‘One drink settles the nerves’
Hilary Barry prepares for scrutiny at 7pm
A marriage, a well-paced cricket match, learning to park a new car in front of 300,000 people: Hilary Barry and Jeremy Wells can’t quite define their roles on the new-look Seven Sharp. What they do agree on is the level of scrutiny they will be under.
The pair were confirmed as the new hosts of the TVNZ1 show on Wednesday, and will appear on air together for the first time tomorrow.
‘‘You do feel a lot of pressure for night one,’’ Barry says. ‘‘It’s like, ‘Here they are, let’s judge them’. But [in reality] it’s half an hour of what will be dozens and dozens of shows.’’
Proving humour will feature heavily in their presenting style, Barry and her co-host have a plan of attack to ensure they enjoy themselves.
‘‘Sometimes, just one drink settles the nerves – and puts the rest of the crew on edge,’’ Barry says.
Wells agrees: ‘‘Maybe like Hudson and Halls, just a bottle of red under the table and sip away. A lot of the audience will be settling down with a drink or their tea, so you’re just setting the mood’’.
When asked what viewers will get tomorrow night, Wells reels off a list of Kiwi television shows, stretching back more than 40 years, that he’s studied closely – ‘‘so our show will be a melange’’. He is, of course, fibbing. Barry says that’s exactly the point of putting the two of them together.
‘‘I think it’s really important that Jeremy is himself,’’ she says.
‘‘He is a very funny man, who is here to be Jeremy Wells. We need to give him space to do that.
‘‘We are not filling anyone else’s shoes, we’re just going to be there and be us and develop as a team and get to know one another as we go on.’’
Regardless, there’s no denying the fact the man widely regarded as the best Mike Hosking impersonator is now doing the job that once provided so much comedy fodder - and he admits that’s ‘‘pretty weird’’.
Wells will continue the tradition of balancing early morning radio – he co-hosts the Radio Hauraki breakfast show – with the highrating current affairs show. But Barry has stepped away from early mornings on radio and TV.
Leaving Breakfast, where she started in September 2017 alongside Jack Tame, was difficult.
‘‘It wasn’t an easy decision to leave them, and I did talk a lot with Jack about it before I made the decision,’’ she says.
The move was partly because it was an obvious fit for the company to move her to 7pm and find a replacement for Breakfast, but also because the role was too big to turn down.
‘‘To be the co-host of what has always been the news and current affairs slot is a huge thrill and a really big honour.
‘‘They put a lot of faith in you to not muck it up.’’
Wells feels the same, saying he dreamed of this job as a child.
‘‘I never would have thought it would have ever happened though. I watched Holmes and the news every night, and I always wanted to be on television as a kid.
‘‘But I’m going to be learning as I go, learning on the job.
‘‘Fear and excitement are the same thing.’’