HD Heads-Up: April 25 – May 1

A heavyweight current affair crew worked behind the scenes of the ANZAC Day doco Coastwatchers: Operation Pacific, including producer Mihingarangi Forbes and directors Cameron Bennett and Annabelle Lee-Mather.

➢➢ TVNZ 1, Prime and Maori TV are the only major channels that will salute ANZAC Day on April 25. Highlights include: Paradise Soldiers (TVNZ 1, 8.55am), which documents how young Cook Islanders fought largely unrecognised alongside Kiwi soldiers in major wars; Whitiki (Maori TV, 9am), which relates the stories of Maori who fought in WWI through the eyes of their descendants; Coastwatchers – Operation Pacific (TVNZ 1, 10.10am), which shows how coastwatching stations were set up to track enemy movements; Lest We Forget (Maori TV, 10.30am), which commemorates how the NZ Division captured the fortified French town of Le Quesnoy on 4 November 1918; ANZAC Day 2020 – An Act of Remembrance (TVNZ 1, 11am), which honours  Kiwi veterans; and New Zealand’s Air Force – Then & Now (Prime, 7.30), in which WWII pilots talk about the Air Force of old while new recruits discuss the Air Force today …

➢➢ TVNZ 1 also will screen the network movie premiere of the WWII romance,The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (7.25 Saturday). It will overlap TVNZ 2’s 8.35 premiere of Sicario: Day of the Soldado. The week’s other HD coming attractions will include:

• Chariots of Fire (TVNZ 1, 1.40 Saturday)
• Hotel Transylvania 2 (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Saturday)
• Crocodile Dundee II (Three, 7.00 Saturday)
• Eraser (Three, 9.00 Saturday)
• In Time (Duke, 9.20 Saturday)
• Dear John (TVNZ 1, 10.45 Saturday)
• The Inbetweeners Movie (TVNZ 2, 10.50 Saturday)
  
• Nightmare Moms (Three, 11.05 Saturday)
• Yoga Hosers (TVNZ 2, 12.40am Sunday)
• Pure Country Pure Heart (TVNZ 2, 3.05 Sunday)
• Ice Age: Collision Course (Three, 7.00 Sunday)
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 (TVNZ 2, 7.55 Sunday)
• Labyrinth of Lies (Maori TV, 8.30 Sunday)
• Lucy (Three, 8.40 Sunday)
• Spanglish (Duke, 10.30 Sunday)
• Blade II (TVNZ 2, 11.15 Sunday)
• The Last Witch Hunter (Prime, 8.30 Monday)
• Jim: The James Foley Story (Maori TV, 8.30 Monday)
• Double Team (Duke, 8.30 Tuesday)
• The Intern (TVNZ 2, 8.25 Wednesday)
• The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water (TVNZ 2, 4.30 Friday)
• Oblivion (Three, 7.30 Friday)
• Jackass Number Two (Duke, 8.30 Friday)
• Flight (Maori TV, 8.30) …

➢➢ My Life is Murder (TVNZ 1, 8.25 Fridays from May 1) is a lighthearted crime drama starring Lucy Lawless as a private investigator in Melbourne. The verdict? “I quite enjoyed this, but there’s nothing really substantial enough or different enough to it” (The Medium is Not Enough); “A show that’s fun and light entertainment, enhanced by well-written mysteries and performances that don’t take themselves seriously” (Decider); “It’s an enjoyable show, but on this early evidence it feels a little lightweight” (The Arts Desk) …

➢➢ Eat Well for Less NZ (TVNZ 1, 7.30 Tuesdays from April 28) adapts the UK format for local consumption, with chef Michael van de Elzen (The Food Truck, Kiwi Living) and restauranteur Ganesh Raj helping Kiwis to shop, cook and eat better …

➢➢ Unbreakable (TVNZ 1, 8.30 Tuesdays from April 28) follows a group of remarkable Kiwis with disabilities as they find a job, fall in love, strive for pop stardom, play a rugby league game and even model on the catwalk …

➢➢ Gordon, Gino and Fred’s Road Trip (TVNZ 1, 8.40 Thursdays from April 30) has chefs Gordon Ramsay, Gino D’Acampo and Fred Sirieix criss-crossing the US. “It’s mostly about eating the hottest chillies they can find and comparing everything to testicles,” The Guardian quipped …

➢➢ Pennyworth (TVNZ 2, 11.55 Thursdays from April 30) is the origin story of Bruce Wayne’s legendary butler, Alfred Pennyworth, a former SAS soldier who forms a security company and works with young billionaire Thomas Wayne in 1960s London. Rotten Tomatoes summed it up thus (with a 72% critics’ rating): “While intriguing characters and impressive set-pieces make for an engaging spy-thriller, Pennyworth doesn’t add much to the greater Batman mythos” …

➢➢ Also new in the week starting April 25 will be a Prime Rocks profile of Chuck Berry (Prime, 8.30 Sunday), the Serial podcast spin-off The Case Against Adnan Syed (TVNZ 1, 12.10am Monday) and Weather Gone Viral (Prime, 8.30 Wednesday) …

➢➢ Returning the same week will be Have You Been Paying Attention? (TVNZ 2, 7.30 Wednesday) and Your Home Made Perfect (TVNZ 1, 7.30 Thursday) while ending their runs will be Joanna Lumley’s Hidden Caribbean: Havana To Haiti, McDonald & Dodds and Madam Secretary. And on the move will be Pooch Perfect, which will air Fridays instead of Wednesdays on TVNZ 2 (the Thursday broadcast will continue).