HD Heads-Up: April 18 – 24

➢➢ TVNZ 1 is abandoning Prodigal Son to platform a Kiwi supernatural murder mystery in its plum Monday night crime drama slot. One Lane Bridge (8.30 Mondays from April 20) stars Shortland Street’s Dominic Ona-Ariki as an ambitious Cook Island-Maori detective investigating a Queenstown murder who inadvertently reawakens a spiritual gift that endangers the case, his career and his life …

➢➢ Reads the blurb: “As the pressure to solve the crime heats up, Maori metaphysics collides with Southern Man scepticism.” Sara Wiseman (A Place to Call Home), Dean O’Gorman (The Bad Seed) and Ryan O’Kane (Shortland Street) co-star …

➢➢ Prodigal Son was dropped six weeks short of its full 22-episode season. The most recent episode aired April 6 and was three weeks behind its Fox TV transmission. The show’s been on a month-long break in the US and will resume from April 20; no word of when it will resurface here …

➢➢ The same week TVNZ 1 will premiere UK TV’s latest crime-busting odd couple McDonald & Dodds (8.30 Sundays from April 19). The first season comprises two two-hour mysteries and was a hit for ITV but didn’t earn killer reviews. One of the stars, The Crown’s Jason Watkins, has championed his character as “modern day Columbo” while The Times argued his “new sleuth pays homage to Miss Marple” …

➢➢ Also new to the network will be Bradley Walsh and Son: Breaking Dad (7.30 Mondays from April 20). It features The Chase host and his 20-year-old son Barney on a four-part cross-country tour of the US. Radio Times said “there’s a distinct feel of scripted banter” and dismissed it as “poorly-written comedy“. But Walsh fans gave it the thumbs-up and delcared it should have been an hour-long show …

➢➢ TVNZ 1 is so confident of Walsh’s appeal that it will repeat Bradley Walsh’s Late Night Guest List at 7.30 on April 18 …

➢➢ TVNZ 1 also is dusting off Episodes to air 10.00 Wednesday-Friday from April 22. The brilliant inside-showbiz comedy starring Matt LeBlanc as a caricature of himself previously aired for five seasons on Sky’s SoHo following TVNZ 1’s decision to drop it after the first. The cast includes Breeders’ Daisy Haggard in hilarious form as a deadpan network programming lackey …

➢➢ Joanna Lumley’s Hidden Caribbean: Havana To Haiti (Prime, 7.30 Sundays from April 19) goes inside a cigar factory in Cuba and a voodoo ceremony in Haiti. “The second episode has a darker edge to it,” said the Daily Mail while the Evening Standard said the AbFab star “wafts wonderfully through a tale of two very different Cubas” (which will screen ahead of the Prime Rocks premiere, Mystify – Michael Hutchence) …

➢➢ Prime also will pre-empt April 18’s The Seventies for Speedworks Motorsport …

➢➢ Returning the week starting April 18 will be 20/20 (TVNZ 1, 9.45 Tuesdays), Marae DIY (Maori TV, 8.30 Wednesdays) and Posh Hotels’ Nigel Havers and Sally Lindsay in the one-off First Class v Economy: Is It Worth It? (TVNZ 1, 8.30 Thursday) …

➢➢ Ending their runs will be Eat Well For Less, Rich House, Poor House, Traffic Cops, Flights From Hell, George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces Specials, Naked Attraction and Call the Midwife …

➢➢ Three will refresh Monday nights from April 19 with a season four repeat of Grand Designs New Zealand (7.30) and the resumption of The Rookie (8.30, from ep 11 of S2) …

➢➢ There will be three HD network movie premieres in the week starting April 18: The Boss Baby (Three, 7.00 Sunday), Skyscraper (Three, 8.50 Sunday) and 8 ½ (Maori TV, 8.30 Sunday). Other HD coming attractions will include:

• Hotel Transylvania (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Saturday)
• Crocodile Dundee (Three, 7.00 Saturday)
• Watership Down (Maori TV, 7.00 Saturday)
• Sicario (TVNZ 2, 8.45 Saturday)
• The Fugitive (Three, 8.45 Saturday)
• Pacific Rim (Prime, 9.30 Saturday)
• In Time (Duke, 9.30 Saturday)
• Demolition (Three, 11.05 Saturday)
• Purple Rain (TVNZ 2, 11.15 Saturday)
• The Walk (TVNZ 2, 1.15am Sunday)
• Freaky Friday (TVNZ 2, 2.45 Sunday)  
• Doctor Strange (TVNZ 2, 8.00 Sunday)
• Girl in the Box (TVNZ 2, 11.15 Sunday)
• 2 Guns (Prime, 8.30 Monday)
• Free To Run (Maori TV, 8.30 Monday)
• Maximum Risk (Duke, 8.30 Tuesday)
• Get Hard (TVNZ 2, 9.00 Wednesday)
• Moana (TVNZ 2, 4.30 Friday)
• Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Friday)
• Jason Bourne (Three, 7.30 Friday)
• Jackass: The Movie (Duke, 8.30 Friday).