Actor and star of The Brokenwood Mysteries Fern Sutherland has just wrapped her tenth season on the television detective drama.
Sutherland believes it is in part due to the show's enthusiastic and loyal international fan base.
Neill Rea as Mike Shepherd and Fern Sutherland as Kristin Sims in Brokenwood Mysteries. Photo: South Pacific Pictures
The show has been sold in more than 20 countries, and is particularly popular in French territories.
"It's amazing. No one thought when we first started that we'd still be making the show. Now it's just been a fortuitous series of events that made that happen.
Fern Sutherland Photo: Supplied
"But we're the only show, obviously, apart from Shortland Street to have gone on for this long. I don't quite know how or why but it's in large part due to the fact that we have a really enthusiastic overseas audience that have been able to carry us to this point before it started streaming on mainstream as in TV1 here in New Zealand.
"I'm finding that New Zealanders are only just starting to kind of pick up on it now."
She started enjoying working on the show about three seasons into the "heightened, fun, frivolous" show.
"It's murder but you don't have to feel too bad about it.
"Guilt-free murder."
After filming 10 seasons, she will spend the next six months in Phuket, Thailand during the show's hiatus, getting her mind and body into a different set: Muay Thai boxing.
"I'm going to go to Thailand but that's mostly because I can't afford to live in this country when I'm unemployed, I don't even know how you can afford to live here when you are employed."
Travelling to Thailand off-and-on for the past five years, Sutherland is drawn to going directly to the source for training. And this time, she's promised her trainer she'll train for a fight.
