With news that A Dog’s Show is being turned into a film, Tara Ward chooses five more NZ TV shows that would work on the big screen.
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Of all the local television shows I hoped would be revived in 2025, A Dog’s Show was not on my list. But it was recently announced that the beloved New Zealand classic series is being made into a movie, written and directed by Alex Galvin. Capturing the rural charm of 1970s New Zealand, the family-friendly flick will tell the story of disillusioned farmer Jack (played by Outlander’s Graham McTavish), who reluctantly decides to come out of retirement to win one last sheepdog trial and save his family farm.
The return of A Dog’s Show will tap into plenty of national nostalgia for the half-hour series, which screened on Sunday nights from 1977 to 1992. Hearing the jaunty soundtrack was always a sign that the weekend was nearly over, and the show itself was oddly captivating. It followed farmers as they competed to move sheep around a paddock, using only their trusty sheepdogs, a big stick and a piercing whistle. It was surprisingly tense and unpredictable television, and John Gordon narrated every episode with a crisp, sustained enthusiasm.
In fact, The Spinoff’s Jose Barbosa called A Dog’s Show the best show we’ve ever made. “Some would say the show’s premise is simple, even wafer thin. A farmer uses his dog to put some sheep in a pen. Yet within its apparently unyielding limits the show finds true drama,” Barbosa wrote in 2014. “It is perhaps the purest television example I can find of tension created by uncertainty in competition. Indeed, A Dog’s Show is unadulterated contest. It concerns itself with nothing but the game at hand.”
The circle of life continues: as we farewell our beloved Jaffas, we welcome back A Dog’s Show. But what other television classics should we dig up from the TV grave? Which homegrown shows still claim a big piece of our heart and should be resurrected onto the big screen? Here’s five we’d love to see again (with a few modern tweaks).
Play School: This beloved educational programme entertained pre-schoolers and sick kids home from school between 1972 and 1990. On the surface, Play School is an innocent children’s show where presenters wearing dungarees keep asking what the time is, but behind those square windows lies the potential for a dark, gritty drama that delves into the searing mystery surrounding Little Ted’s decapitated head.
Fair Go: Journalists at the long-running consumer affairs show endured a lot in their pursuit of justice, including abuse, threats and physical violence – and yet, most of us just wanted to find out how to open a jar. A film about Fair Go’s most intense and complex investigation would make for a gripping, action-packed thriller that takes us deep into New Zealand’s criminal underworld. Or, maybe we could just…resurrect Fair Go itself?
Telethon: The characters! The scandal! The Hollywood pashes! Our obsession with making international celebrities stay up for 24 hours while everyday New Zealanders donated the $13.42 that they fundraised in a bottle drive is ripe for a heartwarming romantic comedy, even if it’s just a shameless excuse for the whistling tummies to come out again.
It’s In the Bag: Whose bag is it? Who put it there, and what nightmares lie inside? Forget the charming TV show that saw small-town New Zealanders win a new washing machine, because a modern It’s In The Bag could be a gothic horror film about the unspoken terrors lurking within an isolated rural community. The money or the bag? That’s the least of your worries.
Melody Rules: It was our attempt at making an American-style sitcom, but ended up being panned as being one of the worst sitcoms of all time. Would love to see Melody rule again, perhaps in a Disaster Artist-type reawakening that reveals the inside story of the making of a flop cult classic. Belinda Todd, call me.
