Sunday a good day for Arts

A phenomenon is appearing on one of our TV channels each week. Sunday - that's Prime's Sunday (4-6pm), not the TV One Sunday - always includes a substantial arts feature, effortlessly woven into the programme's magazine-style mix. Although Sunday is Australian, made by Channel Nine which now owns Prime, don't hold that against them because the show is made by intelligent broadcasters who pitch their work to an intelligent audience. There is much to be learned here. The standard of care and professionalism means it's a pleasure to watch the Sunday investigative team get to work on a slimy politician or corrupt businessman, but it's the programme's arts and film coverage that is sheer heaven.

In recent weeks Sunday has featured stories about sculptor Bert Flugelman (whose large works adorn Taylor Square in central Sydney), a tribute to the late actor Ruth Cracknell, and profiles of actor Rachel Griffiths (Six Feet Under) and satirist Max Gillies. Yesterday the programme turned the spotlight on American writer-composer James McBride, who penned The Color of Water.

Sunday's art reporters don't patronise their subjects and they cram a lot of information into each segment without being preachy. But what I like most about Sunday is the way it treats the arts as a perfectly normal, acceptable part of its lineup. So grownup.

And what do we have on TV One, TV2, TV3 and TV4? Absolutely zip. Arts coverage on New Zealand television has never been more parlous. In the past, TV One programmer Karen Bieleski has defended her channel's shameful deficits by pointing to series like The Big Art Trip and Mercury Lane, but she is missing the point. The Big Art Trip, returning to TV One "later in the year", is a fleeting gesture; a temporary token effort which evades any commitment to integrated arts programming on a long-term basis.

Meanwhile, Mercury Lane hasn't received New Zealand On Air funding approval yet. If it receives it, it will not screen until next year. That's one arts series on one channel in one year. And where are all the excellent overseas documentaries the networks have access to, such as The South Bank Show? Not here, that's for sure. Instead, the programmers are obsessed with "docos" about those cultural icons Robbie, Kylie and Beckham. Pathetic - but it does make Sunday and Prime look pretty good.