Keith Sharp
Picks out the best on the box for the week ahead.
Every touch leaves a trace
If the advances in forensic science continue at the current rate, it will become harder than ever to get away with murder. The new, local documentary Forensics NZ shows why, as it follows the work done by ESR scientists and other forensic experts over a range of disciplines in the investigations of five New Zealand murder cases. Forget what you see on CSI – this is the real thing. And the tiniest speck of evidence can either make or break a case. Prime, Sunday, 8.30pm
Lest we forget
If you can’t go to an Anzac Day Dawn Service this year, you can watch the Auckland event live on your choice of two channels. Maori TV does its usual sterling service, with a live broadcast from the Auckland War Memorial (matched by TV3). Then, on Maori TV, it’s on to a day of Anzac Day-themed documentaries and films to mark the anniversary. TV One broadcasts the National Commemorative Service at 11am. Maori TV, Monday, 5.50am;
TV3, 6am
Return to Westeros
Game Of Thrones is back, winter is still coming (they got that forecast wrong, didn’t they?) and Jon Snow is dead. Or, so they say. As we get this show in New Zealand just hours after the United States screening, there’s not much to give away, but we can expect the usual helpings of sex and violence to spice up the action and fans will be glued to their screens to see what happens next. So Jon Snow is dead, then? Is he really?
SoHo, Monday, 8.30pm
One last strike at bad guys
Well, it had to come to an end sometime, didn’t it? Stonebridge and Scott strike for the last time in the final episode of the all-action drama Strike Back and it is showdown time as the team tries to stop North Korean terrorist Li-Na detonating a bomb at the United Nations in Geneva. Fasten your seatbelts, folks – it’s likely to be a bumpy ride.
Prime, Wednesday, 9.30pm
Brake . . . brake!!
The TV2 documentary this Thursday is titled Never Teach Your Wife To Drive and, well, gee, where do we start? It’s a British doco about the perils of driving lessons ‘twixt husband and wife and how they can drive each other round the bend. It appears from the three couples featured in this that the biggest danger is not to life and limb, but to the marriage vows to love, honour and cherish. Seriously, if you want to put your marriage to the ultimate test, this is the way to go about it.
TV2, Thursday, 7.30pm. With its star-studded cast that includes Carey Mulligan, Meryl Streep, Helena Bonham-Carter, Brendan Gleeson and Romola Garai, grey palette and grim backdrop, one could be forgiven for thinking that Suffragette is this year’s Les Miserables, sans songs.
However, despite the depiction of woeful working conditions and ‘‘marching of the people who will not be slaves again’’, this presents its story in a far less melodramatic way.
Yes, like Miserables, it is one person’s story set against the backdrop of massive social unrest, but Abi Morgan’s script excels at depicting the risks and toll these women’s political actions had on their personal and family lives.