Weekend Rewind: Screen queens

The Queen visits New Zealand arriving on the Royal liner Gothic. Photo / NZ On screen

Queen’s Birthday Weekend gets NZ On Screen Content Director thinking about queens on screen - beauty queens, drag queens, Royal queens, and more....

We've had a great range of queens on New Zealand screens over the years - from the beauty queens of the 60s, 70s and 80s, to a glorious array of drag queens, plus our largest city's main street, and of course some actual Royal queens too.

Our first screen queen selection is the famous Auckland street. The 1980 one-off TV drama Queen Street has become something of a cult classic mainly because it features a Queen St that is almost unrecognisable now, Neon Cowboy and all. The film has an NZ American Graffiti feel, and a great sound-track from hit band of the time Citizen Band. The three lead actors are Sarah Peirse, Kelly Johnson (just before Pork Pie) and Duncan Smith. The other star is a 1946 Ford Pick-Up.

View Queen Street here:

Beauty contests used to be a staple part of our television schedules, but they look a little cheesy with the passage of time. This piece is particularly high on the cheese-o-meter - it's from a 1960s NZBC "pictorial magazine show" called Looking at New Zealand, and is about the 1969 Miss New Zealand contestants, who have jobs like "typist" and interests like "frilly nighties." The narration is certainly of its time, describing the young women as "some of the natural beauties of NZ."

Watch Looking at New Zealand - Beauty Queens here

Things were looking a little more sophisticated in the beauty queen world by 1984 and the Miss New Zealand show, presented by Peter Sinclair. The live telecast became legendary when Sinclair announced the wrong winner (clip six). But Miss Auckland Barbara McDowell's sash was swiftly swapped for a crown and all was well. A retro delight is the beauty queens dancing to Cyndi Lauper's Girls Just Want to Have Fun in an Oamaru quarry.

Watch Miss New Zealand 1984 here

Drag queens have featured prominently in our dramas and entertainment shows over the years. Made in 1985, as part of a series of one-off TVNZ dramas called About Face, Jewel's Darl won critical acclaim and award nominations for its sweet and simple portrayal of the love between two transgender people Mandy and Jewel (played by actress and former politician Georgina Beyer). The drama screened at 10pm at night and almost not at all because TV executives at the time thought it might breach programme standards. It seems rather mild by today's standards.

You can see Jewel's Darl here:

And finally - an actual Royal "Queen" - in fact two of them in this film. Made by the National Film Unit in 1954, this is the official film of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh's visit to Tonga and Queen Salote. After much traditional ceremony and feasting they leave for NZ on the Royal liner Gothic, all captured in glorious crackly black and white.

View Royal Visit to the Kingdom of Tonga here:

And last but not least, the real star of Queen's Birthday Weekend - Queen Elizabeth herself. This National Film Unit newsreel film from 1954, is about the Queen and Prince Philip's tour here not long after she was crowned. The tour was 46 stops in 40 days, condensed into 25 minutes for this film.

Watch The Royal Tour of New Zealand 1953-54 here: