The original series about a Yorkshire vet was a late-70s television phenomenon. Could the rebooted version scratch a similar itch for recovering Anglophile Linda Burgess? There’s something about TV programmes that start with someone running. It not only depends on where the camera is – at foot level? uhoh… the camera’s a voyeur and we’re … Read more
Timaru, Waihi, Greymouth and Woodville entered; only one could emerge the winner. Tara Ward looks back at one of the most exciting moments in regional New Zealand history: the grand final of Top Town. It was a hot summer’s day in 1977 when 10,000 people gathered in Whangarei’s Okara Park to witness one of our … Read more
Few hobbies have captured the mainstream imagination in 2020 quite like roller skating. Jihee Junn explores the many reasons why. Just down the road from Auckland’s Glenfield mall is the ActivZone Indoor Sports Arena, an inconspicuous-looking building which, many years ago, used to be a Chipmunks play centre. These days though, it’s the self-proclaimed “home … Read more
A saddle sore, a teal bridesmaid’s dress and the Ngāruawāhia High School hall: how Marilyn Waring became the National candidate for Raglan. An extract from her new memoir The Political Years. In 1974, it was my habit to go to the library at Victoria University of Wellington, in New Zealand’s capital, to read each morning’s newspaper. On … Read more
The Single Object is a series exploring our material culture, examining the meaning and influence of the objects that surround us in everyday life. In the first of the series, Madeleine Chapman inspects a pen, and learns about the power of privilege. In 1978, young brown men were being arrested. With unemployment rising and the … Read more
Buck House was an edgy sitcom from the 70s that manages to still be edgy and different now, though not for the right reasons. Sam Brooks muses upon the distinct pleasures of Buck House. When I think of the 70s, I think of Yakety Sax, Mary Tyler Moore and a show where a guy had to pretend … Read more