Documentaries
Our Big Blue Backyard (TVNZ 1, Sunday, 7.30pm) is what high-definition television was made for: seascapes from the Kermadec Islands in the north to Campbell and the Antipodes islands in the south.
Season two of the NHNZ series ventures further afield this time, and will also visit White Island, the Chatham Islands, Banks Peninsula and Fiordland. We’ll be up close with mako sharks, marlin, longfin eels, Hector’s dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, sevengill sharks, yellow-eyed and Fiordland crested penguins, southern royal albatross, sea
lions and elephant seals.
The series enjoys imparting memorable facts, says executive producer Judith Curran: “Strawberry sea cucumbers that breathe through their bums; Chatham Island skua females that take up to seven mates to help parent their chicks; and tiny pea crab males that massage green-lipped mussels to open up so they can slip inside to mate with the female crabs that live inside are just some of the delights.”
After last week’s Girls with Autism, there’s Kids on Speed? (Vibe, Sky 006, Sunday, 8.30pm), a three-part Australian doco that explores attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A team from the University of New South Wales works with four struggling families to see if their kids really have ADHD or if their behaviour can be changed.