A fairly interesting show

Press, 23 April 1987, Page 19

A fairly interesting show

A programme described, .. by its creator as having “a little bit of ‘Country , Calendar,’ a dash of ‘Town and Around’ plus a , pinch of ‘Real People’,” begins screening at 7.30 , tonight on Two. Its title, • “That’s Fairly Interesting,” is a spoof of the American show “That’s Incredible,” but T.F.I. is ’ “different,” says the executive producer of the show, Neil Roberts. - “It’s more tongue-in-cheek, and swaps the 1. hype and showmanship of the American ‘gee whiz’ 7 genre for a more laidback, understated Kiwi style,” he says. “We will cultivate the a unusual, the off-beat and droll, but T.F.I. will have - a strong unstated message, and that message is ” that despite economic adversity, and the almost continual bad news of recent years, New Zealanders are still a remark-

able people, doing remarkable things in a remarkable country. We want to reflect that back 1 to the families of New

Zealand. “If we can do that, and have some fun in the process — we will have succeeded.” Tim Shadbolt, the Mayor of Waitemata, will present the programme. He was chosen, says Roberts, because “Tim is quite simply one of the country’s most naturally gifted communicators. He has enormously wide appeal. Kids love him, the elderly enjoy him and he helps give the show the broad family appeal which will be the key to its success.” Neil Roberts will be one of the reporters on the show, along with Sue Kedgley and Phil Gifford (Loosehead Len). “It’s a highly individualistic show with its own very definite style. Viewers can expect some fairly idiosyncratic reporters.”

After conceiving the idea for the programme, Roberts (who is managing producer of the independent video production house, Communicado), ap-

proach TVNZ, who bought the proposal after partly funding a pilot programme. “As far as we know this is the first independent production of this sort to be screened on television,” says Roberts.

Researchers have been hard at work finding more than 70 stories throughout New Zealand for the show. Two camera crews have been kept busy travelling the length of New Zealand to get those stories on video and the production team back at Communicado, headed by the producer, former “Top Half’ editor John Harris, have been editing day and night.

The show will run for 13 weeks until July 16, with stories ranging from kids to old people and all those in between, as well as a host of animals, boats, aeroplanes and many more.

The first programme features a group of people who jump off bridges with rubber bands around their ankles, New Zealand’s biggest Elvis Presley fan,

possibly New Zealand’s fattest cat, and windmills with a difference.

There is just one rule for “That’s Fairly Interesting” stories, according to Roberts. They will never be “worthy.”

“If any story smacks of worthiness, or seriousness, we’ll can it,” he .says. “There’s already enough seriousness, earnestness and just plain negativity about the way New Zealand is depicted on television and we want to do a show which is just plain fun.”