David Harry Baldock’s long TV career includes submarines, sea rescues, ailing prime ministers and psychics. The onetime editor began making his mark as a director and producer on current affairs and a run of documentaries.

In 1988 he left state television to launch production company Ninox, whose prolific output would grow to include Sensing Murder, Mitre 10 Dream Home, award-winner Pacific Rescue and ambitious documentary series Our People Our Century.

During a return visit from his current base in Shanghai Baldock talked to ScreenTalk about:

• A car accident while at high school that helped shape his attitude to life
• How after moving from hometown Dunedin to Wellington he was given three months to sink or swim, directing current affairs
• His Anglican-inflected take on the feisty Tonight interview where Simon Walker dared to challenge PM Robert Muldoon about Russian subs
• August '74 - The Death of a Prime Minister, his documentary on PM Norman Kirk’s final week - and how it confirmed his sense of how to get great interviews
• Deciding to take the bull by the horns and leave his TVNZ job, before learning if he was going to be made redundant
• Setting up production company Ninox in 1988
• Managing to win major sponsorship to complete award-winning series At the Risk of Our Lives, only to have the offer turned down
• How hit show Mitre 10 Dream Home proved a win win, and a life-changer
• His fear of making the history series Our People Our Century, and how the programme almost brought Ninox to its knees
• The “fantastic brain” of producer Ray Waru
• Sensing Murder: a passionate defence of the show’s integrity, and insights into the stresses of making it

This video  is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

NZ On Screen: Editing – Ian Pryor. Camera – Jess Charlton.