HD Heads-Up: December 11 – 17

➢➢ Christmas specials will come early with festive editions of Jamie’s Easy Meals (TVNZ 1, 7.30 Saturday), The Million Pound Cube (TVNZ 1, 7.30 Wednesday), The Great Kiwi Bake Off (TVNZ 1, 7.30 Thursday), Have You Been Paying Attention? (TVNZ 2, 7.30 Friday) and Gordon, Gino & Fred: Desperately Seeking Santa (TVNZ 1, 8.30 Friday). HYBPA will screen ahead of the live broadcast of the Aotearoa Music Awards while TVNZ 1 also will air a 1 News Special, Anger, Anxiety & Us (7.30 Monday), in which John Campbell explores the COVID-19 pandemic in NZ and how the country reacted …

➢➢ In Inside Chernobyl (TVNZ 1, 8.30 Monday), British broadcaster Ben Fogle goes inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. “After months of negotiations with the Ukranian authorities, he was granted access to the control room of the doomed reactor number 4 – the very spot where the devastating mistakes were made,” the Mirror reports. The Times called the result “gripping and structured” …

➢➢ Returning for  new seasons will be The Cube (TVNZ 2, 6.00 Saturday) and  Five Bedrooms (Prime, 8.30 Tuesday) while ending their runs will be Designing Dreams, Midsomer Murders, SEAL Team, Highway Cops, RFDS: Royal Flying Doctor Service, Greta Thunberg: A Year to Change the World, Moving Houses, Neighbours and It’s Your Fault I’m Fat …

➢➢ Will Smith, Richard Osman, Lin-Manuel Miranda and singer Yola guest on the December 9 broadcast of The Graham Norton Show (Three, 8.30) …

➢➢ The week’s network movie premieres range from B-grade gem Crawl (Three, 9.00 Saturday) to the acclaimed documentaries Be Water (Duke, 10.30 Tuesday) and Console Wars (TVNZ 2, 3.05am December 18). Other HD coming attractions will include:

• Kung Fu Panda 3  (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Saturday)
• How The Grinch Stole Christmas (Three, 7.00 Saturday)
• Akeelah and the Bee (Maori TV, 7.00 Saturday)
• The Queen (TVNZ 1, 8.30 Saturday)
• Learning to Drive (Maori TV, 8.30 Saturday)
• Fool’s Gold (TVNZ 2, 8.55 Saturday)
• Return of The Living Dead II (Duke 9.35 Saturday)
• I Do, or Die: A Killer Arrangement (Three, 10.50 Saturday)
• The Campaign(TVNZ 2, 11.00 Saturday)
• Grudge Match (TVNZ 2, 12.55am Sunday)
• Wonder Woman – Bloodlines (TVNZ 2, 2.50am Sunday) 
• Men in Black 3 (Three, 8.25 Sunday)
• Lilting (Maori TV, 8.30 Sunday)
• Bad Moms 2 – A Bad Moms Christmas (TVNZ 2, 8.35 Sunday)
• Annabelle 2 – Creation (TVNZ 2, 10.35 Sunday)
• The Expendables (Prime, 8.30 Monday)
• I Am Not Your Negro (Maori TV, 8.30 Monday)
• Secrets in the Snow (Three, 11.15 Monday)
• Rambo III (Duke, 8.30 Tuesday)
• American Sniper (Three, 8.45 Tuesday)
• Office Christmas Party (TVNZ 2, 8.50 Tuesday)
• The NeverEnding Story (TVNZ 2, 7.30 Friday)
• Deep Impact (Three, 7.30 Friday)
• The Fifth Element (Maori TV, 8.30 Friday)
• American Pie 2 (Duke, 9.30 Friday).