Television
The Best of the Week
SUNDAY MARCH 29
The Bachelorette NZ (TVNZ 2, 7.00pm, and Monday, 7.30pm). We’ve always suspected that The Bachelor/ette and Married at First Sight, not to mention the Kardashians, were harbingers of the end times and, well, here we are. Thank goodness we’re seeing the back of these nincompoops this week, although TVNZ has found another circle of hell with After the Final Rose, in which Art Green sits down with the bachelorettes, on Tuesday (7.30pm). Watch at your peril.
Irish Pickers (Choice TV, 7.30pm). Well, this could be entertaining. An Irish spin-off of American Pickers in which an unusual bunch of characters, led by the very rock’n’roll Ian Dowling, cruise around the Emerald Isle looking for bargains. The scenery is lovely, there are some ancient monuments and lots of history. “Escapist TV is important to people at the moment,” the show’s executive producer told RTÉ, although he could have been talking about Brexit. Very good for Irish tourism, if there was any right now.
Rick Stein’s Secret France (Living, Sky 017, 8.30pm). Apart from India, in which he was unbearably sweaty, Rick
Stein seems to be having the most wonderful time on the
BBC’s coin: most recently, the Mediterranean, California and France, where he meanders around looking for authentic cuisine and enjoying the wine. The journey
begins in Dieppe, where there is turbot straight off the boat, and carries on to southern Champagne. Recipes in the episode include rabbit stew with dijon mustard and mussels with poulette sauce.
When We Go to War (TVNZ 1, 10.35pm). This miniseries was made for the centenary of New Zealand’s involvement in the Gallipoli campaign, but is rather useful in the lead-up to Anzac Day. Writers Gavin Strawhan and Briar Grace-Smith frame the
six episodes around a letter written home, and the characters include a nurse and a doctor caring for the wounded in Egypt, a lawyer-turnedofficer in Gallipoli, and a Māori preacher-turned-soldier and his actress sister. The cast includes Westside’s Esther Stephens, Shavaughn Ruakere, Ido Drent and Alexander Tarrant.
TUESDAY MARCH 31
Ackley Bridge (UKTV, Sky 007, 9.30pm). A teen comedydrama series that joins the rich history of raucous British fare not afraid
to confront the realities of modern life (think Skins, Misfits, even Grange
Hill). Ackley has become a hit for Channel 4 and has even disproved the generally accepted notion that young people don’t watch linear telly (although, naturally, it has an extensive social-media presence in the UK). The series focuses on the amalgamation of two schools, one predominately white, the other predominately Pakistani. It’s a brilliant way to confront stereotypes and prejudices and the show’s use of non-actors from the Yorkshire community has had a flow-on effect, with
some going on to further training in film and television. The series doesn’t pull its punches when it comes to racial tensions: “This is the story about the amalgamation of a white school with an Asian school and you can’t avoid the politics of that,” creator Ayub Khan-Din told the Guardian. “We have to be true to ourselves and expose the darker side of living in this community.”
The Blacklist (Three, 10.45pm).
It seems that The Blacklist is having a little fun in its seventh season: this week’s episode is a whodunit on an island in which guests – shades of And Then There Were None
– begin showing up dead.
Even better, Joely Richardson guest-stars as Red’s old flame, Cassandra Bianchi.
WEDNESDAY APRIL 1
Kirstie & Phil’s Love It or List It (TVNZ 1, 8.00pm). In one corner, Kirstie “Love It” Allsopp, in the other, Phil “List It” Spencer. They’re like the angel and the devil whispering into the ears of uncertain homeowners. Kirstie has renovation ideas for families whose needs have changed, while Phil tempts them with three properties that might suit them better. Incredibly, this is the fifth season of this unsavoury behaviour.