Your guide to the week’s best on Sky and free-to-air TV
Friends Like Her (8.30pm, Mondays from April 15, Three)
Kiwi journalist-turned novelist Sarah-Kate Lynch wrote this six-part drama which revolves around working mum-of-three Nicole (Morgana O’Reilly) and lady-wholunches Tessa (Tess Haubrich).
Best friends since their backpacking days (Nicole is even bearing a baby for Tessa), cracks develop in their relationship when an earthquake devastates their small coastal town of Kaikōura.
The Life and Deaths of Christopher Lee (8.30pm, April 12, Sky Arts)
Joe Dante, John Landis and our own Peter Jackson are among the film directors who contribute to this 2023 documentary on one of the most prolific screen actors of all-time.
Narrated by Peter Serafinowicz, it uses a mix of fresh interviews, archive material and multiple forms of traditional and cutting-edge animation to delve into not only Lee’s career, but also his aristocratic Italian roots, family connection to James Bond novelist Ian Fleming, wartime experiences in the British and Finnish military, post-war Nazi-hunting adventures and side-hustle as a heavy metal singer.
The Phantom of the Open (8.30pm, Saturday, April 13, TVNZ 1)
Free-to-air debut for this British basedon-fact 2022 movie about a dreamer and unrelenting optimist – Maurice Flitcroft – who managed to gain entry to qualifying for the 1976 British Open Golf Championship and turned himself into a folk hero in the process.
This has a heart, a soul and a context that means it deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as those other beloved British period dramedies like Kinky Boots, Brassed Off and The Full Monty.
Back To the Future
(7pm, Sunday, April 14, TVNZ 2)
With a heady mix of smart, attractive leads (Michael J Fox, Lea Thompson, the DeLorean car), science-fiction and metaphysical conundrums (a younger version of your mother is attracted to you), this is a first-rate comedy with a cracking soundtrack.
The original Robert Zemeckis-directed, Steven Spielberg-backed film was not only the biggest box-office hit of 1985, but also an enduring slice of pop culture for at least one generation, inspiring everything from the pop band McFly to the 2010 film Hot Tub Time Machine, as well as countless ad campaigns and headlines.
What makes Back To the Future such a timeless classic is the way it lovingly captures both 1985 and 1955 – and compares and contrasts the lives of those growing up in each.
The Lost Boys of Dilworth (8.30pm, Sunday, April 14, TVNZ 1)
Through first-hand accounts and dramatic re-enactments, the survivors of historic systemic abuse at Auckland’s Dilworth School tell their stories.
Behind the walls of one of the wealthiest and most reputed boys’ schools in
Auckland, those in charge abused hundreds of young boys in their care. Now, after years in court with numerous offenders convicted, those who suffered bravely share what they faced at Dilworth.
Zodiac
(8.30pm, Sunday, April 14, Eden)
David Fincher once made a terrific thriller about a serial killer. It was called Se7en.
Despite its title, this 2007 tale, however, is less about the 1970s San Franciscobased murderer and more about those trying to stop him. Even more surprising is how the cops end up playing secondfiddle to increasingly obsessed newspaper cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) and disintegrating reporter Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.).
A well-acted, fantastically executed, fascinating study of how all-consuming an ongoing story can be.
The Sympathizer (8.30pm, Mondays from April 15, SoHo)
Based on Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 2015 novel of the same name, this is a seven-part espionage thriller and cross-culture satire about the struggles of a half-French, half-Vietnamese communist spy during the final days of the Vietnam War and his resulting exile in the United States.
Directed by Fernando Meirelles (The Constant Gardener), Park Chan Wook (Old Boy) and Marc Munden (The Third Day), the cast includes Sandra Oh, Robert Downey Jr and Hoa Xuande.