MARCH 14 2020 LISTENER 67
RADIOS PAST: We’ve
heard a lot about our
public broadcasting her-
itage this year, but most
of us have probably
forgotten the greatest
physical manifestation
of that heritage – the art
deco statement that was
Auckland’s Broadcast-
ing House in Durham St.
In a wonderful article
for AudioCulture, Chris
Bourke lays out the building’s place in the cul-
ture of radio and, in particular, the 1ZB Radio
Theatre within it. But the real joy lies in the
long-unseen archive photographs of the build-
ing’s interior. The Broadcasting House studios
played a key role in our popular music scene
through to the 1970s, when Hello Sailor and Th’
Dudes recorded there, but the building couldn’t
survive the property development mania of the
late 1980s and it was finally sold and bowled in- tinyurl.com/NZL1ZB
DANGEROUS PLACES: Video bloggers continue
to offer insights into the realities of the Covid-
19 virus in China in places where conventional
news media find it hard to go. Russian travel
blogger Anton Lyadov, who bills himself as visit-
ing “the most uncommon and dangerous places
in the world”, managed to get to Wuhan and
(even though he was detained by police) back
out with footage showing exactly what lock-
down means. The dramatic music is absurd at
times, but Lyadov’s interactions with locals are
fascinating. tinyurl.com/NZLWuhan
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remains to be seen, though,
if HBO has found that elusive
Game of Thrones replacement.
TUESDAY MARCH 17
Roswell, New Mexico (TVNZ
OnDemand). Fun for the teen
viewers of the household
- here’s season two of the
“reimagined” Roswell (which
you may remember from the
early 2000s) in which actual
aliens from outer space are
living in plain sight. This new
show adds a political layer
by making its lead character,
played by Jeanine Mason, the
daughter of undocumented
immigrants. Also this week is
Motherland: Fort Salem (TVNZ
OnDemand, Thursday), which
features militarised teenage
witches fighting for the good
ol’ US of A.Eat Well for Less? (TVNZ 1,
8.00pm). Chris Bavin is a busy
chap – there he is judging Best
Home Cook (TVNZ 1, Saturday,
8.30pm) and here he is in a
new season of Eat Well for Less?
in which he and Gregg Wallace
sort out profligate shoppers.
The products and prices are
UK-centric, of course, but the
series definitely encourages
all of us to give cheaper store
brands a go and do more
home cooking. Meanwhile, in
the finale of Jamie’s Ultimate
Veg (TVNZ 1, Thursday, 7.30pm),
Jamie Oliver is inspired by
breakfasts in Jerusalem to
create pancakes with spinach,Online by RUSSELL BROWN
Catch of the Week
possible by the ascendancy
of its star, Peter Sellers, and
ultimately destroyed by that
same star.
Medak gathers as many sur-
viving members of the ill-fated
film’s cast as he can to tell the
story and has the run of the
original footage, but review-
ers of the documentary agree
that it’s Medak’s story to tell
and his ghost being exorcised.
“Ghost created a wound in
Medak that has never healed,”
wrote Leonard Maltin in 2018,
praising the documentary and
commending it to a broader
audience.
Gaston Méliès and his Wander-
ing Star Film Company (TVNZ
OnDemand) is also a film about
film. It tells the intriguing story
of Gaston Méliès, the cin-
ematic pioneer who travelled
the Asia-Pacific region in 1912
and 1913 with a crew of 20
capturing what he saw from
Java to New Zealand.SVOD HIGHLIGHT: What’s good in subscription
video on demand. Netflix ushers in a whole new
vein of Scandi TV this
week with the arrival of
the morbidly humorous
Norwegian horror
anthology Bloodride. The
first season comprises six
tales of terror, told, we are
reliably informed, with no
little glee.Broadcasting HouseBloodrideEat Well for Less? Tu e s d ay.