TV: Injecting life into long-buried tales

By LOUISA CLEAVE

Once Paul Gittins starts talking about the departed souls who are the real stars of the historical series he fronts, it is hard to stop him.

It is easy to see why Gittins is so fascinated with this morbid subject as he rattles off some of the most interesting stories Epitaph will tell when it returns tonight. Gittins and the show's team of researchers have dug up more riveting tales.

Tonight's first episode finally puts to rest the origins of a mysterious epitaph on a simple white cross in a Northland cemetery.

It reads simply: "Circus Baby, died of burns."

Gittins has spent three years trying to find out something about the circus baby by talking to local residents and putting notices in local newspapers and magazines.

He struck the jackpot when the baby's sister wrote to him after seeing a plea in an old magazine, and the story of how wee Ramon Carian came to his final resting place can finally be told.

Not all the stories are so straight forward, especially the legend of the Avondale Princess.

The grave site of a reverend's wife in a church cemetery in Avondale has been the subject of urban mythology for decades.

The epitaph elaborately lists the woman's lineage - from Princess Torquil of Denmark to Chieftainess of a famous Scottish clan.

The epitaph, says Gittins, "was certainly trying to make the most of some tenuous links."

But it created an incredible amount of folklore, including the story that English royalty turn up at the site to pay their respects whenever they are in town.

Gittins talks to the organiser of a group of parishioners who waited outside the cemetery for Queen Elizabeth II on her 1953 visit to New Zealand.

He slips from one story to the next with his easy style of storytelling which grips viewers week after week.

"It has been said that in our own little way we are helping to document the social history of early New Zealand both with the book and the TV show. That is the offshoot of this, that it is building up a picture.

"The fact that people find it entertaining is great because it shows that there is a genuine interest in our past, especially when it's put in the form of stories of our past."

As Epitaph became better known and enjoyed by viewers, the show's mailbag started to bulge with possible stories. Gittins says that has allowed the series to hone in on the most extraordinary stories.

And no, he has never seen a ghost or experienced any spiritual encounters while filming the series in cemeteries around New Zealand.

"I think our approach is one of trying to get at the truth of things. Like our motto, there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed.

"I do think that where stuff from the past has been swept under the carpet and has been lying hidden, I do believe that there's a kind of force that eventually will make it come through.

"A lot of things, even though it's years later, end up being resolved one way or another."

* Epitaph, TV One, 8 pm