Monday is ANZAC Day here in New Zealand. So I thought it apt to re-watch the 1998 television series The New Zealand Wars over this weekend.
This evening I watched the first two episodes from my newly-purchased DVD set of the series. These two programmes dealt with the Northern (Flagstaff) War and the Wellington and Wanganui battles of the 1840s, and the Taranaki War in the 1860s. The 1840s episodes were wonderfully inspiring stuff for gaming with the new Empress Miniatures figures.
I had quite forgotten how good this series was, no matter whether you agree or disagree with writer James Belich’s rather contentious conclusions on the wars.
Some video clips from the series are available here: http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/the-new-zealand-wars-1998
And there’s an interesting write-up here: http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/the-new-zealand-wars-1998/background