Fans fear Shortland Street's 32 years of soapy drama could be coming to a close if TVNZ's cost-cutting knife hovers over it for too long

It's our own soap opera, telling New Zealand stories to a loyal audience. But Shortland Street may be starring in its own drama

Anna Thomas had a cameo as a marriage celebrant

A warning - suicide is discussed in this podcast

New Zealand's own long-running soap Shortland Street doesn't hesitate to kill off its much-loved characters.

But would TVNZ dare to kill off our favourite soap?

That's the fear as times get tough in television - even though it's been pointed out that advertising pays its bills. But for how long?

We don't have any definitive answers yet, but today on The Detail we speak to a former star turned director of the programme; a well-known TV face who nabbed a cameo; and someone you might not expect to be an ardent fan - RNZ presenter, Kim Hill. And she has a wild storyline idea she reveals in the podcast.

Nurse Wendy Cooper was killed off in 2016. She was shot through the heart.

She had to die - her "foster son", K J Apa, was heading to Hollywood, as many of the soap's former stars have done.

The actor who played her, Jaq Nairn, jokes that she loves the kind of two degrees of separation that everyone has with Shortland St.

"Everyone knows someone who knows someone who's been on the show ... or someone's auntie's cousin's brother worked on the show, or met such-and-such, and I love that New Zealand has a show like that," she says.

Now she directs the show - and has been for the last eight years.

She tells The Detail she still gets recognised ... Nurse Wendy was long dead when she went to Fiji for the charity Heart Kids, to raise publicity for what Starship Hospital does.

She was mobbed.

This in spite of the fact that the real surgeons from Starship were there to operate on 15 children, a trip they do annually.

"There's nothing that makes an actor feel more inadequate that actually seeing a real heart surgeon," she says.

"The bizarre thing to me was walking along a corridor and all these people came running towards me as the actual surgeon who's saving the actual lives walks past (the other way)."

"I was like ... 'she's the hero, I'm just on a TV show!'"

But the real-life consequences of talking about dark and difficult subjects on a TV show can be significant.

"I think we can never underestimate the importance of the stories that we tell," she says. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details