TV3 starts well but loses the precious towards the end

By LINDA HERRICK


Damn that plane. The Frodo plane that looked so majestic sweeping low across Wellington. The plane we never saw in Auckland.

Talk about rubbing the salt in. Too right, yesterday was very much Wellington's day in every sense of the word. All we outsiders could do was hope for full coverage from the broadcasters, just to get a taste of the amazing capital-city street party for The Return of the King.

When TV3 began its LOTR broadcast at 5.30pm, TV One was well under way with Paul Holmes on the red carpet. TV3 got cracking in crisp style, with Carolyn Robinson introducing a well-organised first half-hour which included a map of the route from the Beehive to Courtenay Place and excellent footage of the parade. And that plane.

There were scenes from Sunday night's hard-sell for international journalists at Te Papa, with a British journalist pondering who had paid for it all. Us, apparently.

None of the red-carpet interviews contained any revealing insights, although Peter Jackson did admit he was wearing the same purple shirt as last year, but washed. Then the ebullient John Campbell, assisted by Hilary Barry, took over at 6pm, interviewing a Prime Minister looking fearsome in a chain-mail cloak and overegged eye shadow.

But then it turned to custard. Cut to inside the High Court and the case of Mr Zaoui and whoops! The voiceover was from Courtenay Place. From then on, it was a case of the news taking over the news bulletin. Campbell and Barry linked the items while things were going on behind them that LOTR fans needed to see.

For example, 3 News watchers missed out on Sir Ian McKellen's live speech, and what the hell was Erica Challis of TheOneRing.net doing there instead of the stars who were making speeches?

By the time Holmes came on with his 7pm LOTR special, 3 News had lost its way and the promised special coverage had virtually vanished. While Jackson was saying interesting things on Holmes, 3 had the drone of John Mitchell.

Both channels had far too much presenter-yakking and needed to focus more on what was happening outside the Embassy.

Wellington was going off, but TV3 just went off. The bulletin ended with "I'm Hilary Barry" and Campbell said, "I'm easily excited." Not excited enough, though.