British television star Martin Clunes is in New Zealand to star in a brand new telefeature being filmed for TV One (NZ) and ITV1 (UK).

Production has begun on THE MAN WHO LOST HIS HEAD, a quirky, comic story about a small, dysfunctional but passionate community from one side of the world; and a tall, straight-laced but passionate man from the other side of the world.

Clunes (Doc Martin, Losing It, William and Mary, Men Behaving Badly) stars in the lead role of Ian Bennet, a curator at the British Imperial Museum who is charged with the task of returning a carved Maori head to the small coastal town of Otakataka in New Zealand.

“New Zealand is a fantastic country, with wonderful scenery. I feel very privileged to have the opportunity to work here,” says Clunes.

The telefeature boasts a top New Zealand cast featuring Nicola Kawana (Shortland Street, Mataku, Mercy Peak), Te Paki Cherington (No. 2, Greenstone, Ngati), Calvin Tuteao (Shortland Street, Whanau, Crooked Earth, Mataku), John Leigh (Outrageous Fortune, Maddigan’s Quest, Interrogation) as well as accomplished local actor/director John Callen, veteran actresses of stage and screen Elizabeth McRae and Elizabeth Hawthorne, comedian Pio Terei and award-winning newcomer Gareth Reeves (The Insiders Guide to Love). British actress Caroline Harker (Foyle’s War, A Touch of Frost, Midsomer Murders) stars as Bennet’s fiancée.

Shot entirely on location in and around Auckland, THE MAN WHO LOST HIS HEAD is a co-production between Greenlit Rights and South Pacific Pictures for ITV1 (UK) and TV One (NZ). THE MAN WHO LOST HIS HEAD is being made with funding from NZ on Air.

THE MAN WHO LOST HIS HEAD is directed by Terry Johnson (Not Only But Always, Cor Blimey!) and written by Mark Wallington (The Only Boy For Me, Not the Nine O’Clock News). Eve Gutierrez (Menace) is the Producer and Jill Green (Foyle’s War) is the Executive Producer for Greenlit Rights.

Synopsis

THE MAN WHO LOST HIS HEAD is a light-hearted contemporary telefeature focusing on Ian Bennet, a repressed British museum curator (played by well-known actor Martin Clunes), whose life is turned upside down when he is sent across the world to return an ancient Maori carving to the small fictional New Zealand town of Otakataka on the west coast of Northland.

Straitlaced Museum Curator Ian Jones (Clunes) is about to marry his boss’s daughter, Fiona (Caroline Harker). Preparations are underway and Fiona is already drawing up seating plans. So when a repatriation claim comes into the museum for a Maori carving to be returned to a remote corner of New Zealand, Ian isn’t keen to be given the job, particularly when he understands what a delicate case it is. The Ministry has told the museum to be sympathetic to the claim, and while the museum director has agreed to do this, he has no intention of letting the piece go back. Such a job needs an experienced pair of hands. The promotion that Ian has long worked for is dangled before him as reward, and he knows he can’t say no. Meanwhile, out in New Zealand a very determined Maori community is waiting for him.

The carving in question is of an old Maori chief’s son who went over to England in 1860 to buy arms. But the son was seduced and kept by a lady aristocrat and never allowed to return. In desperation, he carved a head of his own likeness and sent it back to watch over his father’s people, but it was lost on the way. Since then, it’s as if this remote Maori community has been cursed, and having at last traced the head to the museum in England, the people are intent on getting it back in place on their marae – the village sacred house - where it belongs. Only then will their luck return.

But then Ian arrives with his hidden agenda, and his bureaucratic reasons for rejecting their claim. The marae, he says, is an inadequate building to house such a precious artifact: no security, no access. Zac (Calvin Tuteao), the purist who first traced the head, is enraged: the head is sacred and must be housed in marae. He and the other elders manage to delay Ian’s return while they prepare an appeal. It’s just long enough for hard-hearted Ian to become seduced by his new surroundings. He teaches in the primary school; he drives the local bus; he becomes absorbed with the ancient myths; and all the while he knows he’s falling for a Maori woman named Lollie (Nicola Kawana).

THE MAN WHO LOST HIS HEAD is the story of a very pale fish, getting very much out of his depth as it follows Bennet from the dusty back-rooms of the British Imperial Museum to a small Kiwi town for whom the return of the likeness of Takataka is the single biggest event since the real thing left almost 200 years ago.

Key Cast

• Ian - Martin Clunes (Doc Martin, Losing It, William and Mary)
• Lollie - Nicola Kawana (Shortland Street, Mataku, Mercy Peak)
• Uncle Hohepa - Te Paki Cherington (No. 2, Greenstone, Ngati)
• Fiona Harrison - Caroline Harker (Foyle’s War, A Touch of Frost, Midsomer Murders)
• Nigel Harrison John Callen (Feathers of Peace, Shortland Street (director)
• Zac - Calvin Tuteao (Crooked Earth, Whanau, Shortland Street)

Key creatives

• Executive Producer - John Barnett (Whale Rider, Sione’s Wedding, Outrageous Fortune)
• Producer - Eve Gutierrez (Menace)
• Writer - Mark Wallington (The Only Boy For Me, Not the Nine O’Clock News)
• Director - Terry Johnson (Not Only But Always, Cor Blimey!)
• DOP - David Odd (BSC) (Losing Gemma, The Line of Beauty, Foyle’s War)
• Production Design - Gary Mackay (Maddigan’s Quest, Lord of the Rings)

Costume Design - Barbara Darragh (Bridge to Terebithia, River Queen)

Make-up and Hair - Deb Watson (The Grudge 2, Perfect Creature, King Kong)