Country GP

Country GP charted the post-war years 1945 to 1950 in a rural central South Island town. Using fast-turnaround techniques that anticipated later series like Shortland Street, 66 episodes of Country GP were shot in 18 months, partly at a specially built set in Whitemans Valley, Upper Hutt. It was groundbreaking as the first New Zealand series to cast a Samoan in a title role (Lani Tupu as Dr David Miller); but it also provided a nostalgic look back to an apparently kinder, gentler time than mid-80s New Zealand with its major social reforms and upheavals. The show screened from February 1984 to July 1985.