HD Heads-Up: August 31

And then there were … Sky eSports … Sun, sea, scousers but no Coro St …

Prime will premiere one of the best Agatha Christie dramatisations in years on September 11. And Then There Were None boasts a cast that includes Sam Neill, Charles Dance, Miranda Richardson, Noah Taylor, Anna Maxwell Martin and Aidan Turner. Variety called the two-part adaptation “astoundingly entertaining” and said the “streamlined, supple script ekes every ounce of suspense, commentary and pathos” from the novel. The New York Times praised its “satisfyingly eerie groove” and for staying “relatively faithful to the events and tone of Ms. Christie’s book, right through to the nihilistic ending”. The Telegraph simply summed it up as “spiffingly watchable” …

Quipped The Guardian about this darker spin on the classic mysytery: “If you are expecting to settle down on the sofa to watch a cosy Agatha Christie whodunnit when And Then There Were None begins, then think again. As Sarah Phelps (The Crimson Field, The Casual Vacancy) who has adapted the gripping novel about justice, points out, ‘this book is genuinely terrifying … nobody is coming to save you … no dapper Belgian detective, no twinkly-eyed and steely spinster is going to arrive and unravel it'” …

Phelps also is involved in a raft of new Christie commissions following the Boxing Day success of And Then There Were None in the UK. First will be Ordeal By Innocence, followed by Death Comes as the End, a murder mystery set in Ancient Egypt, and The ABC Murders, a race against time to stop a serial killer who is operating across 1930s Britain. The seven books will be produced over the next four years and, claims the BBC, will “reinvent Christie’s novels for a modern audience”. In June, the BBC ordered from Phelps an adaptation of Christie’s 1925 short story, Witness for the Prosecution …

Next week Sky Sport will air live coverage from the New Zealand Gaming Championships (NZGC) League of Legends Premiership. Round-robin and playoff matches take place online at www.letsplay.live and twitch.tv/letsplaylive on Saturday and Sunday nights from 7pm. And every Wednesday night from September 7, Sky’s coverage will include analysis by professional streamer Lorien Gugich, League of Legends expert player Jonathan Jansen, and former pro player and coach Cam ‘Crunch’ Russell …

Holiday Airport will touch down on TV One from September 10. In Britain, the fly-on-the-luggage series was subtitled Sun, Sea and Scousers, because the destination is Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport, which The Guardian reports is the 13th busiest airport in the UK. Apparently the stars of the premiere are a retired couple who holiday every year on Valentine’s Day. Plimsoll Productions chose Liverpool because of its reputation as an airport “where the holiday starts the moment you arrive” …

Still, it doesn’t sound a significant enough series to usurp Coronation Street, which effectively is what it will do because of TV One’s Paralympics programming. The Manchester soap has been cut back from three hours a week to only one hour only during the September 7-18 Rio coverage, with both Saturday editions being pre-empted by the games. TV One could have kept these in the schedule had it delayed Holiday Airport’s take-off by another two weeks …

Coming and goings: TV One looks set to premiere season two of American Crime late-night on September 19 — it’s been pencilled in to replace Wicked City, which ends on September 12 … Also exiting the network that week will be Border Patrol, Code: 1 and Brief Encounters … Replacing TV One’s ITM Fishing Show on September 10 is one extreme adventurers won’t want to let get away, Chasing Monsters … Britain’s Biggest Superyachts sets sail the same night on Prime at 6.30 …

TV2 will air the network movie premiere of Inbetweeners 2 on September 10 at 9.10. Other HD coming attractions that week include: Escape From Planet Earth (TV2, 5.15 Saturday), Monsters University (TV2, 7.00 Saturday), Sahara (TV3, 7.00 Saturday), Ronin (TV3, 9,20 Saturday), Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (TV2, 11.05 Saturday), Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (TV2, 1.10am Sunday),  Transformers: Dark of the Moon (TV3, 7.00 Sunday), Pacific Rim (TV2, 8.35 Sunday), In Time (TV3, 9.50 Sunday), No Good Dead (TV2, 11.05 Sunday), Snow White and the Huntsmen (TV3, 8.30 Monday) and Henry’s Crime (Prime, 8.35 Thursday) …