HD Heads-Up: December 25 – 31

➢➢ If you’re in a mood for a “deliciously dark” gaslighting thriller during a Christmas Week rife with festive froth, reality dross and re-runs, The Guardian recommends the six-part Close to Me (TVNZ 1, 9.00 Mondays from December 27). It stars Connie Nielsen as a recovering head injury victim who can’t remember the last year of her life: is her husband (Christopher Eccleston) really who he purports to be? But while The Guardian thought it “gratifyingly full of realistic grace notes,” The Telegraph reckoned “we’re into so-bad-it’s-good-territory” and Radio Times found it “predictable and far-fetched” …

➢➢ Christmas Week specials will include The Repair Shop (TVNZ 1, 7.00 Saturday), The Celebrity Chase (7.00 Wednesday) and Mrs Brown’s Boys: Mammy’s Mechanical Merriment (TVNZ 1, 9.00 Thursday). TVNZ 1 also will show how the Windsors spend Christmas in Very Royal Christmas: Sandringham Secret (10.00 Saturday) …

➢➢ Musicals may spell box office death but TVNZ 1 will premiere two examples of the genre in Christmas Week: Yesterday (7.30 Sunday) and Cats (10.05 Friday, on an 8.00 double-bill with Mamma Mia!). And Maori TV will screen the original West Side Story (8.45 Saturday) and Fiddler on the Roof (8.30 Friday). Other HD coming attractions will include:

• The Polar Express (TVNZ 2, 6.00 Saturday)
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (TVNZ 2, 7.30 Saturday)
• Slumdog Millionaire (TVNZ 1, 8.05 Saturday)
• The Holiday (Three, 8.20 Saturday)
• Definitely, Maybe (TVNZ 2, 10.30 Saturday)
• High Holiday (Three, 10.45)
• Something Borrowed (TVNZ 2, 12.20am Sunday)
• Best in Show (TVNZ 1, 12.40am Sunday)
• The Notebook (TVNZ 2, 2.10am Sunday)
• About Schmidt (TVNZ 1, 2.15am Sunday)
• Forrest Gump (Three, 8.25 Sunday)
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (TVNZ 2, 8.30 Sunday)
• The Conjuring (TVNZ 2, 11.10 Sunday)
• Just Go With It (Three, 8.30 Monday)
• The Expendables III (Prime, 8.30 Monday)
• Secrets in the Woods (Three, 10.50 Monday)
• Captain Phillips (Three, 8.35Tuesday)
• Inception (TVNZ 2, 9.30 Thursday)
• Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (TVNZ 2, 6.25 Friday)
• Transformers (Three, 7.30 Friday)
• Die Hard 2 (TVNZ 2, 8.35 Friday)
• The Big Lebowski (Duke, 9.20 Friday) …

➢➢ Following a day-long re-run of Go South, Prime’s Christmas Night schedule will rely on repeats of QI, Return to Downton, ABBA: Super Troupe and The Queen and I. But on New Year’s Eve it will premiere back-to-back stand-up specials Mo Willems: Don’t Let The Pigeon Do Storytime!, Phoebe Robinson: Sorry, Harriet Tubman and Colin Quinn & Friends: A Parking Lot Comedy Show …

➢➢ Duke will screen a Simpsons Christmas Marathon from 7.30-10.10 on Christmas Day and a Top Gear Christmas special on Boxing Day (9.00) …

➢➢ From December 27, TVNZ 2 will strip Celebrity MasterChef Australia 7.00 Monday-Thursday on a double-bill with Australian Survivor: Brains vs Brains, in which 12 of Australia’s smartest take on 12 of Australia’s strongest in a 48-day competition. Screening instead of Survivor on Thursdays will be a new season of Farmer Wants a Wife …

➢➢ Inside Central Station: Australia’s Busiest Railway (TVNZ 1, 8.10 Tuesdays from December 27) observes some of the 11,000 staff who run Sydney’s trains. It will follow the 7.00 S4 premiere of Shop Well for Less …

➢➢ Lodgers for Codgers (TVNZ 1, 8.00 Thursdays from December 30) investigates how to reconcile 3.5 million pensioners living alone in the UK with a young population priced out of the housing market …

➢➢ TVNZ 1 will resume S2 of Inside Taronga Zoo 8.00 Mondays from December 28. S1 was a big hit for the network but the series switched to TVNZ 2 for S2, which tanked on Sunday nights …

➢➢ Celebrity IOU (Three, 8.35 Wednesday) is a four-part real estate-renovation series in which Hollywood A-listers give back to the people who have helped them most, starting with Kris Jenner, Kim Kardashian and Kendall Jenner. It will be double-billed with the automotive spin-off Celebrity IOU: Joyride …

➢➢ Duke will resurrect Battlestar Galactica: The Miniseries (8.30 Tuesday and Wednesday) and premiere Assembly Required (8.30 Thursday), in which Home Improvement’s Tim Allen and Richard Karn front a competition for US builders in their home workshops …

➢➢ On the December 30 broadcast of The Graham Norton Show (Three, 9.10), Spider-Man: No Way Home’s Tom Holland and Zendaya will join Superman Henry Cavill, Loki’s Gugu Mbatha-Raw will discuss her new BBC thriller and British girl band Little Mix will perform the title track off their new album, Between Us.