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Short Poppies

television series

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 7, 2026
Entity authorityQ17064231
Source-derived summary

Short Poppies is a New Zealand mockumentary TV series starring, created and written by Rhys Darby and directed by Jemaine Clement and Michelle Walshe.

It follows real-life entertainment reporter David Farrier as he talks to "extraordinary" New Zealanders who happen to live in the same small fictional town known as "The Bay". At the time of filming, Farrier worked for TVNZ's competitor, MediaWorks.

All eight episodes became available in New Zealand on 1 April 2014 through TVNZ On Demand and became available in the United States on 4 April 2014.

Characters

All of the Short Poppies characters David Farrier interviews are played by Rhys Darby.

Terry Pole

Terry Pole is a lifeguard who enters and reclaims the title of "Best Legs" in the local competition. He has a one-sided soulmate relationship with Georgina (played by Georgia Hatzis), is good friends with Policeman Mike (played by Jonno Roberts) and is picked on by the other lifeguards. He is oblivious to most things going on around him, unless it is to do with his legs, including Georgina telling him they are not a couple or that one of the lifeguards has a crush on him.

Steve Whittle

Steve Whittle is a ufologist and conspiracy theorist who runs an alien abduction workshop at the library. He lives with his musician girlfriend, Elise (played by Jackie van Beek) and his mother, Tessa (played by Annie Whittle) who does not like Elise.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Short Poppies” as television series. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2014—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Short, Poppies and television can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as television series. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17064231. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2014.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Short Poppies”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Short Poppies primary sources, Short Poppies archive and Short research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Short Poppies”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Short Poppies” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.