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Late Night Big Breakfast host Leigh Hart with co-host Jason Hoyte (centre) and recurring guest Jeremy Wells
Late Night Big Breakfast host Leigh Hart with co-host Jason Hoyte (centre) and recurring guest Jeremy Wells

Pop CultureOctober 23, 2019

Huge and true: Late Night Big Breakfast is returning to TVNZ

Late Night Big Breakfast host Leigh Hart with co-host Jason Hoyte (centre) and recurring guest Jeremy Wells
Late Night Big Breakfast host Leigh Hart with co-host Jason Hoyte (centre) and recurring guest Jeremy Wells

Alex Casey talks to Leigh Hart about the return of Late Night Big Breakfast, the finest morning TV parody show New Zealand has ever made. 

Late Night Big Breakfast is set to return to TVNZ in 2020 after a five year hiatus, creator and comedian Leigh Hart has confirmed. Filmed in a fully-operational Target furniture store, the surreal parody show was last seen on broadcast television in 2014, when it aired at 10.20pm on TV1.

Many audiences members were confused, taking to Facebook to call it a “crap” and “garbage.” 

The Spinoff called it the television show of the year

“As bizarre as it has been – and it’s probably the strangest thing to appear in primetime on mainstream New Zealand TV since Back of the Y – it never strays too far from its source material,” wrote Duncan Greive in an obituary for the show. “It’s the best New Zealand TV show of the year, dense and strange and violently unpredictable. So, naturally, it hasn’t been renewed for a second season.” 

Hart, who you will know as ‘That Guy’, the Hellers sausage guy, the Bhuja guy, or the Moon TV guy, says that now is the right time for Late Night Big Breakfast to return. Not because of the increasing madness of the world, or the chaotic state of television, or because everything is as stupid as the Sandwich Buddy – but just because he feels like it.

“This sort of show is unique and it’s not the sort of thing you can do week in week out,” says Hart, “it’s got to come at the right time.” 

He and longtime comedy collaborator Jason Hoyte have been plotting their return to television since Screaming Reels in 2017, he says, but had their plans waylaid by their daily drive show Bhuja on Radio Hauraki. Hoyte left the show earlier this year, leaving fans concerned that the duo had gone their separate ways. 

“When you’re in radio, you become quite complacent,” says Hart. “You feel so busy and you are doing a lot of things everyday, but then a couple of years pass and you realise you never made that TV show you were meaning to do.”

The Spinoff understands that filming on Late Night Big Breakfast begins at the start of November, with the show set to air in 2020 on TVNZ DUKE and in a late slot on TVNZ 2. 

Jason Hoyte interviews a woman and her cat. Photo: Youtube

But wait, there’s more. Hart is also preparing to launch Moonflix, a free online streaming platform that will contain his rich back catalogue of comedy content from over the last 15 years. “It will have all of Moon TV, behind the scenes stuff, anything we want,” he says. “People are always asking for old stuff and you can only send out so many DVDs.” 

It’s a decision that speaks to the business savvy which has informed much of Hart’s career. When TVNZ didn’t renew LNBB in 2015, for example, he took it to NZME’s online platform WatchMe instead.

“All our shows we’ve made in the past few years have been sponsored by the commercial market, and if it doesn’t make it to TV then you can always stick it online,” he says. 

“I’ve always had that attitude – you just gotta be practical. If you can’t get the money from TVNZ or Three, then go out and get it yourself. Because, if your stuff is good enough to find an audience, then it’s good enough for a sponsor to benefit from.”

But with increasingly fragmented audiences, is Hart worried that his niche comedy won’t find the right people? “It’s exactly the same as when we first made Moon TV – people don’t get it… and then they really get it, says Hart. “You’ve got to just stick at it and let them come to you, rather than trying to pander and water it down.”

Local audiences are also diversifying and becoming more sophisticated in their comedy tastes, says Hart, largely thanks to services like Netflix and YouTube. “Half the stuff you see now in comedy probably wouldn’t have even worked ten or even five years ago, but audiences are now so much wiser and more familiar with different genres and styles.” 

Rest assured, Late Night Big Breakfast will stay true to form in 2020. Although Jeremy Wells’ involvement has not been confirmed, Hart will be returning to the Target shop floor alongside Jason Hoyte, with the promise of more coverage out in the field. “We’ve got an eco-lodge up north where I am quite keen to teach Kiwis how to live better. Might do some hunting.

“It’s like a cake really,” says Hart, describing what doesn’t really sound like a cake, “you chuck in stuff as you go and then realise there’s too much of this and not enough of that.”

Leigh Hart and Joe Bennett talk books

Hart also promises some familiar faces returning to the soft furnishings department. Mathai Johnson from early LNBB segments on Moon TV will be back for a cameo or two, as will Neil Finn, Joe Bennett and, he hopes, prime minister Jacinda Ardern. But she’s not even the top billing in Hart’s mind. 

“For me, I’m most excited about Mike the Mongolian Throat Singer – someone like him can really cut through. No disrespect to Neil Finn or Jacinda.” 

Regardless of who swings by the furniture store, Hart maintains that he and his co-hosts will remain the butt of the joke. “You won’t know what to expect from moment to moment, but the joke will always be on us as the hosts of an incompetent TV show that takes itself very seriously. It’s really just about having fun again, putting the fun back into television.

“It’s not rocket science, it’s just a TV show hosted from a furniture store.”

Keep going!
Olivia Colman plays Queen Elizabeth in season three of The Crown, dropping on Netflix in November.
Olivia Colman plays Queen Elizabeth in season three of The Crown, dropping on Netflix in November.

Pop CultureOctober 22, 2019

The trailer for season three of The Crown is here and so is Queen Olivia Colman

Olivia Colman plays Queen Elizabeth in season three of The Crown, dropping on Netflix in November.
Olivia Colman plays Queen Elizabeth in season three of The Crown, dropping on Netflix in November.

Informed via telegram that Netflix has released a full trailer for the new season of The Crown, Tara Ward puts on her best pillbox hat and white gloves to find out what round three will bring. 

The good Lorde told us we’ll never be royals, so the first full trailer for the new season of The Crown is the closest we’re ever going to get. Before season three of the acclaimed Peter Morgan drama drops on November 17, Netflix have released a sneaky wee teaser about what lies ahead for the Windsors during the tumultuous 1960s and ’70s. Best of all, it gives us a proper look at the new cast, including the always amazing Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II,  Tobias Menzies as Prince Phillip and Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLXYfgpqb8A&feature=youtu.be

The times they are a changing, and the Windsors are having a stink time of it. It must be awful having all those riches and jewels and big pillows, while trying to keep your subjects happy so they don’t take back all their riches and jewels and big pillows. Elizabeth has a lot on her royal plate, including a grumpy sister, a lovesick son and a husband who’s started wearing tracksuits in public.

No wonder the Queen looks shocked. A tracksuit on a Duke? A trackduke! Off with his head.

The Crown is a rich and sumptuous drama, so my apologies to the entire Commonwealth for pulling this trailer apart with all the class of pair of Phillip’s sweatpants. What can I say? I was raised on a steady diet of my Nan’s NZ Women’s Weekly’s, and this is the stuff they drill in to you: soak the Royal Family up like a sponge, there are 400 different ways to make Rice Bubble Slice, and you can take your wardrobe from day to night in five easy steps. Times change, duty endures, and a small black handbag never goes out of style.

Here’s what we know about the new season of The Crown.

Elizabeth’s been on the throne for 25 years, but it’s all turned to shit

The Queen is surviving, not thriving. “This country was still great when I came to the throne,” Elizabeth says, “and all that’s happened on my watch is the place has fallen apart.” Sure, dealing with miners’ strikes and political upheaval and public unrest must be stressful, but maybe the Queen should save her freak-out for 1992 when three of her children get divorces and her favourite castle burns down.

The costumes are spectacular

My fave is the Queen’s marshmallow tree hat. Lock that gem up in the Tower, it’s a national bloody treasure.

Everyone is miserable

Despite the Windsors enjoying a busy schedule of fancy parties where you use seven different types of forks and you’re only allowed to talk to the person on your left, everyone looks miserable. Why is that? I love using more than one fork.

Prince Philip takes up jogging

Forking hell.

Princess Margaret is pissed off at her sister, again

Where else but The Crown will you find Helena Bonham Carter wearing a tiara in the bath? Tensions grow between the two princesses, as Margaret’s marriage to Lord Snowdon collapses and she continues to play second fiddle to her sister. “Frustrations and resentments can build up from a life as a support act,” Margaret says, but in the words of her Queen: “It is not a choice, it is a duty, and always start with the third fork from the left.”

The carpets/corgis are out of this world

Snazzy.

Look, it’s Camilla Parker Bowles smoking in the bath

There are not one, but two bathtub scenes in this trailer, which proves that even the noble classes love a long hot soak in their own filth. Season three shows the blossoming love affair between Charles and Camilla, and it’s old mate Wallis Simpson who pops up to warn Charles not to trust his family.  Fair enough, but could Wallis whip up a killer Rice Bubble Slice in ten easy minutes? Jury’s still out.

Everyone’s determined to keep calm and carry on

“It’s only fallen apart if we say it has. That’s the thing about the monarchy: We paper over the cracks.” Can’t see any problems with that approach, God Save the Queen on November 17 and forevermore.

But wait there's more!