MOVIE OF THE WEEK
Le Ride
Maori Television, 8:30pm Monday From one Amazing Race to another, Phil Keoghan and his pal Ben attempt to recreate the efforts of Kiwi cyclist Harry Watson in the 1928 Tour de France. This, you imagine, would be tough enough to do on state-of-the-art 21st century road bikes — but they’re doing it on ye olde 1920s bicycles. The film uses Phil and Ben’s ride as a chance to tell the incredible story of Watson and his Australian team-mates several decades earlier, a fun watch even if you’ve never donned the Lycra before in your life.
FROM THE VAULT My Mad Fat Diary (2013)
TVNZ On Demand, from Tuesday Teen comedy-dramas set in the 1990s are a dime a dozen these days, but few have captured the era as beautifully and painfully as 2013’s My Mad Fat Diary. Based on Rae Earl’s book My Fat, Mad Teenage Diary, a memoir about growing up and doing all the usual teenage things in the face of significant mental health and body-image issues, the series hits the right balance of dark, sad, poignant and funny. Sharon Rooney carries the three series as Rae, while the now-famous Jodie Comer (Killing Eve) appears as her best friend.
PODCAST OF THE WEEK How To! With Charles Duhigg
There are a lot of "how to" podcasts out there, but few are as fun, or as fascinating, as How To! With Charles Duhigg. Maybe that’s because in addition to teaching us "how to" do something (episode titles range from "How To Be Funny" to "How To Rob a Bank"), each episode also tells a great story.
In "How To Be Funny", a pastor from Oklahoma has come to Charles to find out how to make his sermons a bit funnier. So Charles goes to Gary Gulman, a stand-up comic in New York, to ask him how he does it. In explaining, Gulman tells the story of one joke that took him 20 years to write, and some of the hard-won lessons he learned along the way.
"How To Rob a Bank" is really just an entertaining interview with a guy called Joe Loya, who managed to rob 30 banks in 18 months before being sent to jail. From "How To Fire a Bad Employee" (surprisingly difficult) to "How To Cook One Perfect Meal" (in which a chef tries to help a hopeless 20-something win back his ex), each episode hits the podcast sweet spot where funny and interesting collide.