WINNER Best Soundtrack,

Sydney Film Festival 2010 WINNER 3rd place Audience Vote

NZ Box Office – 14th highest grossing New Zealand film.

DVD Release NZ wide, Village Roadshow

To watch the trailer please follow this link: HOME by Christmas Trailer

New Zealand’s multi award winning online drama and telefeature Reservoir Hill has won a coveted Qantas Film and Television Award for Best Children’s/Youth Programme.

The show’s creators, Wellington-based directors Thomas Robins and David Stubbs, are delighted with their latest award. “It is a great honour to be recognised amongst the best in New Zealand television and film – to win the award was the icing on the cake,” says Robins.

The revolutionary show, which allows viewers to interact with the main character and influence the storyline via SMS, is now one of the most highly awarded youth drama programmes in New Zealand history.

Since first airing in October 2009, Reservoir Hill has won a number of prestigious awards including New Zealand’s first International Emmy Award and a TUANZ Innovation Award.

“Reservoir Hill is a whole new dimension in storytelling. The programme pushes interactivity boundaries to new levels, and this season it’s a whole new audience experience, another world first,” he says.

The second season of Reservoir Hill is currently airing on the TVNZ Ondemand website. This year Robins and Stubbs are continuing to break new ground and have taken technology to another level. Viewers can not only communicate with the show’s central character, Beth Connolly, via SMS text message; they can now also explore and interact with Beth’s dreams on-line.

“We’ve created a website where viewers can use a computer mouse to uncover clues and unlock the secrets buried deep within Beth’s subconscious mind. It’s the 4th dimension!” says Stubbs.

David Stubbs and Thomas Robins of KHF Media in Wellington, were also nominated in the Qantas Best Director – Drama/Comedy Programme category.

The new interactive dream space is available at http://tvnz.co.nz/dreamspace

The show itself can be viewed at www.tvnz.co.nz/reservoirhill