Lockwood Smith

Before he became a politician, Lockwood Smith was king of the quiz show. After dabbling in TV while completing a PhD in Australia, he went on to host teen quiz shows W3 and It’s Academic. Smith squeezed the later show inbetween a marketing job at the NZ Diary Board. An MP for 29 years, four of them as Speaker of the House, Smith spent a decade as a minister. In 2013 he became NZ High Commissioner in London.

Ray Columbus always used to say he recommended me for W3 because I was one of the only people he'd ever seen who could smile broadly and talk at the same time … I was probably asked to do further series of both W3 and It's Academic because I could get through up to eight shows a day without screwing things up. Lockwood Smith in the Sunday Star-Times, 30 May 2010