ON SCREEN
Jude was in many ways was the girl next door when she first started on TV in 1989 (in her early 20s) on New Zealand’s first ever strip programmed (every week night) quiz show Sale of the Century.
With only two channels and being beamed into living rooms every week night at 7pm on one of them, it was a recipe for instant recognition for years, indeed decades to come. It was a swift change from being a registered nurse turned pharmaceutical rep to being recognized everywhere you went.
Jude got engaged, married, announced (3) pregnancies and proudly showed newborns to the camera over the years as the NZ public shared her journey from straight shooting tomboy in a dress (the byproduct of having three older brothers), to newlywed, then new mum.
When ‘Sale of the Century’ finished, Jude went on to anchor a slew of TVNZ prime time lifestyle shows like Paradise Picture Show, Body and Soul, Open Home, Town and Country, and NZ Living. She then hosted her own eponymously named lifestyle show for five years between 1997 and 2001 (‘5.30 with Jude’ and ‘5 o’clock with Jude Dobson’).
These shows suited her well because she loves to chat with everyone from the chief executive to the cleaner, and everyone in between seeing great value in all conversations. Everyone has a story to tell, a lesson to share, knowledge to impart, or perhaps an ‘aha’ moment to muse on. The show had all sort of interviewees - be they the famous, the fallen, the prickly and the precious. The lifestyle magazine format also provided a variety of content strands - everything from renovation, cooking, gardening, pet care and travel, to relationships, parenting, health and well-being and makeovers. It had something for everyone!
Jude presented Family Health Diary for many years, as well as picking up various other commercial and charitable projects along the way. She has also hosted and MC’ed many events, enjoying having a live audience to engage with.
When she started Homegrown in 2002, she took a break from presenting to concentrate on production and running a business (as well as producing a third child!), but still often narrated and sometimes presented her own content. “Presenting/ narrating in many ways I find to be the easy bit, having done it for years – running the production is by far the more complex job”.
Jude dusted off the on camera hat to present ‘The Liberation of Le Quesnoy’, documentary web series in 2018 for the New Zealand Herald and the full length doco in 2020 for Maori TV. She also researched, wrote, co-directed and produced the content about the northern French town and their Kiwi liberators in World War One. A trailer can be seen here.
NZ on Screen has a page about Jude and an interview clip shot June 2016 and here’s a few snippets from various shows from the ‘ninties and noughties’ vintage.
Below is a list of shows Jude has presented.
BROADCAST Shows jude has presented
1989 - 1992 | Grundy Entertainment
Sale of the Century - TV One / TV2
Co-host with Steve Parr
New Zealand’s first strip programmed (Mon - Fri) quiz show
7 pm on TV One and TV 2
Over 1000 episodes
1991 - 1992 | Touchdown Productions
Paradise Picture Show - TV2
Co-host with Mark Leishman on producer Julie Christie’s first show
Weeknight prime time lifestyle show
Conducted interviews in studio with well-known people
Field stories on all sorts - be it car racing, gold panning, or SAS confidence courses
1992 | Avalon Studios, TVNZ
Alive and Kicking - TV2
Co-host with singer Ricki Morris
Weekend health and lifestyle show aimed at teenagers
Links and interviews on set
1993 | Beyond Group
Dilemmas - TV One
Regular panelist
Advice show
5.30pm running into news
1993 - 1994 | Beyond Group
Body and Soul - TV One
Sole presenter
Prime time week night health and lifestyle show
Links plus field story where a celebrity put through a fitness test
1994 - 1995 | TVNZ
Open Home - TV One
Co-host with Dave Cull
Prime time Friday night magazine show about homes
Studio links plus field stories - house of the week and interior designer profiles
1995 | TVNZ
Town and Country - TV One
One of four rotating hosts with Jim Hickey, Ngaire Cole and Dave Cull
Prime time Friday night broad - based magazine show
Links (field based) plus field stories – houses, collectors, events
1996 | TVNZ
NZ Living - TV One
Sole host / Anchor
Prime time evolution of Town and Country with field stories filed by same team of presenters (including Jude as a field reporter as well as anchor) but broadened to include cooking with Peta Mathias
1997 - 1999 | Screentime
5.30 with Jude - TV One
Sole host / Anchor
Broad based appeal magazine show
Strip programmed five days a week running into news
Links plus field stories and interviews on set
2000 - 2001 | Screentime / Communicado
5 o’clock with Jude Dobson - TV One
Sole host. 989 eps between 1997 and 2001
Broad based appeal magazine show
Strip programmed five days a week
Links plus field stories and interviews on set
2002 - 2016 | Brandworld
Family Health Diary - TVNZ
Presenter
Health advertising
2002 - 2003 | Greenstone
How’s Life? - TV One
Regular panellist
Agony aunt advice show hosted by Charlotte Dawson
Strip programmed 5.30pm five days a week
2002 - 2004 | Homegrown Television
Homegrown x 3 series - TV One / TV2
Presenter and narrator
Magazine show about parenting from birth to teens
30 x half hours over three years (9.30am and 5pm)
2003 | Homegrown Television
Need for Speed - Prime
Presenter and narrator
One hour documentary on the Targa Rally (Jude as co-driver)
2005 | Homegrown Television
A Cot Death Inquiry - TV One
Narrator
One hour documentary about the cause of cot death/SUDI following a coroner’s case. Uncovered new possibilities for cause of death, through international medical interviews
Prime time slot (8.30pm) in Documentary New Zealand strand
2006 / 2007 | Homegrown Television
Nought to Five x 2 series - TV One / TV2
Narrator
Factual child development series, chronologically from birth to school gate. Families helped by a parenting guide to grapple with the everyday issues of the age, as well as an activity guide for the age/ stage
20 x half hours - 9.30am and 2.30pm
2008 / 2009 | Homegrown Television
Gemstones – Educational Resource
Narrator
Audio-visual resource for students in transition periods of their schooling – usually year 7 and 9, based on internationally recognised work of therapist and author Ron Philips called TSI – Therapeutic Story telling intervention
Funded by The Young New Zealanders’ Foundation, and distributed to schools
Active Movement for under-fives – Educational Resource
Narrator
An audio-visual resource spin off from Nought to Five series for Sport NZ
150,000 DVDs distributed nationwide over 2 years
2010 - 2018 | Raising Children Media
Raising Children – TVNZ Heartland /TVNZ on Demand / Website and app
Presenter and narrator
20 x half hours and 100 + short form clips
Free DVD given to every new parent by Plunket / Well Child Tamariki Ora network
Build of accompanying Raising Children website and app
2018 | Homegrown Television
The Liberation of Le Quesnoy – The New Zealand Herald
Presenter, interviewer and narrator
Docu series: 6 x 10 mins on soldier’s stories
2020 | Homegrown Television
The Liberation of Le Quesnoy – Maori TV
Presenter, interviewer and narrator
One hour ANZAC Day documentary playing at 5.30 pm
Historical documentary about NZ’s last battle in WW1 and the Northern French town they liberated with no loss of civilian life having been occupied for most of the war.