August 6, 2024 • 10 mins
She's been on our screens for years; Gloss, Shortland Street and even the Billy T James Show, but now actress Iona Rodgers is in Wellington to recount the memories of one of her earliest productions.
Rodgers appeared in six episodes of Doctor Who, and will this week speak at a Wellington on a Plate event with meals inspired by the cult television show.
She joined Nick Mills to talk about her long and storied career.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from news Talk said, b We've got a.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Very very special guest in the studio joining us now.
Will be a familiar name to many of you, Ilona Rogers.
She lived in New Zealand since two thousand and nineteen.
Lived in New Zealand's in nineteen seventy three, where she
appeared in shows like Shortland Street, Gloss and even The
Billy T Jameshow remind me to come back to the
(00:33):
Billy T James because I knew.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Billy pretty well.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
Close to Home?
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Yeah, I'm close to home.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
I'm the original Close to Home crew.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Okay, all right, I'm going to come back to this.
But she's in.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
She was born in Yorkshire in the UK, and her
early career included six episode appearance in Doctor Who. She's
in Wellington this week for a special appearance at the
Feast Across Time Are Wellington on a plate Doctor Who
themed event where the attendees will dine on Doctor Who
inspired meals. While hearing from Rogers, she joins me in
the studio.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Now, good morning, Good morning neck. How are you.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
I'm good enjoying Wellington. Can you come a little bit closer.
You're not filming now, you're not filming a movie down.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
I've come up from christ Church, so away from the snow,
I punamu and here I am in Wellington.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Okay, A couple of things I want to ask you about. Firstly,
for me, you were the first power woman of New
Zealand through gloss. You know, you know women executives were
around a lot in those days. You were that, you
were amazing, you were sexy, powerful, you were all those things.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Yeah, it was fun.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Do you think of yourself as that first power woman
of New Zealand?
Speaker 4 (01:48):
No, But I'll tell you what. When I was filming
down here at the hotel, I came in for breakfast
one day and there was a conference of railway workers
and they all stopped when I walked in, and I
ran out the door and I thought, why are they
all looking at me? And then I realized and I
came back in and I looked at them all and
I said, said, you know, I eat little men like
(02:08):
you for breakfast. And they all threw their toast in
the air. And then I felt really powerful because.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
You were were you yeah, you know, I mean you
were like you were one of our first major stars.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
And didn't I dress beautiful?
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Oh you you were gorgeous. You're everybody's dream.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
I know it was fantastic and I always won. Thank you, scriptwriters.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
I want to also ask you about Billy T. James.
I'll come back to Gloss and we'll just go everywhere. Well,
just have a chat Billy T. James.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I had a little bit to do with Oh Godless,
And I'll tell you the story about Bull T James.
He did a gig for me, a charity gig for
me once and it didn't go that well. It was
a Sunday night, and I mean he was a superstar
like you in the day.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
And it didn't go that well.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
I gave him the checks and those days you gave
a check and I said thanks, Billy. He said that
we didn't get a big enough crowded like. I said, no,
but doesn't matter. I agreed to pay you this amount.
Gave him the chet and away we went those days
before cell phones, right, And I've looked a couple of
months later, I don't even know why, and I looked
checking your bank balance and I saw that the check
(03:15):
was never presented. So I rang him up, left a
message on his home phone or left a message with
his agents, can get Billy to give me a call.
He called back. I said, you didn't catch the check?
He said, no, I ripped it up. I didn't get
enough people there. Now, isn't that an incredible story about
Billy T James.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Billy was an icon. I feel probably if you said
to me, what are the performances you've done in your
time in New z And, I would say that working
with Billy was one of the greatest times. What a man,
how generous his darling wife became a friend of mine.
(03:51):
And you know when I worked with him, he had
the new heart, and he was funny and humble and
no great man.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
We're lucky to have him, weren't we. The elders were like,
you speak with an English accent. Now, I've seen a
lot of you on TV. I've never heard you speak
with an English accent.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
No, I know, but I'm putting it on because I'm
in doctor who don't.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Forget you're speaking like a Yorkshire woman.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
No, because yorkshire people speak like that. No, I'm not.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Okay, Well you're speaking like an English woman, thank you?
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Nick?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Is that right? Do you speak like that normally? Is
that your normal?
Speaker 4 (04:31):
I don't know. I look, I work on a farm.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
So it's what do the cows tell you? You're speaking
like a.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
Bomb hows no trees? Okay, why do you think I
want to come to Wellington the home of Zelandia? I mean,
anybody who's planting trees wants to come and see Cilandier.
It's inspirational.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
How long you've been in Wellington? Trip?
Speaker 4 (04:53):
This trip? I flew in two hours ago.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Okay, there's no point asking you where Wellington has changed?
Does it?
Speaker 4 (04:59):
You know?
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Why did you move to New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
It's a question I think a lot of our listeners
will want to know now that they know you're English.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Well two things. My my family lived in New Caledonia,
New Mia, but they bought her home in Auckland because
my mother had cancer and she used to come to
Auckland for treatment. And eventually the on colleges said we're
not going to be able to treat her for much longer.
(05:25):
And I left working in London, came to New Zealand
and six months later I met a kiwee farmer.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
And you're still with them now, I'm still.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
I'm still walking behind the tractor getting behind. Yeah, so
there you are.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
What a great story.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
Oh no, actually I was on close to home and David,
my husband, was at Lincoln College, so I was paying
his school fees for Lincoln and flying back to christ
Church every weekend. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
You haven't retired, but you've gone out of the public eye.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
I mean for our younger listeners, you were a superstar.
So you know, you were.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Only covers of women's weeklies. You were you were you know,
like genuine. You were the Rachel Hunter before Rachel Hunter?
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Were you?
Speaker 4 (06:16):
I was? I was Rachel Hunter before Mark You though,
Rachel was never deemed a bitch, so.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
You were a power bit you were.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
I look at those shoulder players I had Player and
all those scripts were written by women.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
You know, didn't make a difference.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
Oh yes, because the women always won. In fact, the
reason Glass was stopped in the end was the Australian
guy who took over running TV and said said to me,
he didn't like the fact that Sheila's the Sheilas are
always winning in this soap. So that's it. We got
(06:58):
knocked on the head and I moved into Myrland Bay,
which was of course a television series about a casino,
and there were no casinos in New Zealand in those days,
and I was in that for three years and then
of course now we've got casinos everywhere.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Yeah, so there was another You're another front run over there.
You're in Wellington to speak at a feast across time.
How much of Doctor Who Fan are you? Are you
a real Doctor Who fan? I mean you've appeared in
six episodes of it, so you're part of history.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Well, look, so historic is Doctor Who that I think
now in the Guinness Book of Records it's the longest
running scientific science fiction show ever. So that's Doctor Who.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
You know.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
You think the first episode of Doctor Who went out
the day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated and very
few people watched it because of course everybody was fixated
on the fact that you, of course had been assassinated.
And then they reran that episode again. By the time
(08:04):
it got to me, which was ninety sixty five for
it had an audience of about eight million. Wow, don't
forget in those days all those television shows were live.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Amazing. What's the highlight of your career?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Come on, tell our listeners, what's the best thing that
you've ever done, or most exciting thing you've ever done.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Well, you know you've said it has to be glossed
because the gear was wonderful. And I used to roll
into work from the farm to tie up my legs
and get out of the car and they'd take my
jeans off and they'd put me in these Release Cooper
or Jane Daniels clothes and did my nails and did
my hand, did my makeup, big earrings, and then I
(08:47):
was bitchy all day. And then I got home with
my old jeans on and I used to say that
the farmers around me, this is my doggy day.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Good lovely to meet you. What an amazing career that
you've had and continue to have. I hope that the
show is amazing. What do you I've only got a minute,
But what are you going to talk about in your show?
I'm just going to talk about Doctor Who's Doctor Who.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
You've got to go and see this exhibition because it's
on till October. But I get fan mail for Doctor
Who every year. I mean Doctor Who has got an
enormous fan base. And the fact is New Zealand got
this before Australia. These exhibitions come straight from London to
New Zealand, and from New Zealand it's going into the USA. Wow,
(09:34):
So what a first for New Zealand. I say congratulations
to the team and I'm really looking forward.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
To seeing it good and chatting to the people that
are coming to dine with you. And it'll be really
interesting to see what the food's like. I'll have to
find out what the food's like. Lovely to meet you,
Lovely to have you in Wellington. I hope you really
enjoyed we bought it. We've put on a beautiful day
for you.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
You hope you sure it's going to be windy tomorrow?
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Neck all right, well you enjoy you, enjoy your stay
in Wellington. Lovely to meet you and lovely to have
you on the Scharlina Rodgers. She's a superstar of New Zealand.
I think I grew up with her being as superstart.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
to news Talks It'd be Wellington from nine am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from news Talk said, b We've got a.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Very very special guest in the studio joining us now.
Will be a familiar name to many of you, Ilona Rogers.
She lived in New Zealand since two thousand and nineteen.
Lived in New Zealand's in nineteen seventy three, where she
appeared in shows like Shortland Street, Gloss and even The
Billy T Jameshow remind me to come back to the
(00:33):
Billy T James because I knew.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Billy pretty well.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
Close to Home?
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Yeah, I'm close to home.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
I'm the original Close to Home crew.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Okay, all right, I'm going to come back to this.
But she's in.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
She was born in Yorkshire in the UK, and her
early career included six episode appearance in Doctor Who. She's
in Wellington this week for a special appearance at the
Feast Across Time Are Wellington on a plate Doctor Who
themed event where the attendees will dine on Doctor Who
inspired meals. While hearing from Rogers, she joins me in
the studio.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Now, good morning, Good morning neck. How are you.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
I'm good enjoying Wellington. Can you come a little bit closer.
You're not filming now, you're not filming a movie down.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
I've come up from christ Church, so away from the snow,
I punamu and here I am in Wellington.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Okay, A couple of things I want to ask you about. Firstly,
for me, you were the first power woman of New
Zealand through gloss. You know, you know women executives were
around a lot in those days. You were that, you
were amazing, you were sexy, powerful, you were all those things.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Yeah, it was fun.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Do you think of yourself as that first power woman
of New Zealand?
Speaker 4 (01:48):
No, But I'll tell you what. When I was filming
down here at the hotel, I came in for breakfast
one day and there was a conference of railway workers
and they all stopped when I walked in, and I
ran out the door and I thought, why are they
all looking at me? And then I realized and I
came back in and I looked at them all and
I said, said, you know, I eat little men like
(02:08):
you for breakfast. And they all threw their toast in
the air. And then I felt really powerful because.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
You were were you yeah, you know, I mean you
were like you were one of our first major stars.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
And didn't I dress beautiful?
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Oh you you were gorgeous. You're everybody's dream.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
I know it was fantastic and I always won. Thank you, scriptwriters.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
I want to also ask you about Billy T. James.
I'll come back to Gloss and we'll just go everywhere. Well,
just have a chat Billy T. James.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I had a little bit to do with Oh Godless,
And I'll tell you the story about Bull T James.
He did a gig for me, a charity gig for
me once and it didn't go that well. It was
a Sunday night, and I mean he was a superstar
like you in the day.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
And it didn't go that well.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
I gave him the checks and those days you gave
a check and I said thanks, Billy. He said that
we didn't get a big enough crowded like. I said, no,
but doesn't matter. I agreed to pay you this amount.
Gave him the chet and away we went those days
before cell phones, right, And I've looked a couple of
months later, I don't even know why, and I looked
checking your bank balance and I saw that the check
(03:15):
was never presented. So I rang him up, left a
message on his home phone or left a message with
his agents, can get Billy to give me a call.
He called back. I said, you didn't catch the check?
He said, no, I ripped it up. I didn't get
enough people there. Now, isn't that an incredible story about
Billy T James.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Billy was an icon. I feel probably if you said
to me, what are the performances you've done in your
time in New z And, I would say that working
with Billy was one of the greatest times. What a man,
how generous his darling wife became a friend of mine.
(03:51):
And you know when I worked with him, he had
the new heart, and he was funny and humble and
no great man.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
We're lucky to have him, weren't we. The elders were like,
you speak with an English accent. Now, I've seen a
lot of you on TV. I've never heard you speak
with an English accent.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
No, I know, but I'm putting it on because I'm
in doctor who don't.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Forget you're speaking like a Yorkshire woman.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
No, because yorkshire people speak like that. No, I'm not.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Okay, Well you're speaking like an English woman, thank you?
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Nick?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Is that right? Do you speak like that normally? Is
that your normal?
Speaker 4 (04:31):
I don't know. I look, I work on a farm.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
So it's what do the cows tell you? You're speaking
like a.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
Bomb hows no trees? Okay, why do you think I
want to come to Wellington the home of Zelandia? I mean,
anybody who's planting trees wants to come and see Cilandier.
It's inspirational.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
How long you've been in Wellington? Trip?
Speaker 4 (04:53):
This trip? I flew in two hours ago.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Okay, there's no point asking you where Wellington has changed?
Does it?
Speaker 4 (04:59):
You know?
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Why did you move to New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
It's a question I think a lot of our listeners
will want to know now that they know you're English.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Well two things. My my family lived in New Caledonia,
New Mia, but they bought her home in Auckland because
my mother had cancer and she used to come to
Auckland for treatment. And eventually the on colleges said we're
not going to be able to treat her for much longer.
(05:25):
And I left working in London, came to New Zealand
and six months later I met a kiwee farmer.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
And you're still with them now, I'm still.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
I'm still walking behind the tractor getting behind. Yeah, so
there you are.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
What a great story.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
Oh no, actually I was on close to home and David,
my husband, was at Lincoln College, so I was paying
his school fees for Lincoln and flying back to christ
Church every weekend. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
You haven't retired, but you've gone out of the public eye.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
I mean for our younger listeners, you were a superstar.
So you know, you were.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Only covers of women's weeklies. You were you were you know,
like genuine. You were the Rachel Hunter before Rachel Hunter?
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Were you?
Speaker 4 (06:16):
I was? I was Rachel Hunter before Mark You though,
Rachel was never deemed a bitch, so.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
You were a power bit you were.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
I look at those shoulder players I had Player and
all those scripts were written by women.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
You know, didn't make a difference.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
Oh yes, because the women always won. In fact, the
reason Glass was stopped in the end was the Australian
guy who took over running TV and said said to me,
he didn't like the fact that Sheila's the Sheilas are
always winning in this soap. So that's it. We got
(06:58):
knocked on the head and I moved into Myrland Bay,
which was of course a television series about a casino,
and there were no casinos in New Zealand in those days,
and I was in that for three years and then
of course now we've got casinos everywhere.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Yeah, so there was another You're another front run over there.
You're in Wellington to speak at a feast across time.
How much of Doctor Who Fan are you? Are you
a real Doctor Who fan? I mean you've appeared in
six episodes of it, so you're part of history.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Well, look, so historic is Doctor Who that I think
now in the Guinness Book of Records it's the longest
running scientific science fiction show ever. So that's Doctor Who.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
You know.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
You think the first episode of Doctor Who went out
the day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated and very
few people watched it because of course everybody was fixated
on the fact that you, of course had been assassinated.
And then they reran that episode again. By the time
(08:04):
it got to me, which was ninety sixty five for
it had an audience of about eight million. Wow, don't
forget in those days all those television shows were live.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Amazing. What's the highlight of your career?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Come on, tell our listeners, what's the best thing that
you've ever done, or most exciting thing you've ever done.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Well, you know you've said it has to be glossed
because the gear was wonderful. And I used to roll
into work from the farm to tie up my legs
and get out of the car and they'd take my
jeans off and they'd put me in these Release Cooper
or Jane Daniels clothes and did my nails and did
my hand, did my makeup, big earrings, and then I
(08:47):
was bitchy all day. And then I got home with
my old jeans on and I used to say that
the farmers around me, this is my doggy day.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Good lovely to meet you. What an amazing career that
you've had and continue to have. I hope that the
show is amazing. What do you I've only got a minute,
But what are you going to talk about in your show?
I'm just going to talk about Doctor Who's Doctor Who.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
You've got to go and see this exhibition because it's
on till October. But I get fan mail for Doctor
Who every year. I mean Doctor Who has got an
enormous fan base. And the fact is New Zealand got
this before Australia. These exhibitions come straight from London to
New Zealand, and from New Zealand it's going into the USA. Wow,
(09:34):
So what a first for New Zealand. I say congratulations
to the team and I'm really looking forward.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
To seeing it good and chatting to the people that
are coming to dine with you. And it'll be really
interesting to see what the food's like. I'll have to
find out what the food's like. Lovely to meet you,
Lovely to have you in Wellington. I hope you really
enjoyed we bought it. We've put on a beautiful day
for you.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
You hope you sure it's going to be windy tomorrow?
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Neck all right, well you enjoy you, enjoy your stay
in Wellington. Lovely to meet you and lovely to have
you on the Scharlina Rodgers. She's a superstar of New Zealand.
I think I grew up with her being as superstart.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
to news Talks It'd be Wellington from nine am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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