Tom Parkinson: Producing the legends, from Hudson and Halls to Billy T…

Tom Parkinson is a veteran television producer and director who has worked on iconic Kiwi TV shows such as Hunter’s Gold, Hudson and Halls and Telethon. Parkinson was a key force behind many of our hit comedies in the 70s and 80s, including Billy T James’ shows, A Week of It, Issues, and Letter to Blanchy. Parkinson is also a former Head of Entertainment Programmes at TVNZ, and helped launch TV3.

In this ScreenTalk, Parkinson talks about:

• The challenges of filming early TV drama Hunter’s Gold
• The reason he believes the drama series Gather Your Dreams was less of a success
• How Brit comedian Tommy Cooper influenced popular cooking show Hudson and Halls
• The mammoth production that was Telethon
  
• Creating a ‘style’ for Billy T James’ sketch comedy shows
  
• The success of long-running music show That’s Country
• His strategy on becoming the Head of Entertainment at TVNZ
• The secret behind The New Adventures of Black Beauty
• The challenges of getting Letter to Blanchy up and running
• Battles between TVNZ and TV3 in the early days of TV3

This video was first uploaded on 7 June 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