Television
The Best of the Week
SUNDAY FEBRUARY 23
Sunday (TVNZ 1, 7.30pm). The current affairs show returns: Miriama Kamo continues as host, while new to the team are Rebecca Wright (previously the US correspondent for 1 News) and Tamati Rimene-Sproat
(the goofy guy off
Seven Sharp).
Gold Digger
(TVNZ 1, 8.30pm). Welcome back, Sunday night British drama, at least for the next six weeks. Writer Marnie Dickens explored family dynamics in her previous series, Thirteen, in which a 26-year-old woman escaped after being held captive for 13 years. Here, it’s the ripple effects of a 60-year-old woman (Julia Ormond) falling for a younger man (Ben Barnes). Her two horrible sons are disapproving, her daughter, not so much. Dickens describes it as a “contemporary relationship thriller” in which she wanted to explore how each person has their own version of events that is informed by their past.
“No one person will ever want to face the idea that their truth isn’t everyone’s,” she says, “or worse, that it’s a lie.” Of course, there’s also the double standard that no one bats an eyelid when an older man takes up with a younger woman: “I hope the audience will have their expectations subverted and question their own rush to judgment.”
MONDAY FEBRUARY 24
Cash Trapped (TVNZ 1, 11.00am). Answering questions correctly and winning money we understand, but Bradley Walsh’s new quiz show is a complicated affair in which six contestants compete in four rounds and can “cash trap” other players. British viewers seemed to find it too complex and chaser Paul Sinha said it was weird; nevertheless, there were three seasons.
Dr Pimple Popper (TLC, Sky 016, 8.30pm). What is it with
the pimples and the blackheads and the squeezing and the squirting? New episodes of the show following dermatologist Sandra Lee features nasties such as cysts, keloids, lipomas and tumours. Enjoy.
The Walking Dead (TVNZ 2, 9.30pm). The show has become something of a zombie itself; it never dies. Here’s the second half of season 10 and when we left our plucky heroes, they had been trapped in a cave by their current nemesis, the Whisperers. It’s the final season for Danai Gurira, who has played Michonne since season three, although there will be a season 11 and, most likely, more besides. In 2018, the head of cable network AMC said the plan was to go for another 10 years.
A Confession (UKTV, Sky 007, 9.30pm). Heart-breaking stuff from Jeff Pope, who also wrote Philomena and Stan & Ollie.
The six-part series is based on an investigation into the disappearance of a 22-yearold woman in 2011. Sian O’Callaghan never came home from a night out with friends
in Swindon and the police investigation led to a local cab driver. Pope makes sure that the families and the missing are represented, including another mother (Imelda Staunton) whose daughter has disappeared too. Pope is also telling the story of Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher – played by the perennially excellent John Simm – who made decisions during the investigation that ultimately cost him his career. It was “a fascinating story to tell on a number of levels”, Pope told the Radio Times, including “how we want our police to behave when someone goes missing”.
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 25
Vera (Vibe, Sky 006, 8.30pm). She’d make a great cosplay character – just an old mac, a bucket hat and a grumpy expression et voilà! And Vera or, rather, Brenda Blethyn, is not slowing down. Here’s season 10, with an 11th ordered. The four-part season begins with the strange case of the self-styled entrepreneur whose body is discovered by bailiffs repossessing his house. For British murder-mystery of the light and frothy kind, season three of Agatha Raisin, starring the lovely Ashley Jensen, begins on Tuesday (Vibe, Sky 006, 7.30pm).
Carol’s Second Act (Prime, 8.35pm). Plaudits for Patricia Heaton ( The Middle), but less so for the plotting and scripting of this new sitcom. Heaton is the Carol of the title, and her second act is pursuing her dream of becoming a doctor after a career as a high-school science teacher. There were better reviews for The Unicorn, which follows at 9.05pm and stars Walton Goggins as a widowed father. Goggins, who is usually playing the bad guy, “moves
with an easy and light step”, said Variety. The comedy line-up concludes with – hallelujah – the return of QI for two episodes at 9.35pm after its four-episode feast on New Year’s Day. Sandi Toksvig’s guests include Gyles Brandreth, Jimmy Carr and Victoria Coren Mitchell.
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 28
The Repair Shop (TVNZ 1, 7.30pm). What a good idea. In fact, such a good idea, there are five seasons of The Repair Shop, a BBC series in which experts restore beloved, if dilapidated, family treasures. It is daytime telly in the UK, but has become, as they say, a “surprise hit”, with about two million viewers. Furniture restorer
Jay Blades is the “foreman”, and there are many different craftspeople employed depending on what items are to be zhuzhed. The show taps into our desire for a less throwaway society, Blades says, and it has a sense of community. British viewers’ most-asked question is whether the repair shop actually exists – the answer is a qualified yes. The show is filmed in a barn at the Weald and Downland Living Museum in West Sussex, but it’s not possible to just turn up with the old family rocking horse.
Call the Midwife (TVNZ 1, 8.30pm). The times are a-changing – in fact, it’s the year that Bob Dylan’s song was released in the UK, 1965, and the midwives and nuns are faced with budget cuts, hospital reorganisations and the demolition of the East End’s slums including, possibly, Nonnatus House. As season nine begins, Winston Churchill has just died and Phyllis has a case of diphtheria on her hands. During the season, the midwives will deal with cancer, dementia and homelessness, support a blind mother and deliver more babies out of wedlock. Although there are still community events, including a fundraising fashion show in which Trixie wears the shortest mini-skirt ever seen in Poplar, the world has become more complex and, says creator Heidi Thomas, “time and again we see our beloved regulars patching over the gaps in the system with ingenuity, kindness and – that eternal, priceless, beautiful thing – their care.”
Monty Don’s American Gardens (Choice TV, 9.30pm). Quite a big topic, one would think, but the lovely Monty Don is up to it, we’re sure. In this three-part series, he goes from prairie to New York City, from New Orleans oak trees to West Coast cacti.