Choppy seas:

Last At 11, a mockumentary about a current affairs crew who go behind the scenes at Emirates Team New Zealand’s Auckland base, is starting on TVNZ 1 and TVNZ OnDemand. Sarah Nealon reports.

Mockumentary look at The America’s Cup.

It is far from plain sailing in a new mockumentary from the makers of Educators.

In Last At 11, a bumbling fictional news crew goes behind the scenes at Team New Zealand’s America’s Cup base in an attempt to see what it takes to bring home The Auld Mug, interviewing famous yachties and stealing sandwiches along the way.

Just like in Educators, there was no script for the show. Instead, the cast members improvised their lines.

“It’s really freeing,” says Renee Lyons (800 Words), who plays a news anchor (pictured below in the white jacket), “because then you just let the character and the silliness and playfulness kind of take over and let everybody else do the work in terms of creating the story. So that’s a really fun part of it.”

Kimberley Crossman stars in Last At 11 as an inexperienced TV reporter while Breakfast’s John Campbell and Dancing With The Stars contestant William Waiirua appear as themselves.

Lyons agrees that the Team New Zealand crew members who appear on Last At 11 were good sports.

“They actually really did a great job,” she says.

“They seemed quite natural. They didn’t seem really awkward in front of the camera. Their kind of straightness against our silliness I think really worked well.”

Lyons, who has a background in banking, didn’t get serious about acting until she was in her late 20s.

“I was living in South Korea and then Hong Kong and I joined expat amateur theatre groups over there,” she says. “I always loved performing but I don’t know why (I didn’t do it earlier).

“I never thought it was possible actually. Then I got to 26 or 27 and it was still gnawing away at me.

“I went to see an amazing show in South Korea called De La Guarda. It just buzzed me out so much I got straight home, rang drama school and came home and did it.”