Black Singlet The Winner On The Day?

MEDIA RELEASE 14 APRIL 2007
FRONTSEAT – TV ONE

Black Singlet The Winner On The Day?

Shortlist unveiled in Frontseat’s Search for New Zealand’s Greatest Fictional Character

One dog, four black singlet-wearing men, a champion swimmer, and a combative couple

After two months and more than 50 nominations from the general public and the arts industry, Frontseat host Oliver Driver has announced the finalists in the Search for New Zealand’s Greatest Fictional Character (8am Saturday 14th April, TV One’s arts show Frontseat).

“It’s an eclectic mix of classic Kiwi characters,” says Driver. “Predictably, the shortlist favours the rural, singlet-wearing Kiwi bloke/dog, but a teenaged girl swimming champ was the surprise inclusion, and it seems there’s never any escape from Jake the Muss and Beth Heke.”

BOGOR. Burton Silver’s classic comic-strip woodsman. The little guy and his pot-smoking hedgehog mates featured in the New Zealand Listener for a good couple of decades.

WAL. Murray Ball’s classic rural man. The farmer from Footrot Flats. Star of a comic strip, a hit movie, a hit movie soundtrack, and a stage musical.

ALEX. The feisty swimming champ created by acclaimed children’s writer Tessa Duder. The star of four novels from the mid-80s to the early 90s, her story was also made into a feature film starring Lauren Jackson.

BETH & JAKE HEKE. From Alan Duff’s novels Once Were Warriors and What Becomes of the Broken Hearted? Both books were also made into films The jury decided these two were inseparable as characters.

DOG. Another Footrot Flats character, the wonderfully popular working sheepdog lusts after Jess, hides his real name, and has been immortalised in soft-toy form.

FRED DAGG. John Clarke’s mid-70s creation, this classic Kiwi bloke spawned TV series, hit singles like “We don’t know how lucky we are”, and classic lines like “The views expressed on this programme… are bloody good ones.”

In summing up the shortlist, the jury said, "There's the sunny side of the black singlet, and the dark side of the black singlet, but obviously the black singlet is the winner on the day!"

THE WINNER WILL BE DECIDED BY PUBLIC VOTE. Voters should email letters@frontseat.co.nz. One vote per email address.

BACKGROUND
Each season, Frontseat has run a poll to gauge public opinion about an aspect of our culture.
The first poll sought out New Zealand’s Greatest Painting. The winner by a country mile was Rita Angus’ “Cass”.

The next poll looked for The Greatest Line of Dialogue in Kiwi Film. After a stunning shortlist of 6 (the jury couldn’t get it down to 5), the winner was “I’m a Derek, and Dereks don’t run” from Peter Jackson’s splatter flick “Bad Taste”.

The current poll, the Search for New Zealand’s Greatest Fictional Character, was chosen for its ability to cover almost every cultural genre in seeking out the lasting character (or inseparable duo, or family of characters) that best exemplifies the Kiwi spirit – light or dark.

The 2007 Frontseat Greatest NZ Fictional Character Jury:

Tom Scott – cartoonists, award-winning scriptwriter.
Carol Smith - actress on both stage and screen, specialising in comic roles.
Chris Bourke - writer and the producer of Kim Hill’s Saturday Morning show on Radio New Zealand National.
James Ashcroft - head of Taki Rua Productions, winner of the Chapman Tripp Theatre Award for most promising male newcomer.
Miranda Harcourt - actress, short film and stage director, with honours for her contribution to theatre and the community.
Loren Horsley – actress, star of feature films “Kombi Nation” and “Eagle Versus Shark”, which she created with Taika Waititi.
Rhonda Edwards – Frontseat’s production manager’s mum (and an actress too).

ends

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