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RhysJones

  • Journalist
  • Presenter
Rhys-Jones-PIC.jpg

London born reporter, presenter and actor Rhys Jones began reporting for popular Kiwi magazine show Town and Around in the mid 1960s. He left New Zealand and worked for the BBC, but returned in 1975 to present talent show Opportunity Knocks. His credits include documentaries, Australian current affairs show Nationwide and (as both presenter and producer) Singapore's Asian Business Report.

Screenography

Diamantina
1985 Director, Writer Television
Nationwide (Australian current affairs programme)
1979 - 1984 Presenter, Reporter Series
Eyewitness
1978 - 1982 Reporter Series
I Want Words
1975 Narrator Television

Biography

When Rhys Jones was 18 his father gave him a choice: either a stint in the army, or jumping on a boat to New Zealand to try his luck. Jones chose New Zealand, and arrived in Auckland in 1957. He moved to Christchurch soon after, where he did a number of gigs in the city as a jazz singer. The rest of his family followed him out a year later.

Awards

1986 New York TV and Film Festival
Bronze Award in its section: Diamantina

 

“I was around for the significant moments in the birth of New Zealand TV. Town and Around was exciting, it was all new. I’d wanted to work for the BBC and when I returned to New Zealand they were launching two channels.”

— TV presenter Rhys Jones on some of his key moments working in New Zealand television

Related images

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An early piece of Kiwi TV history: information given to the cast and crew of 1967 teleplay Slipknot. It was one of five dramas made during special workshops to help actors adapt to the new medium of television. Written by Ngaio Marsh, the murder mystery was set in Auckland's art world.
Suppplied by Rhys Jones
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Rhys Jones (left) interviews actor Warren Mitchell (from British sitcom Till Death Us Do Part) in 1971, for Kiwi magazine programme This Day. Writer Barry Crump is on the right.
Supplied by Rhys Jones
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Rhys Jones (right) interviews actor Warren Mitchell (from British sitcom Till Death Us Do Part) for magazine show This Day in 1971. Kiwi writer Barry Crump watches on.
Supplied by Rhys Jones
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Rhys Jones in the late 1960s.
Supplied by Rhys Jones
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The team from the Auckland version of Town and Around forceably remove Donald Hope Evans, so he can join the show. Left to right Jeremy Payne, Maurice Smyth, Anna Souter, Donald Hope Evans, Rhys Jones and Tom Finlayson. Taken outside the NZBC's old Shortland Street studios, probably in 1969
Supplied by Rhys Jones