Popular radio broadcaster Kim Hill loves being able to talk to "interesting people" for as long as she wants to but says she hates being filmed.
"I hate it. With every atom of my being. The reason I'm on the radio is because it didn't have pictures. And now it's got pictures," she told RNZ’s Afternoons.
The former RNZ host — with an impressive 21 years at the helm of Saturday Morning — is back in New Zealand ears with a new series of Kim Hill Wants to Know.
Now freed from the tyranny of the pips, she can talk at length to people she finds interesting, she says.
"There's a broadcaster in Britain, a really good guy called James O'Brien. And he does a podcast, which is basically what I do, only he does it much better.
"And he said, 'look, the reason I'm doing this is that you can talk as long as you want and you don't have to worry. Time goes by and that's it, you know, you just talk as long as you want to interesting people'."
Hill is famous for her longform conversations with scientists, historians, theologians, psychiatrists and authors, as well as some highly charged interviews which “went south”.
In 1993, she had a memorable interaction with British politician and author Jeffrey Archer (who died last month).
"I was reminded of an old journalistic adage that I was only reminded of the other day, actually.
"And it's if you stand in a bend in the river long enough, you see the dead bodies of your enemies floating by," Kim Hill told RNZ’s Bookmarks.
"He was a shocker. I'd only just started on Nine to Noon when Jeffrey Archer came in. And so, I was just, I was shocked. I was shaken… and quite terrorised. I mean, he was a terrible bully. And not only to me. He was a shocker."
Another famous encounter was with British author and "charmer" Tony Parsons, who hung up partway through an interview.
'"You've got your head up your ass’, I never got to the bottom of that, so to speak.
"But The Listener chased him down and they showed him a photograph of me and he said, 'oh, I didn't realise she was so old'."
Hill has spoken to people from all walks of life, with an array of different opinions, opinions she often finds convincing on the moment, she says.
"I'm always convinced by people I talk to, you know? I can change my mind on a dime.
"Except when it comes to Harry Mowbray, who I think is a complete idiot. There's no way you're going to change my mind on that guy."
Kim Hill's picks
Music
'What's Wrong With Me' - Olivia Rodrigo ft Robert Smith lead singer of The Cure
"And he's on the video, he looks like he's been dug up. I mean, he's always been gothy. But seriously, he looks like he's been disinterred."
Books
Night Ma - Elizabeth Knox
"A series of calamities that struck her family in a relatively short space of time. Extraordinarily candid and somehow the sort of quotidian routine of caring for people is just riveting to read."
The Garden Against Time - Olivia Laing.
"About a garden that they restored in Suffolk in England. It's a memoir, it's about plants, it's about gardening, it's about literature, it's about history, it's about the history of gardening and landscaping - and it's absolutely fascinating."
Songs from the Firefront - Tim Winton
Cloud Street is one of his most famous books but he wrote Juice, which we talked about, as well as his latest one, which is a collection of essays, Songs from the Firefront and he's very, very attached to climate change at the moment.
"And he's got this refreshingly full-throated contempt for the fossil fuel industry."
Film and TV
The One about Mathew Perry – Netflix
The Morning Show – Apple TV
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