The start of filming last November for the second season of A Remarkable Place to Die should have been a happy time. After all, the first season had been one of the highest-rating and most streamed local dramas of 2024. And it had been a hit for the overseas broadcasters who had co-funded it, picking up a million viewers per episode on Australia’s Channel 9, and becoming the No 1 drama on public German broadcaster ZDF’s streaming platform.
Its success meant orders for a longer second season of the show centred on Chelsie Preston Crayford’s Anais Mallory, a police detective who had returned to Queenstown after the death of her younger sister to unravel that mystery in between working through her caseload of sometimes quirky homicides.
But a week before filming was to begin, the show’s writer, John Banas, died suddenly, aged 76.
Starting as a stage actor and director in Wellington in the 1970s, Banas’s screenwriting career stretched back to local cop drama Mortimer’s Patch in the early 1980s. Shifting to Australia, he became a writer on shows such as Blue Heelers, Water Rats, All Saints and City Homicide. In the 2010s, he was back in demand on this side of the Tasman, with a run of true-crime dramas including Siege, How to Murder Your Wife and Dear Murderer.
All were made by production house Screentime and executive produced by the company’s CEO Philly de Lacey. After earlier success with Waiheke Island-set crime series The Gulf, which also did well on ZDF, de Lacey was formulating something that could be made in her home patch of Queenstown. She roped in Banas.
“John had been like my work husband. He and I had been together for at least 15 years on tons of great shows, and he was such an amazing writer,” says de Lacey from Screentime’s Queenstown studios.
“[His death] rocked everyone, particularly me … it was awful. We were about a week out from the first day of filming when he passed away, and it was a complete shock. I was working with him the night before. He was actually sending me emails at 2am, and then he passed away a few hours later.”
The first series of Remarkable cast the writer’s daughter, NZ-born Australian star Michala Banas (also featuring in Kiwi-made cosy crime show Blue Murder Motel), in a case-of-the-week storyline. Her character returns as Kylie, Mallory’s new best friend in season two, who’s house-sitting for Mallory’s absent mother (Rebecca Gibney).
“I think it was really hard for her at the last read-through because she felt like it was the last of her dad’s words … but I think she just felt chuffed that she was part of it and that she was able to cherish his memory. I think it was valuable for Michala to be part of his story-making.”
De Lacey brought in other writers to finish and touch up shooting scripts. Already nailed down was episode three, written by Dahnu Graham, who plays Constable Jarrod Renner and was being mentored by Banas.
“There are some unique themes in there, particularly from a Māori point of view, that Dahnu brought to the table. And things that I haven’t seen on television in New Zealand before that have come from his own personal experiences,” says de Lacey. Preston Crayford calls it “my favourite episode of this show we’ve ever filmed”.
Elsewhere, the cases continue to tap in to the peculiarities of life in the region. One involves keeping the local rabbit population at bay. “If you know any Queenstowners who have got a piece of land down here, you know that we’re constantly trying to figure out how to keep our rabbits under control and let our gardens win.” Another was shot against the background of the Oceania Mountain Bike Championships in March last year.
Behind those is an overarching investigation that, from the first episode previewed, looks to be heading into serial killer territory and might make for quite a juggling act.
“It was very challenging to navigate the tone of that. I think we’ve got it right. The last episode of the series definitely pushes the boat out a bit. We won’t be doing serial killers again. But it’s actually a fun ride, and we felt like we needed to pay off what happened in season one in season two. When season two wraps up, we’ve got a bit of a clean slate in terms of where we’re going with the serial stories.”
De Lacey says the writers are in the middle of creating a third season of the show also known as Queenstown Murders: Zum Sterben schön.
“Basically, the key thing we want to do in each episode is delve into a different world of Queenstown, whether it’s adventure tourism, viticulture, old-school farming families, tech billionaires, tourists, adventuring, farming or the horsey culture. We try to explore the people within that world and create a great story around how people can clash, where feuds come from and, ultimately, murders.”
A Remarkable Place to Die: TVNZ 1, from Sunday, September 13, 8.30pm, and TVNZ+.