HD Heads-Up: April 6-12

March 28, 2013 0 Comments

TV2’s new variety show, Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, will screen in HD from April 6.

The Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly-fronted series has been an ITV institution since 2002 but has never screened in NZ.

TV2 is picking it up from the latest season, which went to air in the UK a month ago, and has scheduled it for 7.30.

It opens with guests David Walliams and Robbie Williams, and according to the Daily Mirror, is “funny, slick and for a format that has so many different themes and sections, very well executed”.

Apparently,”the best part” are the pranks, which, in the April 6 premiere, include boy band manager Louis Walsh pretending to be a diva, “tricking builders into his home and acting fairly odd wearing a crown around the house”.

If you want to learn more about Ant and Dec, The Guardian ran this substantial profile ahead of their return to primetime.

Also in HD the same week will be David Attenborough: 60 Years in the Wild (TV One, 8.30 Tuesday).

“The three-part series is more of a clip show of past successes peppered with anecdotes from the revered presenter than a look at the man behind the camera,” said the Daily Telegraph.

“It’s a surprisingly entertaining three hours, though, thanks to the infectious enthusiasm of Attenborough and the enduring appeal of the footage.”

Telegraph critic Clive James said this survey of his greatest work “held innumerable delights” while on the eve of its UK broadcast, The Guardian published these surprising confessions from the naturalist.

In other HD news of note for the week starting April 6:

❑ TV2’s Renters will return in a new slot — 7.00 Sunday — and, for the first time, in HD

❑ Season three of Mike & Molly will launch the same night (TV2, 8.00)

❑ TV2 also is resuming Revolution only days after NBC in the US — but in a later time slot: it will replace The Walking Dead at 10.45 Wednesday whereas the first half of the series aired 9.30

❑ TV3 will start to run out low-rating The Blue Rose in double-episodes from April 8

❑ Ted Nugent will guest on Sunday’s The Simpsons (TV3, 7.00), and Cate Blanchett, Ewan McGregor, Michael Sheen and Matt Lucas on Friday’s Graham Norton Show (TV3, 8.30)

❑ The network HD premiere of Gran Torino will screen on Saturday (TV One, 10.35) and A Serious Man will re-run on Sunday (TV3, 10.30).