Roger Hall: Sitcom king...

Playwright and screenwriter Roger Hall has made a significant contribution to New Zealand’s television landscape. Two of his highly successful stage comedies became TV hits — Gliding On and Neighbourhood Watch. Hall wrote three one-off TV plays for the Spotlight series: The Bach, The Reward, and Some People Get All the Luck. As well as his own creations, Hall has also written for Pukemanu and Spin Doctors.

In this ScreenTalk, Hall talks about:

• Rolling on the floor laughing while writing for the sitcom Buck House
• Why he took his name off the credits in series two
• How mega-hit Gliding On was initially rejected by TVNZ and why the show became so popular
• The genesis of Middle Age Spread and the complexity of the story
• The joy of writing for the very topical and fast turn-around satire Spin Doctors
• Trying to bribe his way out of a visit to Uganda in Intrepid Journeys
• Getting dumped in the Nile on a rafting trip

This video was first uploaded on 22 February 2011, 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