Television
The Best of the Week
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 16
Travel Man (Choice, 7.00pm) Professional nerd Richard Ayoade returns for another short season of even shorter stays in foreign cities. This week he’s joined by comedian Frank Skinner in Zürich. They visit the city’s best-known attractions, including the Fifa Museum, where Ayoade tells the moving story of how his promising football career was snuffed out after his top-flight new school stopped him from playing. “You were a victim of your own intelligence,” Skinner observes. This season’s other destinations are Ibiza, Ljubljana and Milan, where his companions are writer and actor Jessica Knappett, comedian Eddie Izzard and actress Morgana Robinson.
SUNDAY FEBRUARY 17
Victoria (TVNZ 1, 8.10pm) The third season of Victoria does not tread gently. Among other things, it explores “tensions in the bedroom” between Queen Victoria (Jenna Coleman) and Albert (Tom Hughes).
Did the Queen ordain a sex strike after popping out six babies in eight years? Novelist Daisy Goodwin is back as series writer and told Radio Times that she also wanted to explore a hint in a letter the real Albert wrote to his wife that “every time she was pregnant she went a bit mad, so there will be a bit of that. There’s a suggestion that she’s not in her right mind, hereditary insanity and all of that”. Goodwin said she didn’t believe, as has occasionally been proposed, that Victoria hated her children, rather that “she hated the loss of dignity, I think”.
MONDAY FEBRUARY 18
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (SoHo2, Sky 210,
7.30pm) Can it really have been five years? Oliver returns
for a sixth season of what Slate magazine dubbed “supremely watchable wonkery”. No word yet on what topics he’ll be tackling, but it’s safe to assume that America’s political environment will continue to deliver the best material. And yes, we are all hoping that New Zealand gets another mention this year.
Q+A (TVNZ 1, 9.30pm)
Last year, Q+A escaped the Sunday morning schedules in favour of a Sunday night slot. This year, it breaks out of the weekend altogether. Corin Dann is back leading a team of journalists and conducting longform interviews. Luther (UKTV, Sky 007, 9.30pm) It’s been a long time between investigations for DCI John Luther (Idris Elba), but after more than three years offscreen, he’s back – and the streets of London are no less dark and depraved. A new, sadistic serial killer is abroad, taunting the CCTV cameras in a clown mask. But before he can stop the killer, Luther has to deal with the small matter of being personally kidnapped and tortured by a crime boss.
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 19
Eat Well for Less (TVNZ 1, 7.30pm) A return of the curiously compelling show in which Gregg Wallace and Chris Bavin help British families who don’t know how to shop get a handle on their household food bills. Wallace will presumably be chirpier than ever, having recently shown the tabloids his new gym-tight abdomen and announced an impending baby with his fourth wife.
Fresh Eggs (TVNZ 2, 8.30pm) Claire Chitham and Cohen Holloway star as Penny and Wade, a nice city couple who decamp to the country in pursuit of the good life. Things
turn out to be really not good. The nice couple accidentally kill someone. And then it gets worse. The creator and writer is Nick Ward ( Stickmen) and a strong cast is rounded out by Danielle Cormack, John RhysDavies and Dave Fane. What’s with the name? As Ward revealed to the Kāpiti News, “fresh eggs” is what farm folk call townies on lifestyle blocks.
WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 20
Demolition NZ (Prime, 8.30pm) A new series spun off the success of Prime’s one-off documentary The Demolition Teams. The first episode ventures from Christchurch, where a century-old High St facade must be protected while the buildings behind it are knocked down, to Commerce St in Auckland, where an old karaoke bar is threatening to take down a nearby building.
Delicious (UKTV, Sky 007, 8.35pm) Gina (Dawn French) and Sam (Emilia Fox) have just about found a way to work together and keep the Penrose Hotel running. But things are stirred up again by the arrival of a new figure – investor, culinary entrepreneur and extremely good-looking older man Mason Elliot (Vincent Regan). As you may guess, there is soon romance at the restaurant.
Call the Cleaners (Prime,
9.00pm) A British series in which professional cleaners and house-clearers visit properties where people have really
let themselves down. Feelgood television in the sense that you can watch it and feel good that it’s not you.
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 21
Te Matatini ki te Ao (Māori TV, 8.30am) Live coverage of Te Matatini Kapa Haka Festival, the world’s largest kapa haka competition, from Westpac Stadium in Wellington. Every day until Sunday, February 24, with a highlights package at 8.30 each evening.
Somebody’s Gotta Do It (Choice, 5.30pm) American broadcaster Mike Rowe goes in search of people who do things most people don’t – from ice rescues to practising voodoo – and generally has a crack himself.
2019 Brit Awards (UKTV, Sky 007, 7.30pm) Screening here hours after the event, the British music industry’s big shindig features performances by
Little Mix, George Ezra, Jorja Smith and The 1975 – and a Calvin Harris showpiece that will see the producer joined by Dua Lipa, Sam Smith and Rag’n’Bone Man to perform their respective hit singles with him. Jack Whitehall returns as host.
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 22
Flack (TVNZ OnDemand) Anna Paquin stars as Robyn, an American PR professional working in London and dealing with the challenges (“We don’t call them crises,” snips the character) of comms in the digital age. “I see this era of television as one in which women’s roles are interesting, flawed and complicated, where they’re not necessarily perfect,” Paquin told Deadline magazine. “People are not going to mind that Robyn’s not very sympathetic, they’re going to be enthralled with the story, seeing a real human.” Advance clips suggest that Paquin will have an admirable comic foil in the shape of Sophie Okonedo, who plays her weird boss Caroline.