Robert Boyd-Bell: Veteran TV newsman...

Robert Boyd-Bell has made a huge contribution to the development of TV news reporting in New Zealand. He began his career as a reporter with the fledgling NZBC News service in the mid 1960s, and later headed the northern newsroom of TV One in the 1970s. Boyd-Bell has also worked as a documentary producer, and was instrumental in setting up educational television services eTV and The Knowledge Breakfast. He is a keen advocate for public service broadcasting.

In this ScreenTalk, Boyd-Bell talks about:

• Why the NZBC had to set up its own news service
• The slow journey international news took to get on air, in the days before a national network
• Bringing changes to the newsroom
• The infamous Tonight interview with Sir Robert Muldoon
• Establishing educational television service eTV
• How The Knowledge Breakfast became the first online TV show in New Zealand
• How family dynamics proved a challenge making Billy T: Te Movie
• How his fascination with Kiri Te Kanawa led to the doco My Breathing is Singing
• Why New Zealand needs a non-commercial TV service

This video was first uploaded on 28 July 2014, 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