Kids’ show host now a producer

Press, 16 October 1989, Page 11

Kids’ show host now a producer

Stu, the cheeky schoolboy cum kids’ show host who put so much energy into frenetic afternoons clowning on New Zealand’s TV screens is Stu Dennison, now the producer of “Wide World of Sport” (tonight at 10 on One). He says, “It would probably help my job prospects better if people thought of me as a sports producer rather than a lunatic kids’ show host.

“A whole generation don’t know who that character was but their parents do. They’ll point and laugh while their kids look at me and wonder who on earth they’re talking about.” At the peak of his popularity, Stu Dennison travelled the length and breadth of the country to perform at school galas and fund-raising events. When the role ended he found work outside television frustrating. It was strange insulating roofs in Porirua, he says. “Whenever you crawled out of a roof sweating there would always be all these kids waiting to ask you for your autograph.” Dennison says working behind the camera on “Wide World of Sport” gives him the same sort of “buzz” that performing used to.

“I used to love that — just playing up to the camera. But at the same time it’s nice to sit in the producer’s chair and have 30 people waiting for you to say go. "Still, I don’t think I will ever get rid of that character. I’ll never get rid of that side of me.”