Best of the Blogs: A new show at 7pm: so, what's the Story?

Duncan Garner and Heather du Plessis-Allan present STORY the 7.00pm current affairs show. Photo / Supplied

We’re looking back at our columnists most popular pieces from 2015. Today, Duncan Greive finds out what the story is with Story.

"All you need to know," says the blacked-out face, in a voice familiar from a thousand horror films, "is that behind [the door] is a scumbag which should probably be behind bars."

Soon, Duncan Garner is on screen, in a yellowy room with heavy velour curtains and an overstuffed, black leather couch. He looks troubled, yet determined. "Do you think the public is," he says, pausing a beat, "safe?"

In the nation's lounge, defending its people. The story is the central portion of Story, TV3's new current affairs vehicle, entering the hallowed 7pm slot and attempting to replace the irreplaceable Campbell Live.

Garner's segment is built around the testimony of a whistleblowing staffer from First Security, sub-contracted to respond when there's a bail breach.

The menacing voice and dark, hooded torso used to disguise their identity suggest the Grim Reaper has arrived in your living room.

He brings bad tidings from a world filled with criminals bent on our destruction. All that stands in their way is an electronic monitoring bracelet, which can be removed with a pair of $2 shop scissors. Not even the good scissors.

It's an efficient piece of scaremongering, which embodies all Garner's strengths as a broadcaster: his plain-spoken doggedness and his innate understanding of how an issue should be framed for maximum dramatic impact. Most of all, his location at the precise magnetic centre of middle New Zealand.

For all its concern for our welfare, particularly that of our least well-off, that's not something you could ever say about Campbell Live. With its host now back in the bosom of Radio New Zealand, is there any hope for current affairs on the telly? What's the Story? ...

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