Television
The Best of the Week
SATURDAY JANUARY 21
Black Caps versus Bangladesh (Sky Sport 1, Sky 051, 10.30am) Hope springs eternal – for both sides – on day two of a test match. Christchurch’s Hagley Oval hosts this second test; Sky has live coverage from 10.30am each day until it’s done.
Antiques Roadshow (Prime, 7.30pm) The death of Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej in October made Queen Elizabeth II the longest-reigning living monarch. To mark the occasion, and to celebrate her life, Roadshow had a good old rummage through the archives. They’ve come up with a fascinating special episode featuring memorabilia and anecdotes of the
Queen’s racing pigeons and her beloved first corgi, Susan, her first radio broadcast (aged 14) and her wedding dress. Then there’s the story of the long black gloves she wore as she arrived home from that fateful trip to Kenya in 1952. Shakespeare Live! (Sky
Arts, Sky 020, 8.30pm) Seems it’s a night for celebration. Four hundred years after the Bard shuffled off this mortal coil, the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon hosts a glorious gala night in his honour. David Tennant and Catherine Tate MC a line-up of, well, everyone: Benedict Cumberbatch, Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen, Dame Helen Mirren, Meera Syal, David Suchet, Rufus Wainwright … you get it.
The Royal Ballet and English National Opera have a hand in proceedings, too, all presided over by Their Royal Highnesses Wills and Kate.
MONDAY JANUARY 23
MasterChef Australia (TVNZ 1, Monday-Friday, 7.00pm) In the interests of avoiding all spoilers, and in no particular order, here are a few of the dishes that feature in this Grand Finale Week: confit quail, smoked vegetables, crispyskin barramundi, brioche doughnut, orange sorbet, port jelly, raspberry and rosemary frangipane, fried kohlrabi leaves, and did we mention the brioche doughnut?
Fishing Impossible (Prime, 7.30pm) Big-fish TV sans most of the blather and drama. In the first episode, our three likeable hosts are in Kenya and dead set on catching a Nile perch, Africa’s largest freshwater fish. They are stared down by hippos, jolt for 20 hours going cross-country by 4WD, weather a sandstorm and take log rafts and a blowup paddle board out on the very crocodiley Lake Turkana. Is that a whiff of Top Gear?
Our Girl (TVNZ 1, 8.30pm) When Lacey Turner went back to EastEnders after just one season on Brit war drama Our Girl, fans were floored and creators turfed out the rest of the cast, too. Mercifully, they did keep Ben Aldridge as Captain Charles James. Two years later, the show is back with another soapie, Corrie’s Michelle Keegan, ably stepping into the breach. Keegan plays entirely new character Corporal Georgie Lane, but the premise is familiar: driven and compassionate female medic navigates prejudice, love and war. There’s even a rocky break-up to kick things off, and a wartraumatised child who needs mothering. However, this time the setting is Kenya rather than Afghanistan, and it’s the beautiful Elvis ( Skins’ Luke Pasqualino) providing the romance. There’s a “perfect for me, anyway” fiancé waiting back home, too, providing the safe option. Jarring moment: when Georgie, newly arrived at a rundown medical centre in a refugee camp, tells the nurse, “You need to find some time for you.” Girl talk? We could almost be back in
Weatherfield.
TUESDAY JANUARY 24
Eat Well for Less (TVNZ 1, 8.30pm) Think Supernanny, where the aim is to tame OTT supermarket spending rather than kids. Each season, hosts Gregg Wallace ( MasterChef ) and Chris Bavin (a fresh-produce authority) stage interventions with three wayward families. Their tips are basic: try cheaper brands, write a meal plan
and a list and stick
to them, cook from scratch, don’t buy stuff just because it’s on special. To the Booths, this is something of a revelation. Their pantry is so crammed it could sustain them through a nuclear winter, yet they’re doing big shops three or four times a week, spending about $400 for a family of four. A glance at the Booths’ trolley – and that pantry – and their “ambitious” goal of saving $70 a week to fund their renovations looks easy. The hosts make a meal of it, of course, starting by replacing every item in the pantry with generically labelled substitutes. Can the Booths tell the difference between budget tea and the pricey brand they favour? (Yes.) What about baked beans? Beer?
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 25
The Flash (TVNZ Duke, 8.30pm) Supergirl got the jump on the boys, starting a new season just a few days into the new year. This week the Flash, Arrow and the rest of the DC gang finally haul themselves off the couch and back onto the box. Predictably, The
Flash is up first. DC Legends of Tomorrow returns to Duke on Thursday at 9.25pm, followed by Arrow at 10.15pm.
THURSDAY JANUARY 26
Megatrains (Discovery, Sky 070, 8.30pm) Rolling fields, trains chuffing, very important jobs to do … Welcome to the island of Sodor! Wait, that’s not right. We’re in “the green meadows of New Zealand … A land where cows rule.” Thank you, American Voiceover Guy. This series showcases big, interesting trains – the Gordons, if you will – in visits to Australia, Alaska, France and Canada. Tonight’s New Zealand episode focuses on the trains that every day haul millions of litres of milk from farm to factory and then to port; Fonterra and KiwiRail have starring roles.
FRIDAY JANUARY 27
Dead Set on Life (Viceland, 8.30pm) Five years ago, aged just 29, Vice foodie favourite and all-round madman Matty Matheson had a heart attack. Even that wasn’t enough to snap the Toronto-based chef out of booze and drugs. But concerned friends and Narcotics Anonymous were, and now he’s hell-bent on squeezing the good juice out of life. This new series is all part of it. The warm and exuberant Matheson, neatly foiled by his deadpan mentor Rang Nguyen, seeks fun and food wherever it takes his fancy: Quebec, the Arctic, New Orleans, Hanoi. Toronto Life reckons he averages about 150 expletives per 20-minute episode. Don’t let that scare you off. He’s also been compared with Anthony Bourdain.