Your comments on TV and radio
50 YEARS AND MISCOUNTING
TVNZ has been trumpeting the 50th anniversary of our television news. That implies the TV news began in late 1969. In fact, it was 1961.
It was not today’s hightech show, but a nightly programme produced by pioneers using the technical equivalent of No 8 wire: film dye and innovative ideas. The newsmen and women of those earliest years deserve better than TVNZ’s dismissal.
We covered such events as visits by US President Lyndon Johnson and the Queen and Prince Philip; the Kaimai Tunnel disaster in which four miners died; the Beatles’ tour; abolition of the death penalty; the heresy trial of Lloyd Geering; the start of Māori Queen Dame Te Atairangikaahu’s reign; the introduction of decimal currency; and the Wahine disaster.
And what of Bill Toft, Philip Sherry, Bill McCarthy, Brian Hudson and me, who read the news? Was it all just a dream, or as Donald Trump might put it, fake news? John Shrapnell (Wadestown, Wellington)
CONCERTED EFFORT
On the morning of November 28, in anticipation of some enjoyable listening, I turned on RNZ Concert as usual. I was greeted by jangly, clanging sounds after an announcement that we’d be hearing American music all morning because it was
Thanksgiving in the US.
A treat? No, an insult. I object to being asked to celebrate America’s colonial history, with its attendant land-grabbing and the genocide and exploitation of the indigenous people. There is nothing to give thanks for here.
These issues are also raw and present for us in Aotearoa. I would welcome a morning of Māori music to commemorate an event of significance and mana to Māori. Come on, RNZ, get up to date and conscious. Juliet Batten (Herne Bay, Auckland)
CROWNING VAINGLORY
Prince Andrew’s stupidity is not going to jeopardise the British monarchy ( TV Review, November 30). In comparison with the behaviour of some of Queen Victoria’s uncles, children and grandchildren, Andrew’s antics are tame. Once second in line to the throne, he is now a relatively unimportant royal.
As for The Crown, truth is always stranger and more interesting than fiction. Entertaining, maybe, but it’s a load of rubbish. Helen Carver (Dannevirke)
WIBBLE, WOBBLE
What have I learnt from series 6 of The Brokenwood Mysteries? How to wibble coffee. Thank you, Mrs Marlowe! Pam Tarulevicz (Ponsonby, Auckland)