Bob Parker: On his life as a television presenter...

Interview – 2016

Television presenter Bob Parker went on to become mayor of New Zealand's second largest city. After starting out as a continuity announcer for TV One, Parker hosted a number of live TV shows including Telethon, Young Farmer of the Year, the Benson & Hedges Fashion Design Awards and 12 years holding the big red book on This is Your Life. In 2007 he was elected Mayor of Christchurch, leaving the role in 2013.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Parker talks about:

The "exciting" role of being a continuity announcer on television
How not getting enough sleep was part of Telethon's appeal
Overcoming the "country yokel" cliché as presenter of Young Farmer of the Year
Having to wear some strange clothing on the Benson & Hedges Fashion Design Awards
Getting the chance to appear on a US cable network with This is New Zealand
How the first episode of This is Your Life on Mark Todd was a major gamble
Having a small role in road movie Snakeskin
Feeling lucky to have had a career on television

This video was first uploaded on 21 November 2016, 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 was really exciting because television then was still the big thing, and so to be able to be at the heart of that, to get to meet the people who were making the programmes or who were in the programmes...certainly in those days it was a really glamorous, exciting world to be in.

– Bob Parker describes his start in television, as a continuity announcer

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