HD Heads-Up: February 20 – 26

February 11, 2021 0 Comments

➢➢ Trial in the Outback: The Lindy Chamberlain Story (TVNZ 1, 8.30 Sundays from February 21) is a two-part re-examination of the 1980 trial of Lindy Chamberlain, who was falsely accused of murdering her baby during a camping trip in the outback. The Times called the intensity of the witch-hunt that followed “the most compelling aspect” of Trial. “Not only does it portray the disturbing mass behaviour that can occur when the public get stirred up by a media sensation — one on to which they project their psychological fears, pain or revulsions — it also offers a classic example of what Malcolm Gladwell has called the ‘mismatch paradox’. Mum Lindy and dad Michael’s body language and behaviour outside court was not in accord with the stereotypical notion of how they were supposed to act as grieving parents. She was too hard-faced; he was far too calm and composed. They must have dunnit” …

➢➢ Sam Neill, who narrates Trial and is marking 50 years as an actor (including playing Chamberlain’s husband in Evil Angels), will be on the February 25 broadcast of The Graham Norton Show (Three, 9.00), along with Billie Piper, James Nesbitt and Tom Jones …

➢➢ TVNZ 1 will premiere late-night the Jo Brand-Alan Davies black comedy, Damned. They play council social workers in a series The Guardian dubbed “scathing and subtle” and The Telegraph “unforgiving, warm and extremely funny“. The first season screened on Channel 4 in 2016 and the second in 2018. Both can be streamed on TVNZ OnDemand but will air after midnight on Sunday mornings while tripe like re-runs of Bradley Walsh and Son: Breaking Bad and The Hotel Inspector Returns, along with Dinner Date, clog up primetime Saturday a few hours earlier …

➢➢ The Mum Who Got Tourette’s (TVNZ 2, 9.05 Thursday) profiles a summer in the life of a British mother-of-three who developed Tourette’s Syndrome soon after turning 40. The Times thought it a “moving yet also uplifting” documentary: “There was so much positivity in this household (yet no schmaltz, I’m pleased to say) that it never felt like it would overwhelm them. Give them their own series” …

➢➢ Returning for new seasons will be Sunday (TVNZ 1, 7.30 Sunday), Wellington Paranormal (TVNZ 2, 8.30 Wednesday) and Wild Kai Legends (Duke, 9.50 Wednesday) …

➢➢ The number of same-week repeats is on the rise on TVNZ 2, with new series The Amazing Race Australia, Travel Guides NZ and Have You Been Paying Attention? re-running within days of their original broadcast. Race also will air again Saturday afternoons, along with the The Bachelorette NZ Omnibus …

➢➢ Prime will screen the broadcast premiere of SoHo/Neon’s We’re Here on February 25. The 9.35 Thursday launch of the six-part unscripted series, in which former RuPaul’s Drag Race contestants Bob the Drag Queen, Eureka O’Hara and Shangela Laquifa Wadley help small-town residents to step out of their comfort zone and prepare for as one-night only drag performance, will push back Evil to 10.50 …

➢➢ There will be three network movie premieres in the last week of February: Leviathan (Maori TV, 8.30 Sunday), The Nun (TVNZ 2, 10.50 Sunday) and Dior and I (Maori TV, 8.30 Monday). Other HD coming attractions will include: