Television
The Best of the Week
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 24
Paul & Nick’s Big Food Trip New Zealand (Prime, 7.00pm). A travel, cooking and history series rolled into one, as chefs Paul Rankin and Nick Nairn follow the migration of Ulster Scots – Scots who migrated to Ireland during the 17th century – to countries such the US, Canada and New Zealand. “The Ulster Scots were amongst some of the first people to come to New Zealand and a lot of Southern Irish followed as well, so that’s the journey we’ve been following,” Nairn told Stuff in February during filming. The pair of Michelin-starred chefs take in the scenery and the produce and cook a meal for descendants of those early settlers. In Dunedin, they chose Rev Rutherford Waddell and Rev Thomas Burns (a nephew of the poet); in Wellington, descendants of former Prime Minister John Ballance. They declared our produce to be “off the scale – brilliant”, especially the greengage plums in Otago, which are used in “the best clafoutis we’ve ever had”.
Antiques Roadshow (Prime, 7.30pm). The Roadshow rolls into Albert Square or, rather, the BBC’s Elstree Studios in North London, ironically home of East Enders, for a special episode dedicated to film, music, theatre and television memorabilia. Items include the axe used by Jack Nicholson in The Shining, a script for the first episode of Doctor Who, and props from Star Wars.
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 25
Louis Theroux: Talking to Anorexia (Prime, 9.40pm). The king of the observational documentary does it again: important and humane, said the Telegraph; “a unique insight into the mind of a person with anorexia”, according to the Independent. Theroux visits two eating disorder treatment facilities in London and meets a number of women struggling with this pernicious disease. They include 63-year-old Janet, who believes her anorexia is a way of avoiding the world of grown-up responsibility;
Good for a Laugh! FROM 3RD ROCK THE SUN Prime Friday, 8.30pm
23-year-old Ifzana, a victim of bullying; and 27-year-old Jess, who was doing 2000 star jumps a day to keep her weight down. “It’s not about being attractive,” she says. “The media portray this image that the ideal size is a size zero, but it’s not about that at all. It’s partly a self-punishment thing and thinking that I don’t deserve to eat.”
MONDAY NOVEMBER 26
Baby Mama’s Club (TVNZ On Demand). So many small but perfectly formed series are happening online – our fervent wish is that some will graduate to bigger budgets and longer episodes, especially this one, which might be the first time that any New Zealand series has had four brown women in the lead. The first season featured this quartet of Māori and Pasifika women who met while hunting for absent baby-daddy Johnny. However, the second season, available from today, turns the story around to focus on idiot “goons” Aaron, Thump and Bear as they try to track down Shan (creator and director Hanelle Harris), Sophia (Luciane Buchanan), Malia (Suivai Autagavaia) and Kowhai (Moana Johnson).
Fair Go (TVNZ 1, 7.30pm). No
Fair Go Ad Awards this year (again), but there will be a spoof involving Haydn, Pippa and a tiny town called Clinton. The real point of the night is the Fair Go Kids’ Awards. The
theme is tourism and students have produced a 30-second ad selling their particular slice of paradise.
Project Runway New Zealand (TVNZ 2, 7.30pm). So much competition, so little time: they’re down to six remaining designers and this week, it’s a jewellery challenge. Over on The Great Kiwi Bake Off (TVNZ 2, Tuesday, 7.30pm), they’re going gluten-free. Frightening. Three’s ridiculous Australian Ninja Warrior (Sunday, 7.00pm) has reached its grand final; if Australian house renovation is more to your taste, a new series of House Rules begins on Monday (Three, 7.30pm), with episodes on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Just Another Immigrant (SoHo2, Sky
210, 8.00pm). Delightfully droll British comedian Romesh Ranganathan is filmed trying to make it big in America in this 10-part series, which has the air of a slow-motion car crash. Ranganathan books the Greek Theatre, a venue of 5900 seats, and tries to sell it at the same time as setting up a new home in LA with his wife Leesa, their three children, his opinionated mother and eccentric uncle.
WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 28
Condor (SoHo, Sky 010, 8.30pm). The
1974 novel Six Days of the Condor, which became Sydney Pollack’s 1975 Three
Days of the Condor, is further reduced to Condor for this classic paranoid conspiracy thriller updated for the digital age. Max Irons, who has just about earned enough stripes to stop calling him the son of Jeremy, is a young CIA analyst who winds up on a Bourne-like run from secret forces within the militaryindustrial complex. One of those forces is Brendan Fraser, and William Hurt plays Irons’ uncle and mentor. Mira Sorvino and Bob Balaban also star.
Tribal Bootcamp (Choice TV, 9.30pm). In the first season of Tribal Bootcamp, comedian Joel Dommett is the fitness fanatic who went out to experience, shall we say, less modern forms of exercise, while his mate
Nish Kumar stood by and laughed. In season two, Kumar is more involved in visits to Peru, Japan, Argentina, Tahiti, Japan – and New Zealand, where they “help” a shearing gang and then try to survive a drinking session. Makes you proud.
THURSDAY NOVEMBER 29
All Star Family Feud: North vs South (Three, 7.30pm). This week’s celeb Family Feud is a North Island v South Island face-off: Patrick Gower, James Rolleston, Amber Peebles and Tami Neilson represent the north, and Jason Gunn, Angel and Brett Renall (from Married at First Sight NZ) and Bob Parker bring the mainland pride. Women’s Refuge and Diabetes NZ are their chosen charities.
Ronda Rousey Uncaged (Discovery, Sky 070, 7.30pm). Welcome to Shark Week, which begins with MMA fighter and WWE wrestler Ronda Rousey coming face-to-face with some of the ocean’s top predators. She is coached by former navy diver and shark-attack survivor
Paul de Gelder; the finale is an encounter sans cage with a mako shark. Why, we don’t know. It’s wall-to-wall sharks after that on Discovery; check our listings.
George Clarke’s Amazing
Spaces (TVNZ 1, 8.30pm). There is actually a reason for the rush in this special Amazing Spaces episode, in which George Clarke’s builder mate Will Hardie and a team of Welshpersons construct a lakeside cabin near Snowdonia National Park in just one day. George is inspired by the Welsh 600-year-old folk tradition of Tŷ unnos, which states that if a person can build a house with four walls and a roof and have a fire burning in the hearth in less than a day, then the house and the ground beneath it is theirs.
The team must design and build the cabin using materials found in the surrounding hills and valleys
– and, when the day comes to build, must contend with some typically stormy
Welsh weather.