Ask to use material, get more information or tell us about an item
Spectrum was a long-running weekly radio documentary series which captured the essence of New Zealand from 1972 to 2016. Alwyn Owen and Jack Perkins produced the series for many years, creating a valuable library of New Zealand oral history.
This episode is a portrait of Ian Brackenbury-Channell, the Wizard of Christchurch.
Producer Stephen Riley spends the day with Brackenbury-Channell, who is described as a ‘political party leader, master cosmologer, self-confessed confidence man, living work of art and the wizard of Christchurch’.
Brackenbury-Channell is 43 at the time of recording and has established himself as a public entertainer. He offers lectures in Cathedral Square, designed to convince the people of Christchurch that nothing is as serious as they might believe. By avoiding work, Brackenbury-Channell avoids money. He lives in a small flat, borrows a bicycle, and reckons he scrapes by.
Jack, as Brackenbury-Channell is known to his friends, is seeking recognition as a living work of art. He is hoping to be collected by the Christchurch Art Gallery. Brackenbury-Channell and Riley browse the gallery. They stop at a painting called In The Wizard’s Garden by George Leslie. Brackenbury-Channell describes the painting, observing that, much like the ominous figure in the background of the painting, he too is not up to much good.
Brackenbury-Channell hopes that he will convince people that all they believe to be true is not. He brings a feeling of unreality everywhere he goes. A feat only those who can master reality can manage.
We hear Brackenbury-Channell addressing the public in the Square. He speaks about his belief that the South is up and North is down, and we hear about his political beliefs. Brackenbury-Channell finds he is well accepted within Christchurch because (he says ) it is a conservative town and wizards are very conservative people.He believes only a wizard can save Christchurch from progressive ideas.