Alison Mau: On the rewards and challenges of TV presenting ...

Interview – 2017

Aussie import Alison Mau has been a regular on New Zealand television for more than 20 years, across news, current affairs, and lifestyle programmes. After first crossing the ditch she appeared as host of business show Made in New Zealand, before moving to late night news shows Eyewitness and Newsnight. Mau was a presenter on Breakfast, and part of the original team on TVNZ's primetime show Seven Sharp.

In this ScreenTalk, Mau talks about:

Why Eyewitness was a controversial news show
How TV2's Newsnight gained a cult following
Why breakfast TV is the best live television job – apart from the hours
Feeling that she never really got to know her Breakfast co-host Mike Hosking
Being a fan of Paul Henry's sense of humour
Why she didn't walk off camera during Henry's controversial 'moustache' incident
Getting bored at times as presenter on hit lifestyle show Home Front
Feeling badly treated by Prime TV over the Paul Holmes show
Loving advocacy journalism on Fair Go
How Jesse Mulligan helped her survive a year of hell on Seven Sharp
Why she loves having made the move to radio

This video was first uploaded on 22 May 2017, 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

It's a b*tch of a job, that one. Just the different requirements of a woman. Just the different physical requirements. You lose an hours prep at four in the morning, because you have to sit in makeup for an hour.
– Alison Mau on the physical toll of early morning show Breakfast (2:10)

Alison's Full Profile