HD Heads-Up: August 24-30

August 15, 2024 0 Comments

➢➢ It’s another epic week for live free-to-air sport with the start of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games (TVNZ 1, 5.55am Thursday, 7.30 Thursday-Friday), continuing America’s Cup coverage with the Preliminary Regatta Barcelona (Three, midnight Saturday-Sunday, Thursday-Friday), and the US Tennis Open (Duke, 3am Tuesday-Saturday). Also new to Duke is Heartland Rugby (5.00 Saturday). And TVNZ 1 precedes its nightly games marathon with Grit & Glory (8.05 Saturday), which is billed as an “intimate insight into the lives of elite athletes with disabilities” striving to qualify for the Paralympics. The rest of the week’s live/delayed FTA sport includes:

Heartland Championship: South Canterbury vs Wairarapa Bush (Sky Open, 2.30 Saturday)
NPC: Southland vs Taranaki (Sky Open, 7.00 Saturday)
NRL Premiership: Melbourne Storm vs Dolphins (Sky Open, 11.40 Saturday)
NRL Premiership: Canberra Raiders vs Manly Warringah Sea Eagles (Sky Open, 7.30 Friday) …

➢➢ Accused: The Hampstead Paedophile Hoax (TVNZ 1, 8.25 Monday) documents how false allegations of sexual abuse and satanic worship from two children at a small school spread around the world. “Channel 4’s chilling account of a paedophile scare … isn’t elegant film-making; the storytelling tips towards the sensational. But it is gripping,” The New Statesman said while The Telegraph called it “chilling proof that online conspiracy can ruin lives” …

➢➢ Sky Open dusts off a crime drama that first streamed here five years ago on TVNZ OnDemand: The Victim (9.30 Saturday). John Hannah plays a detective investigating a brutal attack on a bus driver following his doxxing by the mother (Kelly Macdonald) of a nine-year-old he apparently killed 15 years earlier as a teenager. But is it a case of mistaken identity? The Guardian thought it a “gripping, vicious thriller … about a child killer that asks ever more challenging questions“. It’s being double-billed with the FTA premiere of the favourably reviewed Watergate drama White House Plumbers (10.40 Saturday) …

➢➢ Wild Cards (Three, 8.00 Friday) teams a spirited con woman and a demoted by-the-book detective to work together using their unique skills to solve crimes. Critics agreed there was “nothing new here” but praised the stars’ “crackling chemistry” and the procedural’s easy-going charm …

➢➢ What got Downton Abbey fans all in a tizz? What does TARDIS stand for? What caused the Bake Off scandal ‘Bingate’? Russell Howard, Judi Love and Daisy May Cooper are among the panellists joining Jimmy Carr to try to answer these on The Big Fat Quiz of Telly (TVNZ 2, 8.30 Wednesday), which screens within days of its UK broadcast, while stand-up comedy fans can look forward to Sky Open Mic: John Early: Now More than Ever (Sky Open, 11.00 Friday) …

➢➢ New to Whakaata Māori are Whakanuia (7.30 Wednesday), a live studio special that celebrates the life and times of Dame Hinewehi Mohi, and Breaking Silence (10.00 Thursday), a documentary about “the systemic failings of the Family Court for New Zealanders in the context of women and children fleeing a violent partner” …

➢➢ Returning are The Traitors UK (Three, 10.10 Thursday) and Crikey! It’s the Irwins (Three, 7.00 Saturday) while ending their runs are: