Source: Radio New Zealand
Taking the gravel road less travelled is one of the great joys of New Zealand’s longest running TV show, Country Calendar.
The iconic show, which has arguably the country’s most recognisable theme tune, celebrates its 60th birthday this weekend.
Host and director Dan Henry says Country Calendar has covered just about every corner of the country in that time “and some properties we’ve been to two or three times”.
“I really enjoy those stories where you get to go somewhere that you would got no business driving up, or to a part of the country that’s just a little bit inaccessible.”
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Listen to the full interview with Dan Henry on Culture 101
Country Calendar started as a news show for farmers – airing for the first time on 6 March, 1966.
The show has evolved over the years, covering farming, fishing and forestry as well as high country musters, organic brewing and tobacco farming.
“It was pretty dry in those early days,” Henry says.
“It was studio based and they would throw to film items with a reporter standing in the field and kind of telling you how things were while the farming happened out here in the paddock behind.”
Julian O’ Brien and Renaud Maire.
TVNZ
Since then, the programme’s audience has grown to capture not only rural New Zealand, but city slickers who see it as a source of aspiration.
“For someone who has a nine to five job in the city, and maybe feeling the drudge a little bit, to be able to watch our show on a Sunday night and see an exit strategy for their town job and say, ‘actually, that’s something we could grab hold of. We could go and buy a block in the country and raise chooks for eggs.’”
Country Calendar producer Dan Henry.
TVNZ
While the programme may have evolved over the last six decades, one constant is its theme song, ‘Hillbilly Child’.
“It’s like Pavlov’s dog. You hear that track and you’re just taken into Sunday night, seven o’clock, breathe out, it’s all good, it’s Country Calendar .”
At one stage production did consider “giving it a zhuzh up” but then “we gave ourselves an uppercut,” Henry says, because the classic tune is so tightly woven with our memories of Country Calendar .
Henry took the reins from “Mr Country Calendar” Frank Torley as voice of the series in 2014. Torley’s were big shoes to fill, he tells RNZ’s Culture 101 .
Burgundy the farm dog with Glenn Fitzgerald and Rocky Hudson.
TVNZ
Frank_Torley on Country Calendar in 1975.
TVNZ
“But Frank was terrific about it and his own voice was ailing, he was getting on a bit and finding it harder, so we auditioned a few people and I got the job.
“… I’ve got an email pinned to my wall from Frank which he sent me the night after the first programme went to air and he said: ‘subject line, dulcet tones, and he says; ‘Watched the show last night, Dan, and voiceover seamless. Who was that old bastard who used to do it?’”
Cameraman Mike O Connor and director Tony Rimmer get towed by a friendly farmer, 1970.
TVNZ
Neroli Prouting and dogs at Arrowsmith Station, 1993.
TVNZ
Country Calendar producer Dan Henry.
TVNZ
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
