Annie Whittle had already made her mark as a singer, before she played all the female roles on the first season of comedy hit A Week of It. In this Funny As interview she talks about:
- How her musical ear and British-Kiwi upbringing helped her "hear the music in language and in accents and dialects" — which fed into her acting work on A Week of It
- How the exhilarating, adrenaline-fuelled experience of doing multiple Week of It sketches before a live audience lifted the performances higher
- Getting to play everyone from the Queen to bag ladies to "vapid blonde" barwoman Charlene on the show
- Her "gift" of a role on Shortland Street as funny, fragile PA Barb Heywood
- Acting alongside the clever, modest, enigmatic Billy T James on his sitcom
This interview was recorded for 2019 TV series
Funny As: The Story of New Zealand Comedy.
All audiovisual content is copyright to
Augusto, and may not be reproduced. Publication of
Funny As
extended interviews made possible with funding from the
NZ Lotteries Grants Board.
We knew we had to hold it together for the whole 30 minutes . . . There was a lot of adrenalin, a lot of hilarity. But you were flying by the seat of the pants, and it was just wonderful
– Annie Whittle recalls working under pressure on almost live comedy show A Week of It