Dougal Stevenson: Newsreading legend...

Dougal Stevenson started his broadcasting career as a continuity announcer, before moving into newsreading. He quickly became one of our most respected news anchors, initially with DNTV-2 in Dunedin, and then nationally. He left newsreading with the restructure of TVNZ that saw the news moving to Auckland, and has subsequently hosted and narrated a number of TV shows, and dabbled in film and television acting.

In this ScreenTalk, Stevenson talks about:

• Feeling constrained as a continuity announcer
• Having an instinct about reading the news
• Being constantly monitored to get the right pronunciation on TV
• Being impressed by the journalists he worked with in the newsroom
• The occasional chaos when technical problems affected bulletins
• Deciding not to make the transition when the news bulletin moved to Auckland
• Presenting the laid-back magazine series The Motor Show
• Being a little intimidated by his co-hosts on Antiques for Love or Money
• Getting to be an actor in classic film Sleeping Dogs
• Playing a ghost in an episode of A Twist in the Tale
• The discipline of doing voice-over work
• Feeling slightly disappointed in himself with what he’s achieved over the years

This video was first uploaded on 1 August 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