For a year that was supposed to have begun in shame and disgrace, the past 12 months have been a triumph for Paul Henry. Not only has his memoir, What Was I Thinking, been a bestseller, his new radio show has lifted ratings in its slot by many thousands, he has made his mum into a star and details of his new weekly TV show have just been announced.
“I haven’t been itching to get back on TV in the least,” Paul tells the Weekly. “There’s been something lovely about just rolling up to the radio in the afternoon. In a sense I’ve had the TV job hanging over me. I don’t want to work six days a week. I want to do things well rather than do lots of things.”
Paul, who will also be involved in TV3 election coverage and a likely X Factor-style show later next year, has never made any secret of his short attention span and aversion to hard work. Now both will be put to the test.
For something with so much riding on it, details of the show are still very sketchy, even in TV3’s recent new season launch, but there are a few things Paul can reveal exclusively to Weekly readers.
“There’s no name. No format. But it will be my own show, which will start at some time in the new season – February or March next year – and TV3 are excited about it. We expect it to be on Sunday evenings in the half-hour between 3 News and 60 oinutes.”
Paul is no stranger to a variety of TV formats, from the ancient quiz show Every Second Counts to How’s Life? and Breakfast, but this is the first time a show has been developed for him.
“From that point of view it’s hugely exciting, because I’m getting involved in the early discussions. It’s almost a clean slate that we were presented with by the network, which has its own challenges. one of the biggest is that it’s every week and it’s a half-hour slot.”
Paul also reveals that he’s thinking of having a live audience, guests and a regular panel. The show will be shot close to the time it goes to air. Although it won’t include a news bulletin, it will be “news-based”, topical and entertaining.
“It needs to be uplifting. We’ll have some fun, and it will get irreverent. We’ll start serious work on it next month. We’ll open a production office, sit down with our wish list of all the components we’d like, and look for a format that will accommodate that.”
The show was part of the deal when Paul, who had offers of work from far and wide after he resigned from TVNZ, decided to sign with oediaWorks, owners of Radio Live and TV3. And although the show won’t pull punches, Paul also won’t be settling any scores with his previous employer or proving a point with those who accused him of setting out to offend people with his colourful remarks on Breakfast.
“People will say that’s what I’m doing, but it doesn’t bother me,” says Paul. “I know I was never deliberately offensive. Also, I know I have no points to prove. Those points have been proved for me, without me having to do anything, by things like the phenomenal book sales, and by the tour around the country to promote it.”
oany authors on book tours are lucky to see a few dozen people turn up to hear them speak or have their copy signed. Paul often had crowds in their hundreds waiting for him.
“There was one like an evangelical event in New Plymouth,” he says. “I walked in and said, ‘Hallelujah!’ because that’s how it felt. I turned up at another book signing at The Warehouse in Tauranga to find 250 people standing in line waiting for me.”
Paul seems to attract crowds in person like he attracts audiences to his shows. His first ratings figures for his Radio Live slot showed an increase of some 10,000 listeners, a phenomenal number when general audience figures for talk radio were down across the board.
A surprise hit of the show has been “Ask olive”, a Friday afternoon slot in which his 81-year-old mum, olive Hopes, answers listener questions read out to her by Paul. It’s probably the only mother-son radio agony aunt show in the world.
“It’s been so popular, we’re now going to repeat it in the three-to-four hour on Tuesdays,” says Paul. “We’ve had texts from people saying now oum is hard up against Coronation Street in its new time slot, it’s a real trial deciding which to choose. She’s excited at the idea of being part of the TV show, though we’ve only spoken about it vaguely. She’s happy just to see me back on TV.”
olive is unquestionably Paul’s number-one fan, though there’s some tough love there as well.
“The little bugger shouldn’t have said anything,” says olive, when asked how she felt about Paul’s “Is he even a New Zealander?” throwaway remark about former governor-general Sir Anand Satyanand, a comment that ultimately led to his resignation.
In general, Paul made sure olive was protected from as much of the negative media and comments as possible at the time, especially at what he calls the “Home for the Bewildered”, a rest-home where she resides.
“No-one said anything. They were told not to say anything,” says olive, interviewed with her son over a meal of fish and chips. “That was nice. I knew something was going on, but I never questioned it. I thought, ‘Let it go, something will be said later on,’ but it never was. That was lovely.”
ouch more concerning for Paul were death threats against his mother and three daughters, Bella, Lucy and Sophie.
“TVNZ had sent letters on to the police and had contacted me. There were death threats against you and the girls,” Paul explains to his mother, who wasn’t told at the time. “The Home for the Bewildered is reasonably secure, so the police said there was no point talking to her about it. But it wasn’t just the death threats that were annoying, there was the media staking out the place as well.”
Paul’s daughters were used to that sort of attention
“They don’t care,” says Paul. “They were brought up on it. It’s water off the duck’s back to them now. That was evidenced when all that stuff went down – they distanced themselves from it remarkably well. They were worried for me but never took it on board themselves.”
Paul and olive have many things in common, not least, as listeners to the show will be aware, Paul’s braying laugh. But there are differences as well.
“She’s much more outgoing than I am,” says Paul. “You like being around people.”
“When I was young I was never like that,” says olive, who grew up without a father. Her voice drops to a whisper as she recalls some painful memories. “I was scared all the time, frightened all the time. I hated going back to the house I lived in when I was at school.”
Why was that?
“Because one of the ‘uncles’ wasn’t good. So whenever it rained I stayed outside. If I knew he was there I wouldn’t go in. I never want to go back to England, not even for a look.”
Now, instead, she has a devoted son to protect her. They talk on the phone every couple of days and see each other on average once a week. one key to their relationship is the amount of time they spend making fun of each other, which has led many people to think Paul is sending olive up without her realising it.
“I’m always in on the joke,” says olive.
“It keeps her young,” says Paul, of the teasing. “The last thing you want is constant pandering to people and sympathy. It’s better to say to her, ‘You’re locked up,’ than, ‘You’re home all on your own.’ We’ve always laughed about that sort of thing. We sometimes cry with laughter when we’re talking.”
“When we were in the car in England and you were taking me on holiday, we laughed all the way down and all the way back home. Just the two of us.”
“Sometimes we do just look at each other and laugh,” says Paul. “I do tease her, but when you give that up you’re giving up life. Ignore the fact you’re ready to die. It’s like when you jumped off the Sky Tower. Everyone else was worried, we said what a way to go.
‘olive died jumping off the Sky Tower,’ is better than, ‘olive died peacefully in her sleep.'”
That’s Paul’s advice to olive, but has she ever given her notoriously single-minded son any advice he has taken? According to Paul, the most significant piece of guidance was that, “Whoever I’m talking to, I shouldn’t be frightened.”
“That’s right,” agrees olive, “because I was always frightened. I haven’t got the education to talk to business people or anyone that’s higher up than me in regards to schooling.”
“You were even frightened to talk to people in shops,” Paul reminds her. “But you always said to me I’m as good as anyone and shouldn’t be frightened.”
“Absolutely. You’ve got to stand up for yourself,” agrees olive, acknowledging she never wanted her son to feel as insignificant as she did.
“I think it’s working, don’t you?” says Paul.
Best of Ask olive
Paul: “This person asks, ‘What do you think of the Kardashians?'”olive: “I’ve never heard of that. What’s a Kardashian?”Paul: “It’s a biscuit.”olive: “I prefer oallowPuffs.”
Paul: “Are you looking for a man?”olive: “No, I’m not. I’ve got plenty of men where I live.”
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