Country of origin New Zealand No. of episodes 7 First episode date 6 October 2005 Number of seasons 1 Narrated by Alison Mau | No. of seasons 1 Original network Prime Final episode date 17 November 2005 Number of episodes 7 Genre Documentary film | |
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Original release 6 October – 17 November 2005 Similar De Grootste Nederlander, El Gen Argentino, Velikite Balgari, The Greatest American, Grandes Chilenos de Nuestr | ||
New Zealand's Top 100 History Makers was a weekly television programme first shown on Prime Television New Zealand on 6 October 2005. 430 notable New Zealanders were ranked by a panel to determine the 100 most influential in New Zealand history. There were six episodes to present the list, and a final (seventh) episode, screened live on 17 November 2005, showed the rankings of the top ten of these people as a result of votes collected from the public via text and internet. (These votes are not statistically valid as they involve self-selected voters).
Contents
Diana Wichtel, reviewing the show in the New Zealand Listener, described it as "surprisingly watchable", but commented that the format was "history as striptease, with the programme counting down over the weeks to the big winner." Scott Kara, writing in The New Zealand Herald, called it "educational but not dull". Another review described it as "history ... as an Idol-style talent search".
Joseph Romanos, one of the panellists, produced a book later in 2005 containing profiles of the same 100 people. The book was revised for a 2008 edition.
Panel
The show's rankings were produced by merging the ratings of eight panellists, who are all well-known New Zealanders:
Panel rankings
On the final programme, the 101st on the list was revealed:
101. Sir Mountford "Toss" Woollaston (1910-1998) – painter
Public rankings
- Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937) – scientist
- Kate Sheppard (1847-1934) – suffragette
- Edmund Hillary (1919-2008) – explorer and humanitarian
- Charles Upham (1908-1994) – war hero
- Billy T James (1948-1991) – comedian
- David Lange (1942-2005) – prime minister
- Āpirana Ngata (1874-1950) – politician
- Colin Murdoch (1929-2008) – inventor of the disposable syringe
- Rua Kenana Hepetipa (1869-1937) – prophet
- Roger Douglas (1937-) – politician and economist