The journalist, television presenter and documentary maker shares his life in television, including a mesmerising mullet, an enduring crush, and a whole lot of lycra.
When asked what he wishes people knew about the news, Patrick Gower’s answer is simple. “It’s just the fuckin’ news,” he replies. “That’s all you need to know.” Gower has delivered the fuckin’ news for the last 25 years, and is best know as Newshub at 6pm’s political editor and through his popular Patrick Gower: On… documentary series, which investigates controversial issues from meth to booze to the royal family. He was also a regular feature on The Project NZ and AM and presented Patrick Gower Has Issues, a weekly current affairs show.
Now Gower’s about to give us the fuckin’ news on climate change, with his new two-part documentary series about the impact of global warming on Antarctica. Rather than being the Disney on Ice tribute show of our dreams, Patrick Gower: On Ice sees Gower travel south to discover the consequences of climate change first hand. Having not previously understood the global impact of Antarctica’s alarming ice melt, Gower admits that what he saw “scared the shit out of me”.
Gower hopes the documentary will show how the climate crisis has “awoken the beast that is Antarctica”, but points out that On Ice isn’t all doom and gloom. He also meets the New Zealand scientists at Scott Base fighting climate change (“I had to go camping and that was not fun, it got down to -35C”), and was impressed by their “incredible” work under such challenging conditions. “I really want New Zealanders to be as proud of our scientists down on the ice as we are of All Blacks or TV stars or Instagram influencers.”
Gower admits that his many years in journalism have given him a “high threshold for gloom and despair”, but found making On Ice to be a life-changing experience. “Without question, it’s the most important piece of work that I’ve done,” he says. Clearly, the second most important piece of work was answering these My Life in TV questions, where Gower revealed a secret love of fluoro sportswear and a TV crush that he just can’t quit.
My earliest TV memory is… Watching RTR Countdown with my parents and my sister. I vividly remember my favourite video was the song ‘Electric Blue’ by Icehouse, where the lead singer had the most incredible mullet. I can’t remember too much about the video, except someone with a glorious mullet singing and someone with a glorious mullet playing an electric guitar while walking along the roof of a skyscraper.
The TV show I used to rush home from school to watch was… Well, this is a little bit embarrassing. I used to rush home in my teenage years to watch a show called Paradise Beach. One of the main characters was called Kirk Barsby, and he wore the most amazing fluoro running shorts that I always wanted a pair of.
My earliest TV crush was… John Campbell, in terms of someone that I would look at and go, “hey, it’d be cool to do what he does”. To work in the same building as him one day was pretty amazing. Can you have a 25 year old crush? I had a crush on him long before I ever thought that I would go on TV, and I still have a crush on him.
The TV moment that haunts me is… Don Brash calling me “a deceitful bastard”. I just want to say to him that, yes, I may have been a bastard, but I wasn’t deceitful. It’s the deceitful part that haunts me. As far as I’m concerned, I was an upfront bastard. Hopefully one day Don and I can resolve that.
The TV ad I can’t stop thinking about is… The Toyota bugger ad. How did they make the dog talk? How did they do that? Because it’s a real dog, right? But how did they make it say “bugger”? [Editor’s note: here’s some fuckin’ news on the Bugger ad we prepared earlier]
The most stylish people on television are… The Sky Sport football pundits in the UK. Any person interested in fashion should look at what Roy Keane is wearing, or Jamie Carragher, Micah Richards and Gary Neville. They are the best dressed men on TV globally. Kirk Barsby’s shorts come a very, very close second.
My favourite TV project that I’ve ever been involved with is… The leaders’ debates. I’ve done three of them, and they feel like an Everest moment. They’re live, there’s incredible pressure, they’re really important for democracy and they are just a fucking shitload of fun. It’s a big team effort, and as the presenter, you’re at the end of just a whole heap of people making it happen for you. The adrenaline rush of them is insane. Personally, I cannot sleep properly for days afterwards.
My most watched TV show of all time is… Technically, it will be the fuckin’ news, but in terms of a TV show, it’s The Sopranos. Just the other day, I was like, shit, I haven’t watched The Sopranos for a couple of years, might have to start doing that at night time. I just love the human weakness and fragility.
The TV show I wish I was involved with is… I would walk over a broken glass to work on Unchained: Tour de France. In fact, I’ve kind of been stalking people on LinkedIn, trying to connect with the company that makes Unchained. I think with my background in documentaries and my passion for cycling, that I could actually be relatively useful to the Unchained guys, if they happen to be reading The Spinoff this particular weekend.
My controversial TV opinion is… Linear TV is not dead. It’s going to go on for quite a while yet. I used to work in newspapers and I remember once thinking they were dead, and then I read one on Sunday.
The show I’ll never watch, no matter how many people tell me to, is… Bridgerton. What’s going on there? What’s the real reason that people watch Bridgerton? That’s what I want to know.
The last thing I watched on TV was… It involved a lot of skinny legs and a lot of lycra, and it was the Tour de France.
Patrick Gower: On Ice screens on Monday 12 August and Tuesday 13 August at 7pm on Three and streams on ThreeNow.
