HD Heads-Up: January 7-13

➢➢ Continuing TVNZ 1’s best summer schedule in years if not ever will be an unmissable Monday night double-bill of Frozen Planet II (7.30) and the third and final season of Happy Valley (8.45). The latter, which will air barely a week after its BBC broadcast, has Sarah Lancashire’s Sergeant Catherine Cawood investigating a gangland murder that reconnects her to Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton), the father of her grandson and her daughter’s rapist. Writer Sally Wainwright says there was a six-year gap between S2 and S3 because the grandson (Rhys Connah) needed to age before the next chapter in the series. “Basically we’re kind of waiting for the little boy to grow up, so he’s more of a teenager than a child. That’s always been the plan. We never intended to do it again straight away” …

➢➢ There was an even longer space between the original Frozen Planet, in 2011, and the acclaimed sequel, which went to air in October on the BBC. “So relentlessly wondrous that you’ll feel like a child again,” raved The Guardian while The Week said it “bears all the hallmarks of another dazzling David Attenborough/BBC operation … Where the first series explored the Arctic and Antarctic, this one deploys cutting-edge satellite and drone technology to investigate non-polar frozen habitats, from high mountain ranges to ice-covered seas”. Picture pursuits may want to binge the series in 4K-UHD (with Dolby Atmos) by importing the UK box set …

➢➢ Another premium premiere will be the true-life dramatisation The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe (TVNZ 1, 10.25 Monday), which will air over four consecutive nights. It stars Eddie Marsan and Monica Dolan as John and Anne Darwin, who faked his death to evade bankruptcy by pretending he had drowned while canoeing — until years later a photo revealed the duo in an estate agents’ office in Panama.  UK critics dubbed it “an unforgettable tale of marital muppets” and “a very British crime story, superbly told” …

➢➢ Also ‘new’ will be lightweight period drama Jamestown (TVNZ 1, 12.15am Sunday), about the British women who suffered hardship and horrors after emigrating in 1619 to marry the frustrated men of the Virginia frontier settlement. The three-season ITV series previously screened on Sky’s Vibe channel and streams on Neon and TVNZ+ …

➢➢ Kiwi Rose Matafeo joins Jimmy Carr, Stephen Merchant, Katherine Ryan, Richard Ayoade, Maisie Adam and Jonathan Ross for The Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2022 (TVNZ 2, 8.30 Wednesday), which will screen here just 10 days after its Channel 4 premiere …

➢➢ Duke’s summer stripping strategy will continue with a William Shatner festival dubbed Shat Attack Week. It will launch with a Comedy Roast (9.15 Saturday) that’s so dated it allows the subject the last laugh on Farrah Fawcett, George Takei, Betty White and Fred Willard, and will continue with weeknight episodes of the sitcom S#!t My Dad Says and The UnXplained With William Shatner …

➢➢ Starting fresh seasons will be Black Comedy S4 (Whakaata Māori, 9.00 Thursday), Beauty and the Geek Australia S8 (TVNZ 2, 8.30 Friday) and The Bridge UK  S2 (TVNZ 2, 11.05 Friday) while ending their runs will be George & Tammy, Hunted UK and No Activity …

➢➢ HD coming attractions in the second week of the year will include:

• Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Saturday)
• Go Fish (Whakaata Māori, 7.00 Saturday)
• Slumdog Millionaire (TVNZ 1, 8.05 Saturday)
• The Butterfly Effect (Eden, 8.30 Saturday)
• Mary Shelley (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Saturday)
• Captain Phillips (Three, 8.40 Saturday)
• A Knight’s Tale  (TVNZ 2, 8.50 Saturday)
• The Lady in the Van (TVNZ 1, 10.20 Saturday)
• Fury (Three, 11.00 Saturday)
• Gravity (TVNZ 2, 11.15 Saturday)
• Alexander (TVNZ 2, 12.50am Sunday)
• A.I. Artificial Intelligence (TVNZ 2, 11.20am Sunday)
• Daddy Day Camp (TVNZ 2, 4.20 Sunday)
• Transformers (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Sunday)
• City of Lies (Eden, 8.30 Sunday)
• Chappaquiddick (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Sunday)
• World War Z (TVNZ 2, 9.30 Sunday)
• The Unholy (TVNZ 2, 11.40 Sunday)
• Kusama Infinity (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Monday)
• Notting Hill (TVNZ 2, 8.35 Monday)
• Robin Hood (Prime, 9.00 Monday)
• F9: The Fast Saga (TVNZ 2, 8.30 Tuesday)
• Into the Blue (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Wednesday)
• Miss Congeniality 2 (Three, 8.20 Thursday)
• The Bounty Hunter (Three, 8.25 Friday).