Veteran broadcaster and Waitaki District councillor Jim Hopkins has died at the age of 80.<\/p>\n
Hopkins was a regular on New Zealand screens before first being elected to the council in the Oamaru Ward in 2007.<\/p>\n
He was the deputy mayor for three years from 2010.<\/p>\n
But for decades before his move into politics, Hopkins worked both behind and in front of the camera on New Zealand television – switching between comedy and serious reporting.<\/p>\n
He was a writer for the classic soap opera Close to Home in the 1970s and later for the satirical comedy series Public Eye.<\/p>\n
He was a reporter and presenter for both news current affairs and light documentary, and wrote a best-selling book Blokes and Sheds, which became a TV series.<\/p>\n
Known for his wit, Hopkins was a regular on radio and TV panel shows and was a popular public speaker.<\/p>\n
His switch to local body politics suited him well.<\/p>\n
The Waitaki District Council said he was a “beloved” councillor who will be remembered with respect and gratitude.<\/p>\n
In a posting on its website, Mayor Mel Tavendale said he would be deeply missed.<\/p>\n
“He was a fierce advocate for the people of Waitaki, both within and beyond council, and he scrutinised every detail. He kept us all honest,” she said.<\/p>\n
“The council chamber will not be the same without him, his passionate arguments, attention to detail and incredible wit.<\/p>\n
A condolences book would be available at the council offices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Veteran broadcaster and Waitaki District councillor Jim Hopkins has died at the age of 80. Hopkins was a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-546116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}