Judy Callingham has had a long and varied television career as a reporter, presenter and writer for many NZ classics.

In this ScreenTalk interview Callingham reflects on her career and how she became a writer because she was "appalling" as an actress.

She first appeared on our screens as a continuity announcer, but then moved on to reporting on the 1960s regional programme Town and Around. Callingham then developed her skills as a television drama writer on shows such as Close to Home, Gloss, Shark in the Park and Shortland Street.

In this interview, Callingham also talks about:

• How a friendly rivalry with a co-reporter on Town and Around forced her to confront a fear of heights
• Loving being a show runner on Close to Home
• How the show led to complaints that it didn’t represent real New Zealanders
• Why writing for Gloss made her a better person to live with
• That the superb cast of the show made the scripts better
• Basing the lead character of her TV play Casualties of Peace on her father
• The ‘organic’ process of writing the scripts for The Billy T James Show
• Doing a writing experiment while creating scene breakdowns for Shortland Street

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

NZOnScreen: Interview, Camera and Editing – Andrew Whiteside