Television
The Best of the Week
SUNDAY JULY 9
The Cul de Sac (TVNZ 2, 6.00pm). The first of three returning local series this week. Remarkable. Teen series The Cul de Sac taps into the sci-fi zeitgeist of a Rapture-like event: at the beginning of season one, all the adults disappeared and the teens, led by Greta Gregory’s Rose, had to try to survive. However, as the season ended, it’s the adults who have now become the threat. There might be a message in there somewhere.
Apple Tree Yard (TVNZ 1, 8.30pm). The gripping conclusion, as they say, and there are revelations regarding the real identity of Yvonne’s lover. It’s a finale that didn’t satisfy a number of UK critics, however; it “finished on a disappointingly conventional note”, said the Telegraph.
Top Gear (Prime, 8.40pm).
Reviews, finally, are good for the latest season of Top Gear after the mess left behind by Clarkson, Hammond and May. (Not to mention the premature departure of host Chris Evans.) “The new team of Matt LeBlanc, Chris Harris and Rory Reid had found their tempo,” gushed the Telegraph, although this was after “seven episodes of often wildly varying quality”. Oh well. The laddish fun of testing out anything on four wheels seems to have returned and, in the first episode, there’s a race across Kazakhstan, a review of the Ferrari FXX-K and James McAvoy in a reasonablypriced car. Other guests this season include David Tennant, Tamsin Greig and Ross Noble.
MONDAY JULY 10
Earth Live (National Geographic, Sky 072, 10.00am). A global television event, apparently; why, we’re not sure. Jane Lynch and Phil Keoghan anchor from New York and will be joined by zoologist Chris Packham and explorer Robert Ballard. The live, two-hour broadcast goes out to 171 countries and there are reports from across six continents, including wildlife at night photographed with new low-light cameras.
Westside (Three, 8.30pm).
New Zealand, 1982: Muldoon announces a wage and price freeze; Neil Roberts tries to blow up the Wanganui computer; and the All Whites make it to the World Cup. But which little nuggets of history are going to be built into the third season of Westside? We can’t wait. We do know that Ted West’s gang have become apathetic; Rita is suffering empty nest syndrome; and Wolf is partying heartily in Ponsonby. A young Cheryl West is about to make her debut, but the actress’s identity is under wraps.
Cleopatra’s Lost Tomb (Choice TV, 8.30pm). If criminal lawyer and amateur archaeologist Kathleen Martinez had actually achieved her goal, we would surely have heard about it, but nevertheless, she has made enormous strides in the search for the final resting place of Egypt’s last queen. With no written evidence, it was thought that Cleopatra was most likely buried at Alexandria after committing suicide with her lover, Mark Antony. However, Martinez has focused on a temple complex near Alexandria, Taposiris Magna, and made some exciting discoveries there. This doco follows her over several years as she unearths hidden chambers and evidence that it was a place of significance for the Ptolemy dynasty. The programme also paints a portrait of Cleopatra as a working queen, who made decrees and had her likeness forged on lower-value bronze coins so that everyone, rich and poor alike, would know her face.
TUESDAY JULY 11
Filthy Rich (TVNZ 2, 8.30pm). Crikey, between this and Westside, overseas visitors might be thinking New Zealand is full of petty criminals and corporate fraudsters. Filthy Rich may have been panned by critics, but it was liked by audiences well enough for a second season. Vengeance and retribution are the key words as Brady (Miriama Smith) seeks to take back control of the Trubridge empire. But wait, there’s even more New Zealand drama this week when Shortland Street doubles down on Mondays for its winter season (TVNZ 2, 7.00pm).
Poldark (Prime, 8.30pm). Without iPhones and the internet, they made their own fun in the 18th century, didn’t they? After some spectacular idiocy in the second season, Ross Poldark (Aidan Turner) is back for more, please. How Turner keeps a straight face is something of a mystery. The bitter rivalry with George Warleggan (Jack Farthing, brilliantly supercilious) continues, as does Ross’s troubled relationship with Demelza (Eleanor Tomlinson). The season begins with the trifecta of drama: a marriage, a birth and a death. New on the scene are Demelza’s brothers (Tom York and Harry Richardson)
and a governess (Ellise Chappell) for them to fight over.
QI (Prime, 9.50pm). Season “K”, which is still a long way from the new Sandi Toksvig era. How could anyone be dissatisfied with Stephen Fry, though? His guests tonight are David Mitchell, Jack Whitehall and Sara Pascoe and the subject is “Knees and Knockers”.
WEDNESDAY JULY 12
Wild Britain with Ray Mears (Choice TV, 3.30pm). Choice has gone a bit wild this week: woodsman Ray Mears is looking at British flora and fauna in this six-part series and then on Thursday, The Wild West (3.30pm) is a stunning threepart BBC series exploring the American West. On Monday (3.30pm), The Lord of the Rings actor Dominic Monaghan tests his mettle with the world’s most dangerous creatures in Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan.
THURSDAY JULY 13
All Round to Mrs Brown’s (TVNZ 1, 8.40pm). Completely bonkers, but then, what isn’t bonkers about Brendan O’Carroll’s invention, the potty-mouthed Irish mammy, Mrs Brown? This is a mock talk show in which baffled guests (in the first episode, Pamela Anderson and Andy Murray’s mum, Judy) need only take a good hold of the couch and hang on. There are also skits and chats with audience members and James Blunt turns up, snogs Mrs Brown and plays his new single. Surreal doesn’t really cover it, but this cheerful mess is so popular (so beloved is O’Carroll in Ireland that the evening news on RTE was delayed by 15 minutes), it has been renewed for a second season.