Going out at the peak of their game

By GREG DIXON


It may have been all that good country air around the Mercy Peak vineyard. Or perhaps the complicated lives of the good people of Bassett — population still 5058 and growing — suggested life was never a dull moment on this side of the Tasman.

Whatever it was, Mercy Peak's Australian star Renato Bartolomei and his TV producer girlfriend Tina have bought their own piece of Godzone.

Now, while the arrival of Australians on New Zealand soil is not something to be encouraged — Tourism New Zealand be damned — Bartolomei gets a good leave pass for saying and doing all the right things.

The couple have fallen for us, he announces over coffee and cigarettes. So the decision naturally followed that they should base themselves in New Zealand.

In December they moved on to their 2ha lifestyle block in the wild, rolling green of South Head. It came with a farm house the same age as him -- 40 -- and flash views of the Kaipara Harbour.

"I've been living here six months a year for the past four years. The first year I stayed in Princess Wharf. The next year was Mt Eden, the following Muriwai. This year South Head.

"We fell in love with the place. It made our decision for us. And as an actor, you spend half of your life waiting for the next job. So you might as well wait somewhere beautiful."

Rather surprisingly, having spent so long in Mercy Peak's country-town drama, he was astonished at just how friendly country folk are.

"I was a little bit concerned about what we would do with the land when we went back to Australia [to work], with grass growing and three chickens pumping out eggs. But within four or five hours on our first day there the next door neighbours rocked up and solved all the problems."

They now have the neighbours' calves grazing on their land -- the deal: free meat for grass -- but that's not the long-term plan. Olives -- well, he is half Italian -- are apparently the go.

Certainly his days of growing grapes as Mercy Peak's proud, grumpy winemaker Kieran Masefield have come to an end.

The show, which premiered in July 2001, has not been renewed by TVNZ -- despite good ratings numbers -- and this series, the sixth, will be the last.

Bartolomei says he is baffled by the show's canning.

"To have planned to do 20 episodes and end up doing 60, we have to be happy with that. But I think the cast felt really sorry for [executive producer and writer] Rachel Lang, who maybe hasn't received enough accolades for what she has done.

"There is a finite time that you can keep a thing good -- and that's a script thing. But I think Mercy Peak could have rocked on for quite a long time."

The show, he says, has suffered a little from the way it has been programmed in 10-episode lots with huge breaks in between. But there has been much more recognition of the show in the past year or so, he believes.

Certainly Mercy Peak picked two more gongs at the New Zealand Television Awards last year. And with TVNZ's charter firmly in place, it is rather hard to see how canning established, award-winning dramas like Peak and Street Legal fits with the Government's directive to put more of New Zealand on air.

TVNZ says while Mercy Peak has been a great performer, it was felt the storylines had come to a natural conclusion. Meanwhile, TVNZ's new drama commissioner, Chris Gist, is developing a number of new projects.

"It costs a lot of money to start a new show and it may not work," Bartolomei says. "There's a bit of a weird thing with film and television, everything can be right seemingly, but it doesn't work: 'Oops, oh well, we'll do another'. And a lot of money goes into that one.

"That [through New Zealand On Air] is costing taxpayers a lot of money when they already have shows that are running positively, rating well like [the also axed] Street Legal and Mercy Peak.

"Regardless of what you might think of them, if they're paying their way that's a better situation for taxpayers. Money-wise, even if it's bad, if it's rating [why can it]? You expect businessmen, who don't care about quality, to keep it going for that reason alone."

Bartolomei's frustration could also have a little to do with his character Kieran finally coming to front-stage in the last 10 episodes. We learn more about why Kieran and his estranged wife Amanda (Katie Wolfe) have had their odd relationship, and an unsolved local murder spices up his story, too.

Kieran was a well-drawn character from show one, Bartolomei says, though like any TV show that goes for any length of time, all the characters tend to be moulded by what the actors choose to do with them.

"But the ground work was set pretty solidly, that Kieran was a bit of a loner, a weirdo, moody kinda guy.

"It's taken quite a long time to reveal much about Kieran — which was the plan that Rachel Lang had. It's only this series that audiences get to learn quite a lot more about him and why he is the way he is. The audience also gets to see him happy for the first time.

"I would have hated it if he'd stayed this mono-dimensional, grumpy old bastard. There's a story arc for him — which is a brave thing to do in TV. Are the audience watching the arc or do they just tune in now and then?"

Bartolomei's mother, a New Zealand-born actress, was determined that he would never tread the boards. And it took a rather long time before the acting bug took hold.

Though he did drama at school, Bartolomei went to university for a psychology degree. To pay his way, he managed a hotel in north Melbourne, where he was spotted by a casting agent and asked to appear in a TV commercial. More followed and then suddenly he found himself with an agent and cast in a series called

Family And Friends, in 1990.

"It was one of the most expensive disasters Channel Nine has ever had," he hoots.

It didn't kill his career. He went on to roles in popular Aussie shows like Flying Doctors, Blue Heelers, Water Rats and Halifax FP. But it was a four-show role in Xena: Warrior Princess that first brought him across the Ditch. He had a ball, he says.

"I found a real difference working in New Zealand. The industry is just more pleasant — that's the only way I can describe it. I went back to Australia feeling quite sad about leaving."

But it wasn't long before a phone call from our side of the Tasman drew him back here.

He was sent six scripts for Mercy Peak, but he was already half in because he wanted to come back here — the fishing's great, apparently.

"The scripts were incredibly good. I was really surprised.

I hadn't seen a lot of New Zealand TV drama. It was as good as it gets for that kind of television. It was certainly as good as anything in Australia."

It is also, he says, unusual to work with a group of actors and not have at least one ego maniac among them. Indeed, one important reason the show is what it is is because of lead Sara Wiseman (Dr Nicky Somerville), he believes.

"She had the bulk of the work to do on that show. She was pretty much 10 hours a day, five days a week, year in year out. For three years she was just so consistent, focused, positive and generous. She's a great actress and just a delight."

Great and humble talent! Beautiful scenery! Good fishing! It's no wonder after years of three-hour plane trips to paradise, he has finally settled here with the aim of working on both sides of the Tasman.

And the work keeps coming. He has finished playing a pirate in a kids' film shot here called The Secrets Of Treasure Island, made by Daybreak Pictures and starring Randy Quaid. And he is in negotiations for another role here this year.

"It may not work out in a couple of years. But worst case scenario is that we've spent those years in a beautiful part of the world."