A lawyer less ordinary
The TV drama based on roguish lawyer Mike Bungay’s life brings back vivid memories for his widow Ronda, writes
Shaun Bamber.
It feels a little strange ringing someone up to talk specifically about their dead husband – even if his death was 24 years ago and his life has now been turned into a fivepart TV series.
But Mike Bungay’s widow Ronda is used to talking about the man once described as New Zealand’s bestknown criminal defence lawyer.
Interviews for TVNZ’s new drama Dear Murderer aside, people still ask her about him – ‘‘a lot’’, she says.
‘‘If I’m buying something with a credit card, often people will say to me, ‘Any relation to Mike Bungay?’
‘‘When he was alive I used to say, ‘Yes, I’m his daughter’ just to make a joke with them. That doesn’t seem funny anymore!’’
If he were alive today, Mike Bungay would be 82. Born in London, he left school at 15, serving in the merchant navy and then the Royal Marines before emigrating to join the New Zealand Army in 1956.
Studying part-time at university, he graduated with a law degree in 1961, embarking on a 30-year legal career that would see him appear in more than 100 murder trials and perhaps most famously defend Bill Sutch, the high-profile economist suspected of being a Soviet spy in 1974.
Ronda met Mike in the early 80s, working on his cases with him from 1984 and eventually marrying him in 1987. ‘‘He was just my mate really,’’ she says now.
The TVNZ series is inspired by Ronda’s book of the same name, which she began writing while her husband was still alive. ‘‘I started to write about some of our experiences – he’d seen a couple of chapters and really liked it,’’ she remembers.
‘‘The thing is, my book is the story of a man who I knew intimately. But the TV series is about a man I knew of. Although I would probably have found him clever and charming and complex, I would never have related myself to him – because that sort of wildness of character would be fabulous to be around for a little while, but it wouldn’t be great on a fulltime basis. But he changed – he stopped drinking altogether after we were married.’’
In Dear Murderer, Mike Bungay is roguishly portrayed by Mark Mitchinson, who has made something of a career playing real-life New Zealand characters – from murderous psychiatrist Colin Bouwer in Bloodlines to Napier gunman Jan Molenaar in Siege and serial rapist Bill Cornelius in The Monster Of Mangatiti.
‘‘It was a lot of fun to play somebody who was complex, but wasn’t a murderer or a psychopath or some of those other unsavoury characters I’ve played,’’ says Mitchinson.
‘‘But when you play those characters, it also gives you a really great insight into the human condition when it does go wrong, and there was a little bit of Mike that was a little bent and a little twisted. But that’s also what made him such a lovable character to play.’’
Recalling his first meeting with Ronda, whose book informed much of his performance, Mitchinson says the two of them ‘‘got on like a house on fire’’ – although she wasn’t necessarily what he was expecting.
‘‘From the book I expected somebody maybe a little bit softer, but she’s quite formidable, you know what I mean? She’s quite a force of nature – really strong and very centred and knows her own mind. And I think she was probably quite a grounding force for Mike, you know? I think that’s what he needed.’’
For her part Ronda says she liked Mark ‘‘from the beginning’’.
‘‘It was on set and he was dressed in a wig and a gown, so you can imagine it was very weird. He hugged me, and that was kind of – you have to be a little bit careful you know, to keep your sense of reality in these situations. But it was lovely really.’’
Having already watched the whole series, Ronda says she was ‘‘absolutely exhausted’’ afterwards.
‘‘It sort of reanimates your memories if you like. Not that I’ve ever forgotten him, not for a moment. But it kind of brings it into the present and alive again.’’
It’s not referred to in the press material I’ve received, so I can’t let this interview go by without asking Ronda about the title she chose for her book. Dear Murderer – where did that come from?
Ronda admonishes me for not having read it, before explaining.
‘‘There was a letter sent to Mike when he was in hospital recovering from a heart attack,’’ she says.
‘‘It read: ‘Dear Mr Bungay, I’ve heard on the radio and heard in the newspapers that you’re extremely ill. I would just like to wish you a long, lingering and very painful death. Yours faithfully...’
‘‘This was from a person who he’d defended for murder who didn’t get off. So Mike immediately replied: ‘Dear Murderer, it’s a beautiful spring morning here in Wellington. I’ve French champagne in the chiller, and then defrosting some prime fillet steaks. My friends and I are heading out to the beach shortly to enjoy a leisurely picnic. What are you doing? Mike Bungay’.’’
‘‘So that’s why I called it Dear Murderer. And actually he could have been struck off almost for writing a letter to someone and writing ‘Dear Murderer’. But he was so incensed, that’s what he did.’’
Dear Murderer,
TVNZ 1, Thursdays from September 7, 8.30pm.