Miriam Margolyes in New Zealand on ABC and ABC iview S1E1 – Acclaimed actor, and self-proclaimed nosy parker, Miriam Margolyes is on her first road trip adventure in New Zealand’s North Island. Starting in the capital Wellington, she’s determined to dig under the skin of what it means to be a ‘Kiwi’ today.
Miriam dives headfirst into her quest for the ‘soul of New Zealand’ and finds herself amongst 30,000 die-hard fans of the national sport, rugby: a game she ‘loathes’. Miriam’s road-trip adventure takes her to the Whanganui River, where in a world-first, the local Māori tribe – or ‘iwi’ – have succeeded in winning legal acknowledgement of the river’s ‘personhood’, in recognition of their spiritual and physical interdependence. She then heads to Hobbiton, confronting her longstanding antipathy of grown-ups living in a ‘fantasy world’.
Continuing her journey on to Auckland, Miriam steps inside her first refugee resettlement centre.
Then it’s off to the far north of the North Island, where New Zealand’s founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi, was signed between the Māori tribes and British colonisers.
For Miriam, the significance of this heritage is made clear when she visits a nearby high school in Panguru, where all the classes are conducted in the Māori language, and the ceremonial Māori dance, the ‘haka’, is a feature of morning assembly.
Her exploration comes full circle as she joins some of New Zealand’s most famous female sports stars, the Black Ferns, and rugby legend Ruby Tui at the team’s training camp in Taupo.
Production credit:
A Southern Pictures production for the ABC, in association with the BBC and Screen NSW. Executive Producer and Series Director: Ariel White. Story and Field Producer: Mary Durham. ABC Commissioning Editor: Julia Hanna. ABC Head of Documentaries and Specialist: Susie Jones.
Miriam Margolyes in New Zealand on ABC and ABC iview – Sunday 12 January at 7.30pm
TV Central ABC content HERE
Miriam Margolyes in New Zealand on ABC and ABC iview S1E1
