ENTERTAINMENT

My Year With Helen

Three,

Thursday,

9.30pm

This behindthe-scenes documentary following a year in the life of the former Prime Minister in her bid to become the Secretary-General of the United Nations was a hit when it appeared at the New Zealand International Film Festival last year, and for good reason. Now re-cut for TV, Gaylene Preston’s film offers access all areas from the UN’s halls of power to Clark’s dad’s house where she stocks the freezer with hundreds of heat-and-eat meals. It’s a fascinating portrait at every turn.

Jennifer & Joanna: Absolutely Champers

Living Channel, 8.30pm Sunday Joanna Lumley’s recent trips through Japan and India have produced some of the most delightful TV travel documentary episodes imaginable. Now some genius has come up with the idea of reuniting her with

co-star Jennifer Saunders and packing the pair off to the France to visit the source of the champagne their characters so loved getting stuck into. The friends aren’t Patsy and Edina in real life, obviously, but this will still be a bloody good time.

Absolutely Fabulous Living With Tourette’s: Renee’s Brain

Prime, 8.30pm Monday

If you’ve been keeping up with Prime’s excellent documentary series, Renee Harvey will probably seem like an old friend at this point. The 25-year-old Nelson mum suffers debilitating and increasingly extreme Tourette’s symptoms, and this standalone follow-up documentary special follows her journey to receive DBS — Deep Brain Stimulation — a groundbreaking if quite scary-sounding new form of treatment that is hoped will finally offer her a lifeline. With filming only wrapping up a week or so ago, promises to be an intense, personal and moving documentary.

Living With Tourette’s Renee’s Brain