Hosted by Kiwi personality Mike King, The Nutters Club is a multimedia radio, TV and online mental health awareness, help and support service which began in 2009. Mike has been incredibly open about his history of mental health issues including addiction. His willingness to start a frank and honest dialogue about the subject late one night when guest hosting a talkback radio show, spawned an inspirational project that still continues today.
The live radio show that welcomes caller input and questions, started on RadioLive and ran for three years before moving to Newstalk ZB. The radio show was recently awarded a New Zealand Radio Award for Best Spoken Programme - Daily or Weekly Series. The radio show is produced by Boris ‘The Bulgarian Maori’ Sokratov.
Wellington and Auckland based Top Shelf Productions produced 75 episodes of The Nutters Club as a half hour television series produced by Brian Holland and directed by Marcus Clayton. These episodes ran over four seasons on Maori Television. The Nutters Club TV series was nominated for multiple TV Guide Best on the Box and New Zealand Television Awards.
Topics on the The Nutters Club cover a wide variety of mental health issues including depression; bipolar disorder; suicide; anxiety and panic attacks; many forms of addiction; ADHD; grief; surviving rape, male sexual abuse and incest; domestic abuse; a Christchurch Earthquake special about post-traumatic stress and more. No two episodes were the same as no two stories of mental illness are the same.
Prominent New Zealanders appeared on the series; Mike Chunn, Denise Lestrange Corbet, Helena McAlpine, Martin Crowe, Chief Coroner Judge Neil MacLean and Sir John Kirwan. Other weeks, regular people from all walks of life took the guest chair to share their mental health stories; doctors; lawyers; teachers; musicians; prostitutes; drug dealers; actors; community workers and many, many more. Ordinary Kiwis sharing extraordinary stories made for engrossing television.
On radio and TV, experts such as Psychiatrist Dr David Codyre, Clinical Psychologist Malcolm Falconer and Psychotherapist Kyle MacDonald and Community Drug and Alcohol Counsellors Richie Hardcore and Suzie Morrison give professional advice and point towards help organisations.
New Zealand On Air has been a wonderful supporter of The Nutters Club since day one funding 75 episodes of the television series, the last three years of the radio show on Newstalk ZB and this website.
The picture above is of Mike, Dr David and the entire Nutters Club radio and TV crew back when we started in 2009.