Love my way

The new series of Brokenwood Mysteries kicks off with an obsessed fan and a certain doctor living out his pop-star fantasies.

- RUSSELL BROWN

An 80s pop star goes back on the road with old songs and new, convinced that he's still got it. He kicks off his comeback tour in ... Brokenwood. Yes, of course someone's going to wind up dead.

The Brokenwood Mysteries writer-producer Tim Balme knew exactly who he wanted to play James Hathaway, the fluffy, deluded frontman of 80s heartthrobs Stolen Arrow - and he wouldn't go ahead if he couldn't get his man. That might not be easy, because Michael Galvin is usually very busy playing Dr Chris Warner on Shortland Street.

“I made sure he could be excused from Shortland Street at the time we needed him before writing it. If he wasn't available, I would've shelved it.”

It probably helped that both shows are made by South Pacific Pictures.

It also helps that Balme and Galvin went to drama school together and before they both started on Shortland Street, they harmonised as the Everly Brothers in the hit Ken Duncum play Blue Sky Boys.

So Balme knew Galvin could sing, and that he was an aficionado of 80s music.