New Zealand pubcaster TVNZ is launching a new comedy series from Flight of the Conchords star Rhys Darby on its video-on-demand service.

^[1]All eight episodes of Short Poppies – a ‘current affairs mockumentary’ – will launch all at once tomorrow on TVNZ Ondemand and will be available to watch for four weeks.

The NZ On-Air-funded series will screen later in the year on TVNZ channel TV One.

The news comes just days after US streaming giant Netflix landed the rights to the series to launch exclusively on April 3 for its subscribers in the US, Canada, UK and Ireland.

Created and written by Rhys Darby, Short Poppies is a series of day-in–the-life exclusive interviews with a group of unique Kiwi characters.

Each episode follows journalist David Farrier as he meets the seven ordinary New Zealanders – all people living in small town New Zealand.

TVNZ head of television, Jeff Latch, said it was important Short Poppies would be available first to New Zealand viewers.

“Short Poppies is a Kiwi show to its core, and it’s fantastic we can all get to enjoy it before the rest of the world,” said Latch. “It’s also a stunning complement to our other local comedies screening on TV One and TV 2.”

The show is produced by Auckland-based prodco Augusto in association with Darby’s Awesomeness International outfit.