Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Breaking news: Ngaio Marsh doco-drama rescheduled

Earlier this week I mentioned the upcoming screening of Ngaio Marsh - Crime Queen on TVNZ this coming Sunday night. The doco-drama, part of TV ONE's Artsville series, stars respected actor Peter Elliott (Until Proven Innocent, Shortland Street, Gloss, etc) as Ngaio Marsh's most famous fictional creation, Inspector Roderick Alleyn - who comes to life to go in search of his creator.

Alleyn is teased by 'glimpses' of 'Ngaio' during his investigation as she walks down a London street, sits reflecting in a café or slips into a radio studio for a recording. 'Ngaio' is adept at luring her Detective on, only to evade and escape revelation. This is a cat and mouse game played by two professionals. Who is stalking who and why? Does Ngaio want to be discovered, to finally reveal who she is behind her masks?

Producer/director Aileen O'Sullivan says of making Ngaio marsh - Crime Queen, shot in New Zealand and England, and learning more about Marsh: "It is a documentary I have wanted to make for several years and found the figure we discovered even more complex, more extraordinary and more engaging than I'd originally suspected."

I was speaking to TVNZ this morning about the upcoming screening, and was informed that a decision was made last night to push the screening until later in the year, preferably with a more viewer-friendly time slot (it was scheduled to be shown at midnight on Sunday). So unfortunately we won't be able to what sounds like a fascinating programme this weekend, but the silver lining is that when it is shown, it is likely to be at a much better timeslot.

Comments welcome.

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