Steve Newall: Flicks.co.nz editor ahead of Polk: The Trial of Philip Polkinghorne airing on Three

One of the country's biggest trials will be looked at from a new angle in a new series airing on Three.

The murder trial of Phillip Polkinghorne will be explored over three nights. 

The Auckland eye doctor was ultimately found not guilty of murdering his wife Pauline Hanna after an eight week trial. 

The documentary series will show interviews with Polkinghorne himself, his girlfriend Madison Ashton, Crown Solicitor Alysha McClintock and journalists who covered the case. 

Flicks.co.nz editor Steve Newall reveals what to expect from this new project.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks, EDB.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Entertainment Time Now and we're kicking off a little bit
of Anna Cottington because she is a finalist at the
Tate Music Prize, which is taking place this Tuesday, the fifteenth.
Steve Neil is editor at Flex Star, Coton and Zed
and joins me.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Now, good morning, good morning, very much looking forward to
her getting together with the pals of the music industry
for the Tate Music Prize on Tuesday.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
I have forgotten how much I love that album when
she released it, I think late last year when she
released whenever she released it. Yeah, No, really cool little
soul sort of infused number.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
Absolutely and this is a this is a great, great
awards to recognize this type of record that really focuses
on the album still as an art form, still as
an entity, a sort of purely thought out creative expression,
consistent case of body of work. So Anna Connington, as
he says, nominated. Darts, Delaney, Davidson, Earth, Tanngue, Phaser Days,

(01:16):
Georgia Lines, Holly Aerosmith, Mel Parsons and Troy Kingey are
among other finalists. But my hot tip, my favor for
meeting the criteria of the Tait Music Prize, if not
necessarily I can't pick favorites, but favorite by the rules
of this prize is Moco Tron this superb album, Wide
Air Awesome, Maldi Bassed record. So there you go.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
That's really interesting. My producer, Libby, she picked Anna Coddington.
She reckons that's the album to beat. So well, we'll
be following this up next Sunday.

Speaker 3 (01:50):
Let's let's make it interesting.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
But look what I'm with you. Of course, we've got
the Apra Silver Scroll, which celebrates songwriting and that's often
one song. But what I love about the TAT is
I'll then go I make it a mission to listen
to the full album of each artist because it's not
something we do so much these days when we're making
play lists and yeah, kind of flitting through Spotify and things.

Speaker 3 (02:09):
Totally. It's I think it's meeting the artist's in tension
through the through the medium that they most want to
communicate with us through.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah, No awesome. Now tonight we have polk the Trial
of Philip Polkinghorn, which is hitting three and three now.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
Yeah, and I should caution this isn't really lovely to
talk about this as entertainment, but it's not. This is
a true crime murder documentary, but it doesn't go down
the sort of lurid and kind of grubby sensationalism.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
I guess like Netflix. Yeah, I'm really pleased to hear that,
because I felt like we covered this trial very well
and very thoroughly, and I didn't feel that the huge
amount of spect we show in to the victim, and
I didn't want us to be just taking the lovely,
salacious parts of this story across the screen.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
Again, So Pauline Hannah, the deceased in this in this case,
is treated with a lot of respect by the commentary makers.
It opens and closes with footage of Pauline to really
kind of remind you about the person. So we learned
quite a bit about her, and it just makes it
all the sadder, really because she seemed like a wonderful person,

(03:20):
and my interpretation being that she kind of gets trapped
in a coercive control situation with someone that's spiraling. And yeah,
it's a difficult watch, but across three episodes, there's plenty
of time spent with the details, particularly the forensics, so
this is sort of where so much of the crucks
of the case ended up lying. Also of particular interest

(03:44):
is that Private investigated Julia Hartley Moore filmed interview footage
with Philip Pulkinghorn while he's out on bail, and she's
an executive producer on this project, so presumably sort of
like saw the opportunity to get the interview and save
it for make it into something later on, but rather

(04:05):
than giving him a platform, and those interviews it kind
of does reveal like a lot of inconsistencies. You start
to draw your own conclusions about the person that is speaking,
probably a bit too freely for their own good.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Did you learn more than what we learned in the trial?
Does this documentary server server purpose beyond just sort of
rehashing what we saw?

Speaker 3 (04:22):
I think that for me personally, I couldn't keep up
with the day to day news cycle on its it
was just too grim and so being able to sort
of get this condensed and detailed information in like a
couple of settings, it's quite a nice way to take
not a nice way, but it's an appropriate way to
take it.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
In And do we hear from the mistress and other
members of family.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
Who are Madison Ashton is very prominent in this in
the series, and it's sort of a voice that's been
largely missing, I think, from from coverage. But yes, there's
sort of lots of lots of lots of things to
I guess ruminate on will definitely be once the weight

(05:08):
of watching it lifts in the living room. There's definitely
lots of chats to have about it.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
I like the way you have because you've told me
of there that there are a lot of revelations. I
like the way you're not giving it all away here.
You've been very contruled.

Speaker 3 (05:18):
Yeah, and it's not it's not the jinx like there's
not there's not a hot mic moment in the bathroom
where a confession is obtained. But it just details accumulate,
and the more that we hear people's personal accounts sort
of side by side with the with the evidence, the

(05:39):
more compelling it becomes.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
This is heading tonight, isn't it?

Speaker 1 (05:42):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (05:42):
Yes, This is tonight on streaming first on three Now
and airing of a three consecutive nights on three at
eight forty pm.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
I think it's going to be appointment of viewing for
a lot of people.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
Totally, and even if it's just a sort of feel
like more complete pictures, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yeah, yeah, to kind of wrap it up and tuck
it away. Maybe. Hey, thank you so much, Steve, appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks A B from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.