Who Laughs Last?

Television (Full Length) – 2006

This Artsville documentary profiles Roger Hall, New Zealand’s most successful playwright. Three decades after Hall's early play Middle Age Spread became a hit, the original cast return for 2006 follow-up Spreading Out. Director Shirley Horrocks explores the secrets behind Hall’s successful brand of comedy (which includes dozens of stage plays, and TV hit Gliding On), while closely exploring Middle Age Spread and Spreading Out. Alongside excerpts from both, there are interviews with John Clarke, Grant Tilly, Ginette McDonald on Hall's role in the birth of her character Lynn of Tawa, and Hall himself.

Every now and then, particularly at a dinner conversation, people will suddenly have a look of horror on their faces that "uh oh, this is going to go in a play".
– Roger Hall on taking writing inspiration from his own life