Peter Rowley: Funnyman actor...

Interview – 2010

Funnyman actor Peter Rowley has worked alongside legendary talents like McPhail and Gadsby, Billy T James and Pio Terei (with whom he co-starred in show Pete & Pio,) Classic comedies like A Week of It aside, Rowley does have a dramatic side, which he has demonstrated in movies Savage Islands, Russian Snark and Netherwood.

In this ScreenTalk, Rowley talks about:

How A Week of It became a hit show, satirising politics and politicians
How David McPhail's impersonation of Prime Minister Rob Muldoon may have made Muldoon more popular
Being accused of ruining the career of Labour leader Bill Rowling, by Rowling's daughter
Writing for The Billy T James Show while living at Billy's house
Disliking the emergence of political correctness, while the two continued to push boundaries in comedy
Causing offence at a souvenir store while dressed in a Nazi uniform
Working with the multi-talented Pio Terei in Pete & Pio
Why Aucklanders didn’t "get" Letter to Blanchy
Successfully begging to be in the pirate movie Savage Islands
The beautiful cinematography in Stephen Sinclair’s movie Russian Snark
Overcoming personal doubts about his abilities

This video was first uploaded on 24 August 2010, 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

...I went to the pub . . . All of a sudden the bar man says 'right shut up everybody, shut up!' and I thought oh it must be rugby . . . and it wasn't rugby, it was A Week Of It! The whole bar, you know, they wanted to see Muldoon being lampooned. So it was a real hit.
– Peter Rowley on the popularity of breakthrough 1970s comedy show A Week Of It