TELEVISION
Our Picks of the Week
SATURDAY MAY 21 HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN’S PLATINUM JUBILEE CELEBRATION
Screen royalty salutes the Queen
Screening: TVNZ 1, 2.00pm
Streaming: TVNZ OnDemand Not the forthcoming public jubilee parade or the “platinum party” pop concert out the front of Buckingham Palace, but delayed coverage of the “90-minute piece of spellbinding arena theatre” in the private grounds of Windsor Castle broadcast live in the UK by ITV on May 15. Hosts Phillip Schofield and Julie Etchingham will be joined by Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, Ant and Dec, Dame Joan Collins, Sir David Jason, Alan Titchmarsh, Dame Kelly Holmes, Sir Trevor McDonald, Dame Helen Mirren, Damian Lewis, Omid Djalili and, er, Tom Cruise.
SUNDAY MAY 22 THREE FAMILIES
Abortion law and the damage done
Screening: Rialto, 8.30pm
This aired on the BBC a year ago, but seems timely now. It’s a two-part dramatisation of true stories from the past half-dozen years of Northern Ireland’s prohibition of abortion. The territory maintained the criminal status of abortion for more than 50 years after it was legalised in the UK. Remarkably, the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont continues to resist the 2019 intervention from Westminster to bring it into line with the rest of the UK, even as polls show a clear public majority for reform.
MONDAY MAY 23 SHORTLAND STREET
It has been a good three decades Screening: TVNZ 2, 7.00pm,
Monday to Friday
Streaming: TVNZ OnDemand The national soap marks its 30th anniversary – see the full story in this issue – by venturing into some new stylistic territory: a crew from
Seven Sharp comes to Ferndale in Monday and Tuesday’s episodes to talk to the doctors and nurses and go behind the scenes to show the challenges they face. This is also the week viewers find out whether Desi (Kura Forrester) and Damo (Grant Lobban) finally get the wedding of their dreams.
HOTEL PORTOFINO
Mediterranean costume frolic Screening: UKTV, 9.25pm
A period drama set in “a very English hotel on the Italian Riviera” during the Roaring Twenties. Natascha McElhone ( stars as Bella Ainsworth, the daughter of a wealthy British industrialist, who opens the hotel in pursuit of a fresh start in her life. But her husband, Cecil (Mark Umbers, is a rum sort and the guests are all over the place. Don’t expect