Arthur Baysting

Arthur Baysting is a writer, producer and children’s advocate. He grew up in Nelson and now lives in Auckland with his partner, artist Jean Clarkson. They have two grown-up children.

From the 1990s onward, Baysting became well known for his advocacy of NZ music. Before this he worked as a journalist, scriptwriter and stand up comedian.

In Australia, his children's songs, co-written with Peter Dasent, have become popular through the ABC show Play School and recordings by the singer and its host Justine Clarke.

Early in his writing career Baysting was a journalist with the magazine NZ Listener and published books of poetry. In 1977, Baysting (with Ian Mune) wrote the screenplay for Roger Donaldson’s feature film Sleeping Dogs, a film credited with kick-starting the modern NZ film industry. He also collaborated with Donaldson on the series, Winners and Losers, and with Mune, on the children’s television serial, The Mad Dog Gang.

Baysting and his partner became members of the alternative theatre group Red Mole for their seven-month season at Wellington's Carmen's Balcony. Baysting was the cabaret's MC and his character, Neville Purvis, became one of New Zealand's early stand up comedians. Purvis later starred in his own television series, The Neville Purvis Family Show. This ended controversially in 1979 with Purvis apologising for the bad language in the series and adding, "at least we never said f**k," thereby becoming the first person to say the forbidden word on NZ television. Following complaints to the police, and media publicity around this event, free-lance work was scarce, and in 1980 Baysting and Clarkson moved to Sydney. While in Australia he was signed to Mushroom Music Publishing, later shifting administration of his repertoire to Origin Music.

The couple moved back to NZ in 1985 where Baysting wrote scripts for the production company The Gibson Group, including the satirical sketch series Public Eye and the tele-feature Undercover (featuring a very young Cliff Curtis).

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