The Best of the Week
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 23
Yes, Minister Marathon (Jones! Too, Sky 208, 10.00am). Terrific fly-on-the-wall 1980s documentary series focusing on British MP Jim Hacker and his uneasy relationship with the Civil Service. The marathon continues into Sunday, and the follow-up series Yes, Prime Minister begins at 11.05am. The access gained by these early reality shows is extraordinary. For more British political behindthe-scenes, we recommend The Thick of It, which follows spin-doctor Malcolm Tucker. Curiously, Tucker left politics to become an actor.
Endeavour (Prime, 8.30pm). The alchemy has been just right for this Inspector Morse prequel, down to the clues and pointers inserted by writer Russell Lewis. In one episode this season, we meet the father of James Hathaway (Inspector Lewis’ right-hand man), and Abigail Thaw, the daughter of original Morse actor John Thaw, plays newspaper editor Dorothea Frazil, whose last name is a cryptic clue. “Russell’s full of clever little things, little codes – all the crossword lovers will be satisfied,” Thaw told the Radio Times. As the season begins, morose old Morse (Shaun Evans) has been cleared of shooting a senior policeman and is living alone in a lakeside shack.
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 24
Why Are We Fat? (Prime, 8.30pm). In the final episode, Simon Gault investigates the hot topics of sleep and gut bacteria, both apparently vital to our health and weight. It’s also his moment of truth, when he will discover whether his lifestyle changes have made a difference.
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 25
What Would Diplo Do? (Viceland, Sky 013, 7.30pm). Viceland wins the millennial bingo with its first scripted series in which James Van
Der Beek pretends to be international superstar DJ Diplo. It would be easy to spoof the electronic dance music (EDM) scene and make its star look like a massive tool, but Van Der Beek, who wrote the series, is cleverer than that: “EDM genius sucks at life,” he told Rolling Stone. “Parables about life through the eyes of a clown.”
My Kitchen Rules New Zealand (TVNZ 2, 8.00pm). Cooking shows are like whack-a-mole: as soon as one goes down, another pops up in its place. This might be a New Zealand iteration of the format, but Aussies Pete Evans and Manu Feildel will be the judges of Kiwi home cooks up and down the country. They have roped in Nadia Lim, Ray McVinnie, Sean Connolly and Tom Hishon for the final, however. The competition starts in Rotorua with best friends Tash and Hera.
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 27
The Big Bang Theory (TVNZ 2, 8.40pm). Hard to believe it’s season 11, but when you’re still hauling in up to 20 million viewers an episode, of course you’re going to get renewed. The new season arrives here within two days of the US broadcast and you may remember that Sheldon (Jim Parsons) had just proposed to Amy (Mayim Bialik).
Back Benches (Prime, 9.30pm). After the excitement of the past few weeks, we can go back to discussing the weather and the price of milk, but not before Back Benches’ valedictory episode, in which campaigns will be analysed and beers downed. It’s a similar story for the season finale of Banter (TVNZ Duke, Tuesday, 8.30pm), which is having its own irreverent awards ceremony.
Halt and Catch Fire (SoHo, Sky 010, 9.30pm). Something of an underachiever, but in its quiet way, Halt and Catch Fire has told the story of the computing revolution, starting in 1983 with what was known as the Silicon Prairie. Along the way, there’s been the invention of the operating system, online gaming, chat rooms and early social networks and internet browsers, told through four main characters. Its fourth and final season leaps ahead to 1994 and the first internet search engines: Joe (Lee Pace) and Gordon (Scoot McNairy) are running an internet-service provider, in competition with the likes of America Online. Meanwhile, Cameron (Mackenzie Davis) is a game designer and her former partner Donna (Kerry Bishé) is a venture capitalist looking to fund web businesses.
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 28
Golf (Sky Sport 3, Sky 053, 2.00pm). Well, she’s had a rough ride of it lately and is currently world No 8, but Lydia Ko is still awesome and is the star attraction at the NZ Women’s Open, which takes place at the Windross Farm Golf Course in Papakura. It’s the first LPGA event to be played in New Zealand and has attracted top players such as Yani Tseng from Taiwan, Scotland’s Catriona Matthew, American Brittany Lincicome, and Koreans Na Yeon Choi, Eun-Hee Ji and Hyo Joo Kim.
The Halcyon (Prime, 8.30pm). Holy cow, what an ending. Sadly, it’s the only ending The Halcyon will ever have, as it was cancelled by ITV, precluding any future cliffhangers.
The event that was signalled in the first episode is finally here: the night that the Halcyon celebrates its 50th birthday it is bombed, but before that, the wonderful Mr Garland (Steven Mackintosh) has a nasty Nazi blackmailer to deal with, and his daughter Emma (Hermione Corfield) needs to choose between American broadcaster Joe O’Hara (Matt Ryan) and posh Freddie Hamilton (Jamie Blackley). Some of the characters are not going to make it out alive. Fans wanted another season, of course; even the Telegraph said it would “welcome another stay at the fictional hotel”, despite the show being “complete hokum, with reheated plots aplenty”. In other finale news, The Coroner (Prime, Saturday, 7.30pm) ends with a Latin American Dance Festival and a dead drug courier. Urban Myths: Cary Grant, Timothy Leary and LSD (Sky Arts, Sky 020, 8.30pm). A UK series of “true-ish” stories that has featured Eddie Marsan as Bob Dylan, David Threlfall as Samuel Beckett and, here, Ben Chaplin as Cary Grant. We won’t be seeing Joseph Fiennes as Michael Jackson, however, as the very idea he would imitate the King of Pop caused a furore and the episode never screened. These half-hour comedies take an event that may or may not have happened and run with it. It is known, for example, that Grant took LSD and corresponded with Mr Psychedelic, Timothy Leary. In this scenario, Grant and Leary (Aidan Gillen) meet, drop a tab and get quite weird. There is quite a lot of breaking the fourth wall, and a trip back to Grant’s childhood.