Australians are the villains in star-studded New Zealand spy comedy

Australians are the villains in star-studded New Zealand spy comedy Wed 29 Jul 2026 at 4:30am Paul Williams has always been fascinated by spies. As a young boy growing up in Nelson, Aotearoa/New Zealand, he would rent out a different James Bond film every week from the video shop. And the obsession didn't end with childhood. "It's weird I even remember it, but when I was 16, I had this blog that no-one followed, and I remember writing: 'I'm going to be James Bond one day, just you wait'," Williams laughs. "Like it was a really sincere, horrible post." Now, Williams has kind of made his dream come true. He's the creator, writer and star of new comedy TV series, New Zealand Spy. Bringing together a clutch of the funniest people in Oceania (and beyond), it's a wacky, deadpan series set in the New Zealand spy agency at some point in the 1960s or 70s. Williams plays Michael Brown (a name he quickly changes to Michael Riviera, for more spy appeal), a rather hapless naif recruited alongside the only other people to apply: Sue Nightingale, played by the inimitable Rose Matafeo (Starstruck), and Michael Anderson (yes, another Michael), given snooty aplomb by Joe Thomas (The Inbetweeners). After two weeks' training, the three must find out what the evil Australians (played with true relish by the likes of Tony Armstrong and Andy Lee) are scheming about on New Zealand soil. When the opening scene shows Paul Williams's character zipping down a snow-covered mountain in a flared snowsuit, bullets whizzing past him, you realise that he's pulled it off. Oscar-winner Bret McKenzie (Flight of the Conchords) also leapt at the chance to join the cast, playing a character only known as Boss. We caught up with the pair to see just what it was like to live out their childhood dreams. How did you turn your love of spies into this show? Paul Williams: During COVID, Sam Campbell, who plays the gadget guy, he got a little writing group going on email, where every week there would be a different theme. I don't actually remember what the theme was, but I wrote one about a spy in Nelson at the Rutherford Hotel, which is like Nelson's nicest hotel. And my wife read it, and she was like, 'This should be a TV show'. And that was where it started. Bret McKenzie: I came in right near the end. Paul had done all the hard work and made the whole show and spent hours and weeks getting it up on its feet. And then I get to cruise in and just goof around. But I got sent the script, and I just thought it was a really, really funny, strong idea. And it was one of those scripts when I read it, I thought, 'Damn, I wish I'd written this.' PW: Ohh, stop it. BM: Even reading the script, I was like, 'This is going to be a fun show to make'. I've always loved spy stories; as a kid I was always kind of amazed by the creativity of the heroes. I remember one time I watched Indiana Jones and then I went home and I spent hours trying to get a bit of rope to tie itself around a log. You know, he managed to get his whip to create a knot and then swing on it. So, I spent maybe eight hours just throwing this rope, trying to get it to circle around. I got it to work once. Was there a reason you wanted to make it a retro setting? PW: I think I've always been drawn to the past, especially as an aesthetic, but also I think so many movies could be spoiled by just sending texts or, you know, having computers and phones. And with modern spy stuff, there's just so much technology and stuff that I think it's maybe nice to get away from that and just go back to sort of old school. You know, having to run places… BM: There's a lot of great running sequences in the show. A lot of strong running material. PW: The first short films that I made, if you can call them that, as a 14-year-old probably, they were all just people running. So, this is basically just still that. BM: Quite amusingly, I thought it was set in the present day. And I showed up on set, and I was like, 'Oh, they've gone for real kind of Scandinavian mid-century sort of styling.' And then I was like, 'Everyone's wearing old suits. Okay, that's cool. It's like they all shop at op shops.' It took me quite a while to go, 'Wait a minute, you guys, is it actually set in the 60s or 70s?' Often on New Zealand shows the budgets are small, so these kinds of things slip through the cracks. But it felt like the whole crew was just really bringing the A game, making it look really cool. It seems everyone in the cast is having a lot of fun. What was it like to film? PW: It definitely felt like it was kind of a Make-A-Wish for me, where everyone was there just making my childhood dreams come true. Every day was just really fun. It was always like, today you're skiing and today you're riding a bike and today you're climbing up a thing. BM: It was cool getting to work with Paul and Rose Matafeo and Joe Thomas — they're all such amazing comic actors, so it's fun being across the table from these three real pros, but from a kind of different generation to me. It was pretty buzzy. Was it hard to get all those big names on board, or was everyone just excited? PW: I mean, I was super stoked that everyone could do it. It felt kind of moving when people would be keen. I was like, 'Really?!' But yeah, I was really, really lucky. I'm friends with pretty much everyone, so it was a bit like they just came to help out. The wildest was Tim Key [from the UK]. He was going to come for longer and get to see a bit more of New Zealand, but then he had to go back. He ended up flying all the way, basically filming for a day, and then he had one day where I took him out to see a nice beach and we went and walked to a waterfall. But then he was on a plane all the way back to London and it's like, 'Oh my gosh, thanks so much.' Both of you have a musical background, were you tempted to bring some musical comedy into the show? PW: I definitely thought of it. But it is quite hard to work a song, I think, into the spy genre. If there's a season two, there's got to be some sort of song. BM: Just a random, unexplained, musical episode — an opium dream. Or like a kind of Bond theme song would be cool, right? Get Lorde to sing it, instant classic. PW: Oh, wow, yeah. BM: But Paul did do some of the work on the score. PW: Me and Stephen Gallagher, who is a composer in Wellington, we did the score and that was so fun. We got proper musicians to record it, and I was tearing up, seeing these string sections playing. It was really cool, having essentially some of the best classical musicians in New Zealand playing my probably-way-too-basic stuff. I found myself saying sorry a lot to these people. BM: It's probably the same players who played the Lord of the Rings soundtrack. I love that the Australians are the villains. Was that always the plan or did it just kind of end up that way? PW: I mean, we have that kind of sibling dynamic, so it felt like just the right thing to do. Hopefully Australians don't mind that they're sort of villainous in it. Again, if there's a season two, there could be a bit of an ANZAC alliance. BM: There's something ridiculous about New Zealanders being angry and taking on the Australians. It's a pretty fertile area for comedy. Speaking of the villain [played by Andy Lee], I was watching with my family, like 'Yeah, come and watch me being the boss' and then Andy Lee comes on, and he's fully chiselled. And my wife goes, 'Whoa, Andy's like a real movie star.' PW: Yeah, he looks incredible in a white linen suit. They need to get him to Hollywood ASAP.