Andrew Shaw: From kids show host to TVNZ executive...

Andrew Shaw has more than four decades of experience in the New Zealand television industry, from being a heartthrob presenter as a teen, to directing and producing, to sitting atop the heap as an executive at TVNZ.

In this ScreenTalk, Shaw talks about:

• His early days as a presenter, after "fluking" a screen test to get the gig on Here's Andy
• Brokering a deal to train as a multi-camera director, and working on Radio Times with Billy T James 
• Taking breaks from TVNZ — working for South Pacific Pictures (where he introduced the Idol franchise to Kiwi television), programming and commissioning for Prime TV, and helping launch the Documentary Channel with Richard Driver
• Returning to TVNZ, and his passionate belief in the importance of network TV as a "gathering place" in the internet age
• Facing criticism about programming arts documentaries at 10.30pm at night
• The challenges of balancing "god and mammon" — commercial and public service television — that TVNZ has to manage
• The "privilege" of working for the public broadcaster, and Edmund Hillary's Westminster Abbey memorial service being an example of something he wouldn’t get the opportunity to do elsewhere

This video was first uploaded on 18 January 2009, and is available under this Creative Commons licence. This licence is limited to use of ScreenTalk interview footage only and does not apply to any video content and photographs from films, television, music videos, web series and commercials used in the interview.

Interview - Clare O'Leary. Camera and Editing - Leo Guerchmann