00:00
/
00:00
The Champion - First Episode
Television (Full Length Episode) – 1989
Author Maurice Gee’s boyhood experiences helped fuel this home front drama, expertly realised by director Peter Sharp (The Fire-Raiser). Rex Pascoe (Milan Borich, later a singer in band Pluto) is a war-obsessed schoolboy who befriends a local Dalmation boy, and reluctantly helps his father with his black-market dealings. Meanwhile American soldiers are making their presence felt. But not all of their attitudes are welcome. Racial tensions will soon be tested by the GI who is set to stay with Rex’s family. Director Peter Sharp writes here about battling tides — and learn where Maurice Gee's script first began.
There were acres of mangroves . . . I can’t imagine growing up without those two things — three things — mud, mangroves, warm brown tidal water.– Rex in chapter two of Maurice Gee's novel The Champion, page 18
Key Cast & Crew
See all 34 credits
Acknowledgements
NZ On Screen acknowledges the talent and creatives for allowing NZ On Screen to reproduce this title on this website
More from the Anzac Day Collection...
Great War Stories
Great War Stories is a series of 35...
War Years
This feature-length documentary looks back at New...
The Years Back
Made by the National Film Unit, this documentary...
Reluctant Hero
In 2007 Willie Apiata, of the NZ Army's elite SAS...
Children of Gallipoli
Children of Gallipoli offered viewers another...
Weekly Review No. 140 - Easter Action on Bougainville
This intense newsreel reports from the war in the...
This is Your Life - Charles Upham
New Zealand’s greatest war hero was the subject...
Pioneer Women - Ettie Rout
The Feltex-winning series Pioneer Women...
Home by Christmas
Home by Christmas marks Gaylene...
Tama Tū
Six Māori Battalion soldiers camped in Italian ruins...
1990 Commonwealth Games promo - Join Together
This epic Lee Tamahori-directed promo for the 1990...
Journey to Arras
This documentary unearths the story of the soldiers in...
The Champion - First Episode
Author Maurice Gee’s boyhood experiences helped...
Ngarimu V.C
This documentary tells the story of Moana Ngārimu the...
Māori Battalion - March to Victory
Māori Battalion - March To Victory tells the...
Gallipoli: The New Zealand Story
This documentary tells the stories of the New Zealand...
Chunuk Bair
Feature film Chunuk Bair dramatises an...
French Connection
In the northern French town of Le Quesnoy, the names...
Country Lads
Country Lads was used to advocate for a...
Turangawaewae / A Place to Stand
Actor Wi Kuki Kaa (1938 - 2006) plays Tiare, a Vietnam...
Weekly Review No. 249 - New Zealand and World War II
On the occasion of London's Victory Parade on 8...
Pictorial Parade No. 96 - The New Army
An edition of the Pictorial Parade...
Sedition
Sedition - The Suppression of Dissent in World War...
Turangaarere: The John Pohe Story
Porokoru Patapu (John) Pohe was the first Māori pilot...
Our Lost War
In this documentary, Outrageous Fortune...
Saving Face
The trenches of World War I represented warfare on a...
This is Your Life - Johnny Checketts
“One of nature’s gentlemen” and...
War Stories Our Mothers Never Told Us
In this acclaimed documentary, seven women look back...
2008 Anzac Day Dawn Service
Miriama Kamo provides the commentary on this live...
Memories of Service
Keen to preserve the stories of those who...
Weekly Review No. 183
This wartime edition of the NFU's newsreel...
The Making of Home by Christmas
In Gaylene Preston's War Stories, her mother...
Weekly Review No. 232 - Māori Battalion Returns
This post war newsreel features footage of Māori...
The Forgotten General
Director Karl Zohrab’s docudrama makes the case...
Nola - Our Own New Zealand Girl
Nola Luxford was one of the first Kiwi actors in...
Our Oldest Soldier
Lawrence 'Curly' Blyth volunteered for World War 1...
Foreign Fields
Invited to compete in short film contest Tropfest NZ...
The Civic Reception of Lieutenant John Grant VC
This is a silent film record of the civic reception of...
2008 Anzac Day National Wreathlaying Ceremony
div
Over Here
At any one time between mid 1942 and mid 1944, between...
A Soldier's Tale
In the wake of the Allied invasion of Normandy, US...
Compass - The RSA
Sixties current affairs show Compass...
Pictorial Parade No. 161 - Exercise Powderhorn
A military exchange between New Zealand and the United...
Weekly Review No. 195 - New Zealand Celebrates VE Day
The war is Europe is over and New Zealanders take to...
Our People Our Century - Families at War
New Zealand is a nation that has been scarred by...
Poppy
In short film Poppy, two Kiwi soldiers...
Gallipoli
Made by Turkish director Tolga Örnek,...
Dead Letters
During WWII the Post Office photographed letters,...
Voiceover
Actor Miranda Harcourt directs an ode to her...
The Eventful Years
Though first established at Wigram in 1923, it wasn't...
The Time of Our Lives
This Qantas Award-winning documentary follows a...
The Kiwi Who Saved Britain
Falls the Shadow
In this documentary, artist Helen Pollock discusses...
The Shadow of Vietnam
Between 1964-1972, 4,000 young New Zealanders...
Lost in Libya
This documentary follows three amateur historians into...
New Zealand is Ready
"New Zealand is ready" is the message in this early...
Il Magiorre - My Father's War in Italy
Political cartoonist Malcolm Evans tells his father's...
Field Punishment No. 1
This telefeature follows the gruelling journey...
This is Your Life - Nola Luxford
In a Hollywood studio, with This is Your...
Vietnam - My Father's War
Vietnam veteran Frank Metcalfe revisits the country he...
Our Day to Remember
This 2005 documentary explores resurgent interest in...
The Regular Soldier
This Army recruitment film was made while New Zealand...
Behind Our Planes
This wartime propaganda film from the NFU celebrates...
New Zealand Munitions
This classic World War ll propaganda film tours a...
The Haka
Short film The Haka gives the...
Return from Crete
This early National Film Unit newsreel traces the...
25 April
The first animated feature made and originated in New...
Casualties of Peace
It's April 1966 when young Massey student Peter...
Encounter - The Ruapehu Affair
On 12 July 1943, 5,239 Kiwi soldiers arrived home...
The Call Up
Blessed with a top-notch cast, this hour long drama...
When the Haka Became Boogie
This seven-part documentary series chronicled the...