The week’s best live action
SAILING
The biggest sporting event in the country this week is the 49er World Championships, based at the Royal Akarana Yacht Club in Auckland. Olympic heroes Peter Burling and Blair Tuke lead a strong home field, but other sailing nations have a strong interest in the event too – several will be using it as an Olympic qualifier. Sky will have all four days of racing from 10.45am on Tuesday ( Sky Sport 9). Its coverage will feature video from on-the-water gyroscopic cameras and drones, and the pictures will be backed up with graphic visualisations by Animation Research, along with interviews and analysis.
RUGBY
Warren Gatland’s Barbarians side takes on Wales, the team he coached for so long, on Sunday morning ( Sky Sport 1, 3.35am). He has the services of four of South Africa’s World Cup-winning team and retired Boks legend Morne Steyn. The two New Zealanders, David Havili and Andrew Makalio, both hail from the Crusaders. The prospect of Havili lining up alongside French midfield powerhouse Mathieu Bastareud is enticing.
Meanwhile, the rugby Sevens circuit rolls on with the Dubai round on Sky Sport 1 on Thursday ( from 11.30pm) and Friday ( 6.00pm). Look out for the next generation of Sevens stars, beginning with the Southern regional Sevens on Saturday ( Sky Sport 1, 11.30am).
CRICKET
The Black Caps play England in in the second of two tests, with day-two coverage beginning on Sky Sport 2 on Saturday ( 10.30am).
BASKETBALL
Surely this is the week the Breakers get back on track? Maybe. They’re at home to the Hawks ( Sky Sport 8, Saturday, 7.00pm).
THURSDAY DECEMBER 5
American Princess (Box Sets, Sky 009, 7.30pm). Plenty of ribald comedy in this series created by actor and writer Jamie Denbo – with a little help from executive producer Jenji Kohan, who knows a thing or two about subverting television norms. Instead of sending another American princess to prison, as Kohan did in Orange Is the New
Black, she and Denbo send an Upper East Side socialite (Georgia Flood) off to join a “renaissance faire”, where she finds a sense of belonging among the oddballs. It has 71% approval on Rotten Tomatoes, but was cancelled after one season.
Return to Downton (Prime, 8.30pm). Promotion for the Downton Abbey movie, of course, but there are worse things than being shown around the magnificent Highclere Castle by Jim Carter (Mr Carson). Cast members who pop by include Hugh Bonneville (Robert Crawley), Lesley Nicol (Mrs Patmore) and Allen Leech (Branson), plus there’s the real Lord and Lady of the manor, the Carnavons. In a similar vein is World’s Greatest Palaces (History, Sky 073, Tuesday, 8.30pm), a 10-part series that includes Hampton Court, Kensington, Fontainebleau, Lukshmi Vilas (India) and Caserta (Italy) as well as the castles of Edinburgh, Neuschwanstein (Germany) and Peleș (Romania).
FRIDAY DECEMBER 6
Why Women Kill (TVNZ OnDemand). Melodramatistin-chief Marc Cherry, who has previously quantified the desperation of housewives and the deviousness of maids, returns with more hypersoapy storylines in this new anthology series. It follows three women in different eras living in the same Pasadena mansion: there’s Beth Ann (Ginnifer Goodwin) in 1963; Simone (Lucy Liu) in 1984; and Taylor (Kirby HowellBaptiste, The Good Place) in 2019. Their other connection is marital infidelity, and Cherry’s use of the different timelines allows him to explore how women’s lives and attitudes have changed over the past 50 years. It doesn’t entirely hang together, but the 10-part series was successful enough for online platform CBS All Access to renew it for a second season.