Fans of popular series to get their closure after cliff-hanger
THE TISSUES will be needed tonight as Nothing Trivial fans prepare to farewell the Kiwi comedy-drama.
The curtain will come down on the popular show in an emotional telemovie, which actor Shane Cortese (who plays Mac Delaney) says will feature situations that the show’s fans ‘‘deal with in New Zealand on an everyday basis . . children, grief, pain and happiness’’.
The two-hour special will be screened eight months after TVNZ announced Nothing Trivial would not return for a fourth series; a decision which left its core
. audience of 258,000 fuming after the cliff-hanger end to series three.
In the finale, Catherine Duvall (Tandi Wright) was struck by a vehicle and possibly left for dead.
Cortese, whose character is besotted with Catherine, said tonight’s extended-length farewell would be as emotional for him as it is for the most ardent of Nothing Trivial fans.
‘‘I will miss the show. I will miss the part and I will miss going to work every day with these guys,’’ Cortese said.
Co-stars Wright, Debbie NewbyWard, Nicole Whippy and Blair Strang became good friends.
‘‘We would spend 13 or 14 hours a day on set, sometimes two or
I will miss going to work every day with these guys.
three days a week, in the Beagle Pub alone . . . and we would all want to go out and have a drink with each other after the day’s shooting.’’
Cortese is familiar to Kiwi TV viewers through his appearances in Shortland Street, The Almighty Johnsons and Outrageous Fortune.
Speaking on the eve of the finale, he said Mac Delaney had been the most enjoyable, and lifelike, character he’d played. ‘‘He was pretty cool,’’ he said. ‘‘I loved his [personality]. He is the one closest to me as a person . . . he is just a dad with a bit of a heart and some love and that made him reasonably difficult to play.’’
Last November, when it announced Nothing Trivial wouldn’t be returning for a fourth series, TVNZ said ratings for the show had dropped significantly during its three-year run. The average audience last year was 258,000 per show, compared to 412,000 for series two in 2012.
Cast members and the show’s fan base protested, saying the audience was still big enough to warrant a fourth series.
In March, NZ On Air announced it would provide $1.6 million to fund the two-hour telemovie to wrap up the show.
Cortese said he was incredibly proud, and thankful, for the thousands of viewers who had lobbied online for a reprieve.
‘‘That is a really heart-warming thing for any actor,’’ he said.
‘‘You are making television for people to watch and quite obviously people liked that show . . . I am really glad that we get to finish a show that we loved in a way we think is satisfying.’’
On TV
The finale, TV One, tonight, at 8.30pm