The Box Set
McLaren, 8.30pm, Wednesday, Rialto
For a generation of New Zealanders, Bruce McLaren was a Kiwi legend and a hero. For anyone born after 1970 though, he seems little more than the name on a car, intermediate school or retirement village. That’s what Roger Donaldson’s 2017 docudrama aims to put right - and succeeds with substance, style and verve. Offering up a comprehensive spark plug-to-wheel nuts biography of the racecar designer, driver, engineer and inventor, from his early diagnosis of Perthes disease to his tragic death at age 32, McLaren is engrossing, enlightening and surprisingly emotional. New Zealand’s own When We Were Kings.
Madam Secretary, 9.35pm, Thursday, Prime
Morgan Freeman directs and stars in the opening episode of this US political drama’s fourth season. After the assistant vice minister of Timor-Leste suddenly dies during a meeting with Elizabeth (Tea Leoni) on the first day of the UN General Assembly, she becomes suspicious when the president of Timor-Leste ships the body back without a proper investigation.
War of the Worlds, 8.50pm, Saturday, TVNZ2
Resetting H G Wells’ Victorian England source novel in contemporary America, Steven Spielberg’s 2005 vision focuses on Tom Cruise’s New York port worker Ray Ferrier. While some of the changes don’t make sense (the aliens apparently pre-buried their fighting machines), the script keeps the action coming and the human drama to the fore.
Final Destination, 8.55pm, Saturday, Duke
Impressive and under-rated 2000 thriller about a teenager who prevents his terrifying vision of him and his friends dying in a plane crash from happening, only to have Death hunt them down, one-by-one. ‘‘Playful and energised enough to keep an audience guessing,’’ wrote San Francisco
Chronicle’s Mick La Salle.
Jamie and Jimmy’s Food Fight, 7.30pm, Sunday, Food TV
Simon Pegg, Joanna Lumley, Mark Hamill and Sarah Millican are among the guests on this fifth season of the amiable cooking series. They’ll be visiting the boys’ Southend Pier cafe to help serve up the ultimate version of their favourite dish.
Queen of the Desert, 8.30pm, Sunday, Choice
Nicole Kidman, James Franco and Damian Lewis star in Werner Herzog’s 2015 chronicle of Gertrude Bell’s life. She was a traveller, writer, archaeologist, explorer, cartographer, and political attache for the British Empire at the dawn of the 20th century. ‘‘It is grown-up, respectable and historical, perfectly competently made, lots of accents and period dressing-up… and just the tiniest bit dull,’’ wrote The
Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw. ■
The seven-day television listings are as accurate as possible at the time of publication. For the most up-to-date programme details, please see the newspaper’s daily listings.