What: Stolen: The Baby Kahu Story
Where: TV3
When: Wednesday, 8:30pm
Two of New Zealand's high-profile and fascinating crimes - one about a philanderer who poisoned his wife, the other about a kidnapping - are retold this week in TV dramas.
TV One's Bloodlines, which screened last week, is based on conniving South African-born and Dunedin-based psychiatrist Dr Colin Bouwer, who murdered his wife Annette by poisoning her. Using his medical knowledge and cunning he thought he had pulled off the perfect murder. But then in stepped a young doctor by the name of Andrew Bowers (played by Outrageous Fortune's Craig Hall). He ordered an autopsy which revealed how she died.
Playing a part in bringing Bouwer to justice was detective Brett Roberts (Shortland Street's Will Hall) who uncovered Bouwer's trail of deception.
Directed by Peter Burger - who also did the drama Until Proven Innocent about the wrongful imprisonment of David Dougherty - Bloodlines stars Mark Mitchinson as Colin Bouwer, and Nathalie Boltt (District 9) as Annette.
In 2001 Bouwer was sentenced to life with a non-parole period of 15 years for the murder. In a bizarre twist, at about the same time in South Africa his son from a previous marriage was also convicted of killing his wife.
Bloodlines is the first of the one-off dramas this year on TV One, including Nights In The Gardens Of Spain, based on the Witi Ihimaera novel about a man who is forced to reveal his lifelong secret that he is gay, and Spies And Lies, a story based in New Zealand during World War II starring Outrageous Fortune's Antony Starr as trickster Syd Ross. Meanwhile, on TV3, Stolen: The Baby Kahu Story, tells about the 2002 kidnapping of 8-month-old Kahu Durie, the adopted daughter of a Maori High Court judge, Justice Eddie Durie (played by George Henare), and high-profile lawyer Donna Hall (Miriama Smith).
Written by Tim Balme and directed by Britta Johnstone, it looks at the gunpoint abduction by 54-year-old Terence Traynor (Nick Blake) and the eight-day search for her.
During this time Traynor sent Hall and Durie a ransom demand of $3 million - the biggest in New Zealand history.
Traynor was found at a secluded house in Taumarunui.
