Philip Polkinghorne speaking in the documentary Polk: The Trial of Philip Polkinghorne. Polkinghorne was last year found not guilty of murdering his wife Pauline Hanna. Photo / screenshot
TV documentary producers hit back at Philip Polkinghorne’s claims of “tabloid clickbait”, while the reporter who snared an exclusive interview says that he asked that his name not be in the credits, after he came off the project.
A journalist who secured an exclusive TV interview with retired Remuera eye doctor and former murder accused Philip Polkinghorne says he asked that his name not be included in the credits of a new documentary, after he was told he was no longer required on the project.
And the journalist has revealed more details about Polkinghorne agreeing to appear on camera initially before pulling out of any further interviews.
The producers of the new part-taxpayer-funded TV documentary Polk: The Trial of Philip Polkinghorne – a three-part TV3 documentary focusing on Polkinghorne and the death of his wife Pauline Hanna at their Remuera home in April 2021 – have rejected assertions from Polkinghorne that it is “tabloid clickbait”.
Polkinghorne, who appears in a rare interview, has hit out at the makers, claiming he had been deceived into agreeing to appear. The journalist and the producers have rejected this.
Polkinghorne has released a series of WhatsApp messages that the journalist sent him before and after an interview – they offer a sympathetic line to his predicament.
“While I was charged and awaiting trial, I was approached by a journalist by the name of Chris Cooke and an investigator, Julia Hartley Moore,” Polkinghorne said in a statement, provided to the NZ Herald by his lawyer Ron Mansfield, KC.
“They told me what I wanted and needed to hear at that time – understanding and assistance to prove my innocence.
“They said they would be able to help, and without any advice, I trusted them both and what they said to me.
“While many are seeking to promote themselves off the back of my and Pauline’s misery, you will immediately see their obvious deceit of me and now the New Zealand public. They will claim anything if they think there is a story and self-promotion in it.”
Polkinghorne said no one watching the documentary, which started screening on Three on Sunday, “will view a balanced or fair portrayal of events”.
“It is just, as some have already recognised, tabloid clickbait.”
But the producers say the documentary is balanced and they are “fully satisfied” that the interview was obtained ethically.
In his own statement on Monday, Cooke, a former TVNZ Sunday producer who is now freelancing, gave details of how he came to be employed as a contractor by Hartley Moore in 2022.
“I was employed by Ms Moore – her company Blonde Ambition Films Ltd – to approach Mr Polkinghorne for an interview for a documentary that would be broadcast after the case was over.
“I approached Philip Polkinghorne and explained this to him, and he consented. There was nothing deceitful about my approach to him.”
He said Polkinghorne had “wanted to tell his story” and the interview was filmed over two days at his house in October 2022.
“In December 2022, he said he wanted to pause any further involvement in the documentary until the trial was over.
“This was after he had seen through police discovery that they had been in contact with Julia Hartley Moore as part of their investigation seeking information about Pauline Hanna contacting a private investigator.”
The documentary features a segment in which Hartley Moore says she believes an anonymous woman who called her for help as a private investigator was Pauline Hanna.
Polkinghorne has said there is no proof that the caller is his wife.
Cooke said he had related to Polkinghorne in a WhatsApp message how he understood Hartley Moore’s contact with police came about.
Cooke said Hartley Moore soon afterwards engaged Mark McNeill from Razor Films to work on the production and he was informed that he was “no longer required and would not be employed in the ongoing making of the documentary”.
Cooke understood McNeill had made the call that he was no longer needed. He was not given a reason.
“I informed Philip Polkinghorne of this. Julia Hartley Moore said Mark McNeill would be in touch with Mr Polkinghorne to seek to continue the filming with him.
“I have had nothing to do with the ongoing production and final editorial content of their documentary. Given this, I asked that I not be named in the credits. I had no idea it was about to be broadcast until I saw a promo for it appear.
“I’ve worked for three decades in television current affairs and have a very good reputation regarding how I deal with people. I have never had a complaint lodged against me with the BSA.”
Polkinghorne, who was found not guilty last year of the murder of his wife, said he found the lengths that some people had gone to “reprehensible”.
“I appreciate that the ‘not guilty’ verdict was never going to be accepted by a small group of Pauline’s family and friends as they just couldn’t, given their own personal feelings of regret for not seeing how vulnerable we all now know her to have been, despite outward appearances,” he said in his statement.
“Some also only ever had a financial self-gain in mind. But I didn’t expect others would seek to undermine the jury’s verdict, given they in fact know very little of Pauline’s, or our, private lives but for the portrayal of it by the motivated Crown at the trial.
“I consider the lengths some will go to out of self-interest to be reprehensible. So much for being innocent till proven guilty and for that actually meaning something when you establish your innocence, as I was able to do at trial, and at great personal and financial cost to me and my family.”
He included alongside his statement a WhatsApp message from Cooke in September 2022 in which the journalist thanks Polkinghorne for an initial meeting with him and Hartley Moore.
“She is a very good investigator and has access to a wide team of experts. I’ve used them to critique evidence before. Ron [Mansfield] will have access to his experts as well. Julia is a great support and I wanted to hear her feedback.
“She shares my view that what the police claim just doesn’t add up. And on a human level, she could see as I did the love you had for Pauline.”
But Hartley Moore told the documentary she had no doubt that Hanna was a victim of coercive control. She has been approached for comment.
Documentary co-producer Polly Fryer rejected the assertion that the documentary was “tabloid clickbait”.
“That was his life, we’re only telling his life as he tells us and those in his life, including [sex worker] Madison Ashton, tell it,” Fryer told Newstalk ZB’s Andrew Dickens on Monday morning.
“I don’t think it’s clickbait for that, I think it’s probably portraying a side of life that maybe we don’t see that often and as Philip himself says, he’s not on trial for morality issues and we’re not trialling for morality issues either.
“We’re merely saying what his life was like and what Pauline’s life was like in the time leading up to her passing.”
Fryer said the documentary was a chance to hear from two key people who did not testify at the trial – Polkinghorne and Ashton.
“We’re obviously not there to prove his guilt or his innocence, so we have the ability to be able to show things in much more detail and much more commentary from more of the players and give more detail to a lot of elements of the case.”
Fryer said that she and her co-executive producer, McNeill, had not been involved in the project when the interview was conducted.
“Chris Cooke has not been involved in the documentary since the interview was held, and Julia is an executive producer on the series.”
She said it was clear in Cooke’s WhatsApp messages that “We agreed to not air the documentary until after the trial, so we were never going to be any part of a judicial process that was questioning his guilt or not”.
Polkinghorne, in the documentary, raises the prospect that the Covid vaccine may have contributed to Hanna’s state of mind.
“I think it’s clear to say that neither the defence nor the prosecution mentioned or used the Covid vaccine theory during the court case, so we can’t comment any further on it,” said Fryer.
Fryer believed the documentary to be balanced. “There’s a lot of Philip Polkinghorne in there himself talking to us and commenting on the situation.
“We did ask Ron Mansfield to participate and Dr Polkinghorne again after the initial interview, but both declined, as did dozens of other acquaintances and former colleagues of Polkinghorne’s.”
She did not believe producers were trying to relitigate the death.
“What we’re trying to do is give more detail on a fascinating subject and a case that has captured the nation and probably very interesting to others abroad as well.”
A statement from the producers on Monday afternoon backed up Fryer’s earlier comments.
“The programme producers are fully satisfied that the interview with Philip Polkinghorne was obtained ethically,” said a spokeswoman.
“Dr Polkinghorne knew the interview was going to be used in a documentary and his only stipulation was for it to not be aired prior to the court case finishing. It was important to both Philip Polkinghorne and to the documentary makers that the programme and its contents was never going to be any part of a judicial process.”
Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), the owner of Three, told Media Insider that questions were best directed to the producers.
“The docuseries Polk: The Trial of Philip Polkinghorne features interviews from a number of people connected to this case,” said a spokeswoman.
“Philip Polkinghorne and his defence counsel were invited to provide additional commentary following the trial, but declined. We are satisfied this series represents a range of viewpoints and is balanced.”
As Media Insider revealed last year, the documentary secured $228,000 in NZ on Air funding, in light of other financial support for the series, including likely hundreds of thousands of dollars of additional public funding support through a screen production rebate.
“This is a very compelling story, which would no doubt be popular, both in Aotearoa New Zealand and overseas,” said an internal NZ on Air report. “It may well also receive news media attention, which could attract an even greater audience to the documentary.”
The documentary has also been sold to Sky UK and Nine Australia. After that, it has “representation for the rest of world, so we’ll see how that goes, following the New Zealand release”, Fryer told Newstalk ZB.
An NZ on Air spokeswoman told the Herald on Monday that it would be watching viewship numbers with interest.
“As you will know, NZ on Air has no editorial control of content, as specified in the Broadcasting Act,” she said, in response to questions around Polkinghorne’s concerns.
“The commissioning platform assumes responsibility for editorial control, in this case WBD.
“All content funded by NZ On Air is required to meet relevant legal requirements and be of a quality that meets the broadcast platform’s expectations.”
She said NZ on Air would be interested “to see how New Zealand audiences respond to the content. The content has international distribution deals, so we will also be interested in the international audience response”.
In his statement, Polkinghorne said that experts from around the world “gave evidence at my trial to educate the jury and those others prepared to listen”.
“They confirmed that all the forensic evidence pointed to Pauline’s death being properly confirmed as death by suicide, as both the Crown experts also acknowledged was an available conclusion.
“They also told us how very little we know of why people in our lives die by suicide and how most families so impacted have no appreciation of the actual risk nor could they prevent it.
“That, like me, those left behind feel genuine regret and guilt for not knowing and doing more. In my case, guilt for often acting so selfishly.”
The documentary goes into some detail about the alleged method by which Hanna allegedly committed suicide. Media have been careful in the way these details have been reported.
The coroner’s office said today that Coroner Tania Tetitaha was on leave and had not yet viewed the documentary.
Through a spokeswoman, she said: “I direct the case manager to contact the parties to seek their views on the documentary including the existing orders. This matter can be addressed at the next PIC [pre-inquest conference] on 30 April.”
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.
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