The host of David Lomas Investigates takes us through his life in TV, including the power of the Chesdale Cheese ad and his passion for 90s romantic comedies.

It’s hard to imagine these days, but David Lomas never actually wanted to be on television. “Oh, I had no ambition to have anything to do with it,” he laughs over Zoom. “I only joined television when the newspaper I was working for folded.” He was offered a job behind the scenes for the 6pm news and picked up a few on-camera stories, doing the same for Holmes when it debuted in 1989 – “not very many though, because I was very uncomfortable in front of the camera.”

Things changed in 2004 when Lomas was approached to host a documentary about Mr Asia after his extensive reporting on the drug smuggling syndicate. “I was a bit bemused by it all, but I said yes,” he says. “It was amazing because I traveled on my own to Australia and Singapore, found camera people over there, and voiced it all.” He rewatched it recently and realised another career-making detail within: the documentary begins with what would become his catchphrase: “I’m David Lomas”. 

Over two decades later, that iconic introduction can still be heard in the newest season of David Lomas Investigates. Continuing his quest to reunite families, heal decades-long hurt and unearth generational secrets, Lomas travels from Lithuania, to Greece, to Mexico and the Philippines. “Every story has emotion, heartbreak and mystery,” he says. “It’s just great to help people and see the change that happens to them with they finally get the answer they’ve been looking for.” 

The change is so palpable in the participants that the crew can’t shoot any pick-up scenes after the “reveal” has been captured. “We have to make sure we’ve got everything beforehand, because afterwards they always look different,” says Lomas. “You can put them back on the same street and in the same clothes as before, but their face has completely changed.” And even after so many years and countless transformations, he still feels “extremely fortunate” to have a role on our screens. 

“A while back, I was just having a coffee in a cafe, and a woman came and sat with me, and said ‘I’ve never told anyone this, but I gave up a child for adoption’,” he says. “She had never spoken about it for 50 years, but the programme helped her.” As the country gets the tissues ready for another season of moving television, we asked Lomas to take us through his life in TV, from hiring a set at university to watch the rugby, to his passion for romantic comedies, to the one case that sticks with him to this day.

My earliest TV memory is… When I was growing up we didn’t have a TV, and I had no interest in it. It was black and white, the shows weren’t that great, and we just spent our life outdoors, playing. The first time I lived in a house with television was when I was at flatting at varsity in 1972 and the flat made a decision to hire a TV from Dominion TV rentals, because the All Blacks were going to play during their England tour. On the night of the match we got up at 2am, turned the TV on, and it failed. We all jumped in and drove across town to another flat where they had a TV that was working. 

My earliest television crush is… The person I quite liked on television for a long while was Ena Sharples on Coronation Street. In my first years at varsity, a big group of us all used to watch Coronation Street together and Ena was just so fabulous. She was a biddy who wore a hair net and was a grumpy old thing. Her mates used to sit in what they call The Snug at the pub in Coronation Street, and they were the big gossips of the town. Fabulous character. 

The NZ TV ad I can’t stop thinking about is… It’s probably the Chesdale ad – “we are the boys from down on the farm, we really know our cheese.” It’s the funniest thing, because when I was in Toulouse in 1978 for the All Blacks tour, all the New Zealanders in the crowd were hopeless singers while the French were so marvellous. Somehow I managed to hook up with another bunch of Kiwis – about 10 of us in the same vicinity – and the only song we knew was “we are the boys from down on the farm, we really know our cheese” so we just sang that. 

My TV guilty pleasure is… I’ll watch a good British drama – things like Shetland, Sherlock, Elementary, Line of Duty. I like really good drama and not bang, bang shoot everyone stuff. But the thing I actually watch most on TV are rom coms. They are a bit like my own programme I suppose, in that they always have a happy ending. I’ve watched them all. I like Sleepless in Seattle with Meg Ryan, Notting Hill and Pretty Woman with Julia Roberts, those are just amazing. I’ll watch any good rom com – they are on at my place all the time. 

The one story from my career that sticks with me is… There was one we did in Rome which we dubbed The Runaway Priest. It was a guy, Filipo, whose family were from a Catholic Island in Tokelau, and he was was sent to join an order in Rome. When he got there he was abused and used for manual labor and treated like a secondary person. Filipo fled the priesthood and was too ashamed to come home, so he just disappeared in Rome.

For around 30 odd years, his family tried to find him with no luck, so we went in search of him. It was a story which took a few years to solve. When we finally found Filipo, we got him to come to this hotel just outside of Rome and do an interview in the courtyard. We then got his sister Malia to walk out. She did this stage whisper from behind – “Filipo?” – and his face just died of shock because he recognised her voice immediately. 

As a television story, that one was just super magic – a very, very tearful, very, very successful reunion. He’s come back to New Zealand and he’s a big part of the family now, so that’s great. 

My controversial TV opinion is… Looking at the state of current affairs television now, someone has to step in. The government has to start taking it seriously. The demise of Sunday, which was a programme that I helped start, was just disgraceful. Trump is actively isolating the news media in the States, but here we’re almost doing it by default by not supporting it. It’s our visual history too – who’s left capturing these big events and stories in an in-depth way? It should be set in stone that we have decent current affairs programmes, which work hard and challenge the government. 

The last thing I watched on TV was… That’s easy – it was a rugby game on the weekend. 

Watch new episodes of David Lomas Investigates on ThreeNow every Tuesday