Brian Lennane

Born in 1947, Brian Lennane was a farm boy from Matamata who left town after high school for the bright lights of Hamilton. Moving into radio, he became a roving farm reporter, travelling around the North Island. Lennane’s next move was to television. Joining Wellington station WNTV-1, he trained as a cameraman, then in 1973 signed up for a three month TV production course run by Roy Melford. Next he was sent to Dunedin to get experience on shows like Play School, and magazine shows Spot On and The South Tonight. He relocated with his wife Kathy (née Kathy Hinchliffe), who worked in television as a vision mixer.

Lennane produced The South Tonight and the Saturday version, The South on Saturday. Here he met lifelong friend David Harry Baldock, who was editing for the later show (Baldock writes at the end of this profile about Lennane's controversial The South Tonight special on Invercargill, and the time Lennane was inside a car as it went off a cliff on the Crown Range).

Soon Lennane was sent back to Wellington, where he worked in the light entertainment department for TV One. One of his credits was commanding this John Rowles live special in 1976. Another early highlight was directing late, live studio show Grunt Machine, then presented by Paul Holmes. Baldock joined his friend on-set as director; he calls Lennane’s work on the show "fantastic". 

Lennane and Baldock were both at Avalon Television Centre when it opened in Easter 1975. Lennane directed from an outside broadcast van, while cameras rolled in Suite 8; the control room had not yet been built. He also produced and directed then live music show Ready to Roll, where he signed off on this Commodores instrumental for the show's opening, and introduced new talent Stu Dennison. Adopting a schoolboy outfit and a ‘thumbs up’ persona, Stu soon become a household name on children’s show Nice One Stu.

Lennane also directed episodes of early soap Close to Home. Steve La Hood recalls in this video interview how he got his first chance at directing thanks to Lennane making a sudden exit, after faking a nosebleed.

In 1979 Lennane and Kathy travelled to England, where Lennane ended up directing on Grange Hill, police cadet drama The Squad and two episodes of Coronation Street. It was a hard road landing jobs; the couple needed a union ticket to work, and money was tight. Fellow producer Rachel Jean recalls that of all the shows Lennane worked on in England, he was especially proud of edgy children's drama Grange Hill, which touched on issues of bullying, racism and teenage pregnancy. "He always talked about it with excitement, as one of the most creative experiences of his career. It was a show that suited his maverick approach to life."

Brian and Kathy separated in the United Kingdom. In the mid 1980s Brian moved to Australia, and picked up work directing high profile soaps Prisoner, Home and Away, and Sons and Daughters.

In the late 1980s he returned to New Zealand, and directed episodes of the quirky Peppermint Twist, set in a 60s era town. His fellow directors included Close to Home protege Steve La Hood. In 1992 Lennane entered local TV history by directing the first episode of iconic soap Shortland Street.; Lennane later moved into a producer’s seat. When the show picked up its first New Zealand Television Award for Best Drama Series in 1993, Lennane’s called the cast up onstage with him to accept the award.

Fran Hodgson worked as a vision switcher and tape operator on the long-running soap. She remembers Lennane as "calm and efficient, good-humoured and very snappily dressed. He understood and appreciated the skill of the vision switcher to capture the moment."

In 1990 Lennane directed documentary series Living Treasures (he also co-produced the show with its presenter, Ian Fraser). It focussed on creative ex-pat talents who had adopted New Zealand, like Austrian-born artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. Next Lennane directed To Live in the City – 24 Years On, a sequel to a 1968 documentary which followed four young rural Māori to Wellington as part of a Māori Affairs Department redeployment program. The documentary revisited the original subjects, who talked about their life choices and their Māori identities at different stages in life.

Lennane continued producing and directing on Shortland Street. He had come out as a gay man in the late 1980s, after his marriage ended. Sometime later he was diagnosed with HIV, and in the early 1990s fell ill.  He continued to direct Shortland Street until his memory and body began to fail. Baldock and Hodgson recall his final working years. "While Brian was ill South Pacific Pictures looked after him, such was his mana, and he was kept on full pay. He was always the epitome of professionalism, and of a most kind disposition".

Brian Lennane died on Boxing Day of 1994.  

Profile written by Gabe McDonnell; published on 31 May 2021 

Memories of Brian Lennane, by David Harry Baldock

Brian was bought up on a farm in Matamata and had a pet pig who developed ringworm the day before the show, so he used nugget to cover up the evidence.

He left home straight after Matamata College and moved to Hamilton where he had multiple jobs, including fixing strings on yo-yos! Somehow he talked his way into radio, then moved to WNTV-1. Back in the early 1970s to become a television producer you applied to attend a three month residential course in Wellington.

After completing the course, many successful new producers were sent to Dunedin. It must have been around 1973 when Brian first arrived with partner Kathleen (Kathy) Hinchliffe, who was originally from London. Kathy was a vision switcher. I was a film editor then, working on The South on Saturday, and it wasn’t long before Brian and I become good friends. One of the issues every producer faced was constant complaints from Southland that they never got enough coverage. Brian decided to do a 'live' programme from Invercargill to showcase what they had to offer. As there was no editing involved, I got to travel down with the team as a bit of a junket.

For some reason the 'live' show could not happen. So Brian made the controversial decision to head out into the streets of Invercargill, and ask anyone they saw what they should film. Everything that was mentioned was filmed. I remember several clearly: a farmer who was in town for a pig auction, then we cut to a screaming pig in the auction; a chap who mentioned the great motor racing track, cut to track and a caption saying 'next meeting 20 January'; and an interview with the mayor, who when asked "what can we film?", spent a good 30 seconds going "ah, well, um..."

We rushed back to Dunedin, and virtually edited the show overnight and all the next day. It went to air that night. It caused an absolute uproar; eventually questions were asked in parliament. Fortunately Brian wiped the tape of the programme [Note: in the 1960s tapes were regularly reused for other programmes]. I guess he saw what was coming, so there was nothing to see. The film on its own didn’t seem too bad — it was the captions Brian put over each story that caused the problem.

On another occasion The South on Saturday planned to run an item from another region. They used to swap programming; no national network in those days. Brian decided to take DNTV-2’s station car and drive to Queenstown to do some research. He asked me if I wanted to come. After a couple of days there, we decided to head over the Crown Range to Wanaka. This was around June, and winter was fast approaching.

The night before it had snowed and then froze. As we were reaching the top of the Crown Range the car started to slide backwards on the steep road. I got out to try and hold it, but it turned and headed over the edge of the steep cliff. Brian was still inside. He told me he took off his glasses and lay across the front seats, and just went with the flow. The car bounced and rolled several times, before coming to rest on a fence near the bottom of the cliff. All Brian suffered was a small tear on his pants. When we returned to Dunedin, station manager Alf Dick told Brian no more research trips, and "I don’t want to know about any passengers".

Brian was quickly moved back to Wellington to start working on Grunt Machine as studio director, under Mark Westmoreland. Brian offered me a job as film director. I thought I would have to resign to take up the job but I think Alf was pleased to see the back of both Brian and me; he arranged for me to be transferred. 

In February 1975 Brian and Kathy were married at their home in Wadestown. They soon moved to York Bay in Eastbourne. When they were living in Wellington, they drove a Fiat Bambina. Now that’s a really small car, and Brian was over six foot tall. They always looked amazing; Brian and Kathy were very stylish dressers.

Brian was a fantastic director on Grunt Machine, which went out live late on Friday nights. One night Paul Holmes was presenting, and driving the camera crane at the same time. He got himself tied up in complete knots with the camera cable. 

Brian eventually left New Zealand for England in 1977, where he ended up directing.  Times were tough for Brian and Kathy till they got a union ticket to work. I remember staying with them in Chelsea. Brian, being the cheeky one, would go into supermarkets, pick up a really expensive bottle of wine and swap the price tag from a really cheap one.

Brian was the first director on Shortland Street and later become it’s producer. It was while he was producer that the series won an NZ Television Award. When Brian went on stage to collect it, he insisted all the actors join him onstage. It was a great moment.

I'd made a documentary called August '74 - The Death of a Prime Minister. It was successful, and a repeat was arranged. I remember telling Brian I'd made a mistake in the original version by not showing the coffin leaving Parliament at the end, but it was too late to be changed. He told me it is never too late if you can improve on what you have made. Before the repeat screening I changed the ending to include the footage. 

By this stage Brian had realised he was gay, and to the shock of many, his marriage to Kathy ended. Tragically later Brian was to become HIV positive. It was tragic to see this large man shrivel to half his size. While Brian was ill South Pacific Pictures looked after him, such was his mana, and he was kept on full pay. 

After he passed, a memorial service was held for Brian which celebrated the man and his achievements. I was honoured to be asked to MC the occasion. The one contribution I made was a video of Brian, backed by Billy Joel's song 'The Stranger'. I chose that track for two reasons: firstly Brian had directed John Rowles singing that song and loved it; and secondly because I felt there were so many different facets to Brian, no one really knew the true Brian.

He was my friend, my mentor and godfather to my son Harry.  

Profile sources
David Harry Baldock
Fran Hodgson
Rachel Jean
David Harry Baldock, 'Brian Lennane, 1947 - 1994' - OnFilm, February 1995, page 8
'Steve La Hood: Bruno, Lebanon and causing accidents on soap operas...' (Video Interview) NZ On Screen website. Director Ian Pryor. Loaded 29 February 2016. Accessed 31 May 2021
'Stu Dennison: Giving the thumbs up to kids TV...' (Video Interview) NZ On Screen website. Director Adnrew Whiteside. Loaded 27 November 2012. Accessed 31 May 2021