More on Marcia Russell

Another brief obituary, with more recent information, and a terrific 10-minute video interview, from last year I think, uploaded on 5 September 2011 at NZ On Screen. It is more about her work in TV than in magazines, and really captures her wit, warmth and sharpness.  The promo reads:

Marcia Russell is an award-winning journalist and TV writer/producer with a long career in New Zealand media. Her first television role was as host of the 1970s talk show Speakeasy. Russell moved on to news and current affairs roles with TVNZ, and helped set up the fledgling TV3 News department in the late 1980s. She has been involved with some of the most notable documentary series produced in New Zealand such as Landmarks and The New Zealand Wars. Russell produced the four- part documentary series Revolution, which chronicled the rise of the Lange Government and its impact on the New Zealand economy and society. Russell was awarded an OBE for services to journalism in 1996 and was a recipient of the Academy of Film and Television’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003.

Fun fact: Denis Glover’s long-forgotten novel Men of God, published in October 1978 by the Dunsmore Press (“Take one plausible but endearing old lag just out of prison and three gentlemen of the cloth faced with the problem of a collapsed steeple…”), was dedicated to Marcia. I asked her about that once and she got a bit cagey. I had the strong impression that the old goat was besotted with her, understandably, and that she was less than thrilled by this – equally understandably.