Television personality, writer and long-serving Waitaki district councillor Jim Hopkins is being remembered for his wit, comedy and advocacy for the underdog.<\/p>\n
Cr Hopkins died in the early hours of\u00a0Monday aged 79.<\/p>\n
He made his name in screenwriting and broadcasting and later served on the Waitaki District Council for almost two decades.<\/p>\n
Waitaki District Mayor Mel Tavendale said Cr Hopkins had a \u201cmassive sense of humour and personality that certainly lightened the mood many times at council\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cJim was a natural orator, a media legend, a sharp and generous mind\u00a0and someone who always seemed to find his way to the side of the underdog,\u201d she said in a Facebook post.<\/p>\n
\u201cAcross New Zealand he was known \u2014 and, at times, famously or infamously known \u2014 as a broadcaster, columnist, author, debater and MC.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a performer in the very best sense of the word: intelligent, satirical, quick-witted\u00a0and always entertaining.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut beneath the comedy, the performance and the razor-sharp wit was a man who cared deeply \u2014 about fairness, about people, about community\u00a0and about this place we call home.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the 1970s, he wrote\u00a0for the soap opera Close to Home.<\/p>\n
The broadcaster hosted the national Young Farmer competition final for 21 years, until\u00a0 2011.<\/p>\n
His television credits included Inventions from the Shed, The Gong Show, Jim Hopkins Live and Critically Speaking.<\/p>\n
The district council issued a statement on its website.<\/p>\n
\u201cJim Hopkins is well known across New Zealand as a radio and television host, scriptwriter and author, and for the past two decades he devoted himself to the people of Waitaki through his role as a councillor,\u201d\u00a0it said.<\/p>\n
Cr Hopkins was elected on to the council as Oamaru ward councillor in 2007 and remained in office until his death.<\/p>\n
He served for three years as deputy mayor from 2010.<\/p>\n
Before his time in Waitaki, he served four terms on the Banks Peninsula council.<\/p>\n
Waitaki District Council chief executive Alex Parmley extended his condolences.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are working with Jim\u2019s family to provide a fitting farewell for a deeply community-minded man whose commitment is something we can all look up to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A condolences book will be available at the council for people to sign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Television personality, writer and long-serving Waitaki district councillor Jim Hopkins is being remembered for his wit, comedy and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-547086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547086","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=547086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}