SPP Dramatising Polkinghorne Trial

The Mysterious Death of Pauline Hanna: a limited drama series in development centred around the murder trial that captivated New Zealand

AUCKLAND, New Zealand, 10 October 2024: South Pacific Pictures together with UK-based Joejack Entertainment and Sinner Films are developing an original limited drama series The Mysterious Death of Pauline Hanna – centred around the high-profile eight-week murder trial in Auckland, where Philip Polkinghorne was found not guilty of murdering his wife, Pauline Hanna, in 2021.

This tragic story has gripped New Zealand, but it’s also a very human story that will resonate with people everywhere.

The series show runners will be David Murdoch and Caleb Ranson, with John Deery confirmed as series director. Producers are Kelly Martin, David Murdoch and John Deery.

To those on the outside looking in, Pauline and Philip appeared to be living the dream; a highly successful couple with great careers, wealth, a beautiful home in an upmarket suburb, a loving family and caring friends.

But over the eight-week trial, the jury were presented with a very different picture: sex and Methamphetamine addiction, affairs, a long-term relationship with an Australian sex worker, money worries, arguments and depression.

Their lives were laid bare for not just the jury, but for their family and friends and the wider New Zealand public.

Everyone had a view on whether Philip Polkinghorne, a once respected pillar of the community, had murdered his wife. The jury didn’t believe Pauline committed suicide, but the Crown couldn’t prove that Philip killed her. So what really happened?

Deery said, “I am pleased to be working with such an experienced international creative team that we have assembled. This will be a landmark series for me to direct, based on this tragic true story.

“Did Philip Polkinghorne murder his wife in order to take her money and run off with another woman?

“Why did Pauline Hanna stay with him when their marriage was clearly not working? Does being a ‘bad person’ in the eyes of the public and media automatically mean you’re a killer? Or was it – as the Defence claimed – a tragic cry for help by Pauline, a suicide attempt that went tragically wrong?

“The drama will be told through the eyes of all the victims and, as the jury did, the audience will make up its own mind.”

Kelly Martin, CEO of South Pacific Pictures said: “Pauline Hanna’s life has been laid bare for the world to judge.

“In developing a drama series around these events, we want to understand why things ended the way they did for this intelligent, driven woman – and why Pauline’s seemingly glamourous life unravelled in a haze of escorts, drugs, and alcohol ultimately leading- in one way, or another- to her tragic death.

“This goes beyond the salacious headlines of meth and sex workers – it’s a story about the cost of addiction and the pressures facing Pauline Hanna – pressures which ended in a tragedy that became a national obsession.”

By presenting the facts of the case in a responsible, forensic, and non-judgmental way, The Mysterious Death of Pauline Hanna will let the audience decide.

A New Zealand television network is supporting the development of the project. The producers are in talks with a major New Zealand writer to come on board, and the series is yet to be cast.