David Harry Baldock: PMs, Russian subs, and psychics…

David Harry Baldock’s long TV career includes submarines, sea rescues, ailing prime ministers and psychics. The onetime editor began making his mark as a director and producer on current affairs and a run of documentaries. In 1988 he left state television to launch production company Ninox, whose prolific output would grow to include Sensing Murder, Mitre 10 Dream Home, award-winner Pacific Rescue and ambitious documentary series Our People Our Century.

In this ScreenTalk, Baldock talks about: 

• A car accident while at high school that helped shape his attitude to life
• How after moving from hometown Dunedin to Wellington he was given three months to sink or swim, directing current affairs
• His Anglican-inflected take on the feisty Tonight interview where Simon Walker dared to challenge PM Robert Muldoon about Russian subs
• August '74 - The Death of a Prime Minister, his documentary on PM Norman Kirk’s final week - and how it confirmed his sense of how to get great interviews
• Deciding to take the bull by the horns and leave his TVNZ job, before learning if he was going to be made redundant
• Setting up production company Ninox in 1988
• Managing to win major sponsorship to complete award-winning series At the Risk of Our Lives, only to have the offer turned down
• How hit show Mitre 10 Dream Home proved a win win, and a life-changer
• His fear of making the history series Our People Our Century, and how the programme almost brought Ninox to its knees
• The “fantastic brain” of producer Ray Waru
• Sensing Murder: a passionate defence of the show’s integrity, and insights into the stresses of making it

This video was first uploaded on 7 July 2014, 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 and editing – Ian Pryor. Camera – Jess Charlton.