Veteran television reviewer Diana Wichtel advocated for the retention of a New Zealand public broadcaster in central Christchurch today. Diana spoke about her memoir Unreel: A Memoir and her career as a television reviewer in conversation with fellow journalist Steve Braunias at The Piano as part of the WORD Christchurch Festival 2025.
Television was still relevant because it reflected our community and what it held dear, she said. Streaming services had not removed this relevancy even though the media industry was in a period of "transition" and "upheaval". With streaming services offering so many more shows, she suggested she needed a living-room spreadsheet to keep up with what she and her family were watching.
Families were still congregating during major disasters and other crises around the television and so there was still a strong case for retaining a public broadcaster:
"It's not a matter of money, it's a matter of priorities."
Television presented a snapshot of a society's imagination even if many shows were "crap". The "10 per cent" worth having was often as good if not better than content that could be found at the movie theatres and other sources.
"At the moment they are trying to remove imagination from the education system and that's a mistake" but imagination is still there on the box because television captures the "extraordinary and ludicrous moments which life is made up of".
Reviewing and reporting about television since 1984 had given her opportunities to write about everything "because everything is on TV". If she had been a regular reporter, many topics such as wars would have been off limits.
She felt at the heart of journalism was a betrayal because interview subjects might be initially flattered before being confronted by tough questions later in the interview. However, she was heartened by recent broadcast journalism including the coverage of the Christchurch mosque attacks where young journalists had met traumatic situations with grace and sensitivity.
"I've been moved to tears by some of the young reporters .... there is some wonderful work being done."
This was in contrast to some previous television personalities including Paul Holmes, Paul Henry, Bill Ralston and Mike Hosking who she suspected were encouraged to be belligerent by their employers.
"The persona required them to be obnoxious, to not apply thought to anything. Perhaps it was the Pakeha pioneering culture where we can't afford to look back too much. You just have to get the job done."
Diana also detected differences between North American sitcoms and Kiwi drama. The American offerings featured smiling families in a big, bright house with a servant which contrasted with a greyer setting in New Zealand with a serving of cynical dialogue that provided a dash of social criticism.
She has received a lot of fan and hate mail over the years and sometimes TV viewers believed she had the ability to control what was on the box. Some had expressed their dismay at the rescheduling of classic programmes such as Coronation Street with the expectation that she could order the shows return to their former slots; sadly this was not the case.
Ultimately television is an "intimate medium". It's a "ludicrous, wonderful business. It's got everything".
Wichtel joined the New Zealand Listener in 1984 and received acclaim and criticism over a 36-year career as a television critic, profile writer and feature writer. Her family memoir, Driving to Treblinka, won the Royal Society Te Apārangi Award for General Non-fiction at the 2018 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.
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Christchurch City Libraries' cardholders can access hard copies of The Listener at the library or electronically via the PressReader and OverDrive platforms. There are also copies of The Listener Bedside Book; note several editions are reference only.
- Quick questions with Diana Wichtel – WORD Christchurch Festival 2025
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