THE GOOD WORD

The Good Word is a new 13-part television series about books, which launched on the Freeview Digital channel, TVNZ 6, from March 8 at 8.30pm.

The half-hour non-commercial programme is an innovative mix of studio and documentary elements - the studio segments presented by star New Zealand novelist Emily Perkins and a documentary strand presented by Sunday Star-Times columnist and former Listener editor, Finlay Macdonald.

The regular panellists are TV stars Te Radar and Wallace Chapman, former Dunedin Mayor Sukhi Turner, veteran book reviewer and blogger Graham Beattie, actress Elizabeth McRae, Listener books editor Guy Somerset and scriptwriter Kath Akuhata Brown.

The studio segments feature Emily with a regular book review panel and in conversation with a famous guest talking about a favourite book. Finlay Macdonald’s mini-documentary series, Under the Covers, goes up close and personal each week with an iconic New Zealand book and the story behind it.

Another regular feature of each episode is a brief visit with a real-life book club, letting them tell something of their own story as a club, how it works, what it means to them, books they’ve loved and loathed.

“The Good Word marks a big step up for us,” says producer Colin Hogg. “The series has been a year in the making - first designing our new studio set, which is a work of art in itself, and then researching, filming and editing the two documentary strands and combining all these elements into a half-hour show.”

“Unusually for a show about books, it’s certainly action packed.”

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