Twilight in Paris
Mental Notes, 8.30pm, Maori TV
Screening as part of Mental Health Awareness Week, this 2012 Kiwi doco looks back at the history of the country’s ‘‘loony bins’’. Director Jim Marbrook takes former patients back to the likes of Cherry Farm, Seaview and Sunnyside and allows them to tell their stories of what they had to endure there. Good use of archival stills and footage, as well as the locations of the now long neglected and abandoned ‘‘bins’’. Freddy Flintoff Goes Wild, 7.30pm, Choice TV
This four-part 2012 series sees the former England cricketer undertaking a series of epic wildlife adventures and extreme experiences. His destinations include Australia, Borneo, Tanzania and Canada. ‘‘[Australian fast bowler] Glenn McGrath would be a piece of cake compared to those little snakes,’’ Flintoff himself told the Daily Mail after his encounter with Borneo’s spitting cobras. Robot Wars, 7.30pm, Prime
Twelve years after it last aired, this once popular British game show returns with Dara O’Briain replacing Red Dwarf‘ s Craig Charles in the hosting role. Some robots from the original series return, including Storm II, Razer and Behemoth, as well as four of the original House Robots, which Tonight, 8.30pm, Maori TV They thought a weekend in Paris would be just the thing to put the spark back in their marriage.
A chance to rediscover their old honeymoon haunts and spend time reconnecting away from all the grind of their jobs and domestic life.
However, Nick (Jim Broadbent) and Meg (Lindsay Duncan) Burrows’ 30th anniversary celebrations have not gone to plan.
Like 2012’s Hope Springs, this 2013 film is the tale of a longstanding relationship in crisis, of two people who now finally have time for one another and have discovered they have very little in common.
In Le Week-End‘ s case it’s a story that is nestled in a safe, experienced set of hands.
Director Roger Michell and screenwriter Hanif Kureishi have covered the concerns of middle age expertly before in 2003’s The Mother and 2006’s Venus, while Broadbent ( Iris) and have been upgraded to be heavier, faster and better-armed. ‘‘They might not be quite Terminator standards yet, but they are so Duncan ( About Time) have the right chemistry to make their careworn relationship seem utterly believable.
Michell’s intimate, hand-held style synchs perfectly with the much more sophisticated than the armour-plated dustbins of yore,’’ wrote The Telegraph’s Gerard O’Donovan. ‘‘Silly, this certainly was. And probably pointless, too. But you couldn’t help thinking that Robot Wars’ time has finally come.’’