The first episode of Head Girl on TV3 seems to me full of everything good television should have on display: the anxious, just-this-side-of-glamourous anxiety of those Devon Street shots (all of Wellington always at night!); all the push-and-pull of recognition and unfamiliarity; exciting acting; something to say. Tatum Warren-Ngata I loved as Stella in Shortland Street, and it’s nice to wonder how she’ll develop her character here. I’ll be rationing the remaining episodes as there’s too much feeling there for a binge.
It got me thinking: has a poetry collection ever been adapted for TV in New Zealand before? 1974’s The Magpies was, in memory, one but, going back to NZ On Screen to watch it this morning, I see that I’ve completely (and quite inaccurately) rearranged it in my head, repressing the wreck Glover presents as well as the dreadful reading that opens the show.