New Zealand’s first celebrity builder, John “Cocksy” Cocks, died yesterday. Tara Ward takes a look back on some of his finest television moments. There was only one celebrity builder who ruled our screens at the turn of the millennium. It was John “Cocksy” Cocks, and we knew him best as the unassuming expert builder in … Read more
Blessed be the fruit, we have been sent a good teaser. A new trailer for season three of The Handmaid’s Tale landed yesterday, and Tara Ward takes a look. The first trailer for the new season of The Handmaid’s Tale just dropped like Aunt Lydia after Emily stabbed her in the spine with a steak knife. It … Read more
Outlander is over for another year, but don’t let #droughtlander get you down. Tara Ward keeps the thirst at bay with a look back on some of season four’s best moments, including baby goats, spotty Lords and a saucy sponge bath. Season four of Outlander has come and gone like an exploding hernia of emotion. We’ve … Read more
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that the path to the Idiot Hut is paved with trouble. Will Roger escape? Will Brianna marry Lord John? Will Jamie Fraser ever cry more than single tear? Tara Ward recaps the dramatic season finale of Outlander. Friends, we’ve reached the end of the Outlander highway, and I’m as exhausted as if … Read more
It’s the pentultimate episode of Outlander season four, and things couldn’t be worse. Or could they? Tara Ward finds out. Friends, we are well and truly up the shitter. I thought we’d peaked in the Outlander disaster zone with last week’s craptacular camping trip and Murtagh putting his boots on Marsali’s blankets, but this week life in the Colonies … Read more
It’s a grim week in Outlander as Jamie and Claire go on the camping trip from hell, Brianna reads minds, and Roger pretends to travel through time. Tara Ward recaps episode 11 of season four. This week’s episode of Outlander was a riverboat of misery floating aimlessly on an ocean of misfortune. Our beloved Frasers scrambled to … Read more
To many, Drew’s Christmas Holiday was a light-hearted, comedy filler to keep thirsty Shortland Street fans satiated during the long summer hiatus. To others, it was a terrifying descent into the empty soul of a confused and lonely man. Tara Ward finds out what really went on. All I know for sure about Drew’s Christmas Holiday is … Read more
A tangled web of secrets and lies was revealed in this week’s Outlander episode, as the Frasers tried to right their wrongs. They also ate some mashed potato. Tara Ward recaps. There are more reasons to love Claire Fraser than there are ginger curls on Jamie’s head. She has a collection of knitted arm-warmers to die … Read more
Outlander fans around the world rejoice, because this week’s episode delivered the Fraser family reunion we’ve waited 200 years for. Tara Ward recaps episode nine of season four. Imagine you’re Jamie Fraser, taking a humble pee in an alleyway, watching the steam rise off the bricks one cold morning in 1769 and thinking of nothing more … Read more
It’s a bad week for time-travellers, insurgents, newlyweds, blokes with misdiagnosed hernias, and basically everyone else in this week’s episode of Outlander. Tara Ward recaps. Friends, if I ever have the fortune to fall through a vortex of time and space and find myself two hundred years in the past, please make sure I do not end … Read more
The week’s episode of the Great Kiwi Bake Off was a right old sausage-fest, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. Tara Ward power ranks the grand finale. This is how we roll on the Great Kiwi Bake Off: sausage-fests and tight buns aplenty. After ten glorious weeks, 12 amateur bakers, a shedload of soggy … Read more
For nearly 60 years our image of who we are has been reflected back at us from our TV screens. Tara Ward explores the evolution of New Zealand television. Some people reckon the internal combustion engine is the world’s greatest invention, but to them I say “have you ever tried to watch an amateur baker … Read more
Brianna fell down the time-travelling rabbit hole in this week’s episode of Outlander, but who did she meet there? Tara Ward recaps. Chuck me in the Fraser bathtub and sponge me down with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, because this season of Outlander is stronger than Claire Fraser’s wig in a hurricane. ‘Down the Rabbit … Read more
Where were you when the person you thought would get sent home from Great Kiwi Bake Off didn’t? Tara Ward was in her pantry, praising the chocolate gods for blessing us with the nicest show on television. “It’s all about the crust and the goo,” Sue said, as she welcomed us to Chocolate Week. Sue … Read more
Last week saw a hat-eating pig on Fraser’s Ridge, this week there was a snake in the dunny. What other joys await us in the next episode of Outlander? Tara Ward finds out. When Outlander begins with a snake stuck in a long drop, you know you’re in for one heck of a ride. Toilets, so … Read more
Welcome to Pastry Week, my little overstuffed cherubs. Tara Ward power ranks episode eight of the delicious televisual feast that is The Great Kiwi Bake Off. This morning Sir David Attenborough announced that civilisation was on the brink of collapse. Seems likely, but let’s just eat some cake and chill out for a bit. I’m … Read more
Stand aside, Jamie Fraser, there’s a new pork chop in town. Tara Ward recaps ‘Savages’, episode five of the fourth season of Outlander. Welcome to ‘Savages’, or as I like to call it, ‘The Mystery of Jamie Fraser’s Hat’. Just where was Jamie’s hat? Claire didn’t have it, Jamie didn’t have it, and it certainly … Read more
You’ve already met the new Freeview On Demand – now it’s time to get acquainted with the documentaries on it. Tara Ward has you sorted. Don’t listen to what your parents told you, because watching television definitely makes you smarter. It’s especially true for a good documentary, which can enrich your life, challenge your thinking … Read more
The rain poured down on the Great Kiwi Bake Off this week. Were the gods crying because Clayton had gone, or because they’d heard it was ‘Free From’ Week? Tara Ward power ranks episode 7. ‘Free From’ Week is hardly the sexiest of baking topics, is it? It’s certainly no cock on a pie, and when … Read more
The new world ain’t so new anymore – especially when you’re killing bears who might not actually be bears, and when your mum has already been there for approximately two hundred years. Tara Ward recaps episode four of season four of Outlander. Holy guacamole, mates, Outlander is BACK. I know it never really went away, although … Read more
This week GKBO showed us what baking heaven really looks like: a cock on a pie. Welcome, ye olde roosters, to Pies and Tarts Week. Tara Ward power-ranks. Oh GKBO, you spoil us. I thought nothing could reach the giddy heights of last week’s biscuit extravaganza, when we scaled the Eiffel Tower and bathed in the … Read more
Claire finds the foundation for her very own American Dream, while Brianna encounters second wave feminism – same difference, right? Tara Ward recaps episode three of season four of Outlander. There’s an old Scottish proverb that says “he who finds the strawberries, must smoulder at the horizon until his donkey flees and his wife loses her … Read more
It’s week 5 of GKBO, which means we’re halfway through our delectable voyage into baking nirvana. Tara Ward power-ranks the performances. I don’t even want to contemplate what I’ll do with my empty husk of a life when this is all over. GKBO is my TV biscuit lighthouse. Without it, the lolly stained-glass windows of my … Read more
Claire and Jamie aren’t in Lallybroch anymore. They’re in Kansas (or somewhere south of there). Tara Ward recaps the second episode of season four of Outlander. When we last left Outlander, things were more desperate than the time Jamie had to eat Mrs Crook’s lumpy bannocks. The Fraser’s journey to Aunt Jocasta’s plantation River Run … Read more
Zip yourself into your sourdough onesie and relax into your ciabatta couch, because it’s Bread Week, my little GKBO doughballs of happiness. Tara Ward power-ranks episode four. Bread is both delicious and a science, which means eating lots of it makes you smarter. Don’t question me, my research is flawless and if anyone needs me … Read more
Tara Ward recaps the rollicking premiere of Outlander season four, available exclusively on Lightbox. Contains major spoilers. The season premiere of Outlander was, as Queen Oprah would say, a full circle moment. Mostly because Claire Fraser kept wanging on about all the circular things she could think of – her wedding rings, the hangman’s noose, those soft … Read more
Polish off your whisk and separate your egg whites because it’s Dessert Week on The Great Kiwi Bake Off. Let’s pray to the gingerbread gods that Harry and Meghan managed to catch this week’s episode, because they’d learn more about Aotearoa in one hour of GKBO than three thousand years of Orc visits and Government House … Read more
The slice of heaven that is The Great Kiwi Bake Off was this week awash with sweet and/or salty caramel. Tara Ward ranks the gooey results. It seeped over slices, it poured over pineapple, it oozed over benches and onto floors and threatened to drown us all in a sticky sea of sugar. Drowning in caramel … Read more
Best playground in New Zealand? According to whom, exactly? Tara Ward and her kids review Whanganui’s greatest claim to fame. In last week’s debut episode of The Great Kiwi Bake Off, one contestant made a statement that shook me like an underbaked ornamental trifle terrine. “I’m from Whanganui,” said amateur baker Clayton, “and it’s a … Read more