Jennie Goodwin: Pioneering female broadcaster...

Popular radio and television personality Jennie Goodwin (aka Jennie Forder) became the first woman in the Commonwealth to read a prime time news bulletin. Beginning as a continuity announcer on TV1, Goodwin moved to the fledgling TV2/SPTV channel in 1975 and read the news on the channel’s Two at Seven bulletin until 1982.

In this ScreenTalk, Goodwin talks about:

• How having a photographic memory helped in her pre-autocue continuity announcing days
• Being trained to enunciate perfectly in BBC style
• Having to wear heavy theatrical makeup in the days of black and white
• Being used as model for the change over to colour television
• The excitement and challenge of reading the news on new channel TV2
• Not letting the fact she was the first woman newsreader in the Commonwealth go to her head
• Having to strike a careful balance when reporting on the tragedy of the Erebus disaster
• The reason she left TVNZ twice
• Newsreading becoming more relaxed in the modern era
• The joy of returning to read the news on Breakfast

This video was first uploaded on 15 December 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, Camera and Editing – Andrew Whiteside