The pandemic has bought its fair share of issues to the set of many film and TV sets over the past 24 months, none more so than The Brokenwood Mysteries, New Zealand's most successful international series.
The show was scheduled to wrap filming its eighth series in November last year, but due to 2021's long-lasting Auckland lockdown, is only now just seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and will finish work on the final episode this month.
On the sunny side, however, well-known guest stars, who otherwise might not have been available had it not been for current international border restrictions, will appear in the series.
Spy mentioned last week that international jet-setter Kimberley Crossman is set to make an appearance. Former Shortland Street bombshell Kerry-Lee Dewing managed to get back to NZ from her new home in Australia for a visit for Christmas, and quickly found herself on a working holiday when she was cast in a Country and Western-themed episode of the series.
Dewing was set to star in a new series of Dancing with the Stars in 2020 after leaving her long tenure at Shortland Street as series superstar nurse Kylie Brown, before the pandemic put paid to plans for a live show. She then headed to Sydney to make a new life with her partner not long after NZ closed its borders.
