Sir James McNeish's new play about Norman Kirk

Norman Kirk was one of this country's most memorable, and most loved Prime Ministers, His death in 1973 saw a nationwide outpouring of grief. During just two years in office, he famously stood up to the French - taking them to the International Court of Justice at the United Nations and sending a New Zealand frigate to the Mururoa Atoll nuclear test zone. Sir James McNeish has written a play about Big Norm, concentrating on the last 72 hours of his life. The Fatal New Zealander is told from the perspective of people who knew him. James McNeish once interviewed Norm Kirk and has never forgotten that encounter, but, as he tells Lynn Freeman, it's his political achievements and statesmanship that he found himself thinking about over the years.