Veteran television script writer Michael Noonan’s screenography reads a little like a list of New Zealand’s significant early TV dramas, including the historical epic The Governor.

Noonan talks to NZ On Screen about his work, setting up the NZ Writers Guild and the importance of having a good producer/director partnership.

Veteran television script writer Michael Noonan’s screenography reads a little like a list of New Zealand’s significant early TV dramas, including the historical epic The Governor.

Noonan talks to NZ On Screen about his work, setting up the NZ Writers Guild and the importance of having a good producer/director partnership.

Noonan talks about working as the first script editor in TVNZ’s fledgling drama department in the 1970s and tells the story of the letter-writing campaign that boosted 1973 drama series Pukemanu.

He discusses his strong working relationship with Murray Reece and the late Tony Isaac, and their work on early 70s dramas Richard John Seddon, The Longest Winter and The Games Affair.

Noonan was also the interviewer for the classic 1975 Janet Frame interview in the Three New Zealanders documentary series, again directed by his close colleague Tony Isaac. He says Frame was quite different from the image of her in popular myth.

Although Noonan was involved in the production of the other Three New Zealanders documentaries, he chose not to interview Sylvia Ashton-Warner, and he explains why this was.

Noonan also speaks about his and Tony Isaac’s work on the landmark series The Governor in 1977.  The series was controversial in its day, and Noonan suggests that some of this controversy was fanned by film industry people who were annoyed about so much money going to a TV project.

Referring to the 70s as the “developmental decade,” and a great time for NZ TV drama, Noonan says the 1980s were a tougher time, but he enjoyed his work on the Legacy series, and the drama Homeward Bound, which was started as a rival to Shortland Street.  It got the good reviews at the time, but Shortland Street got the viewers.

Interview by Clare O'Leary with camera and editing by Leo Guerchmann.
NZ On Screen is the home of New Zealand screen content.