HD Heads-Up: July 18 – 24

➢➢ TVNZ 1 will use the resumption of three hours a week of Coronation Street to reschedule the soap: from July 21 it will screen 9.30 Tuesday-Thursday instead of Wednesday-Friday. 20/20, which previously aired 9.30 Tuesdays, will shift to 9.45 Mondays in a bid to strengthen one of the network’s weakest weeknight slots. TVNZ 1 also will try to shore up Mondays with the July 20 premiere of one of the most acclaimed UK dramas of the year, The Capture, which already is streaming OnDemand …

➢➢ The BBC surveillance thriller stars Fantastic Beasts’ Callum Turner as a solider whose conviction for a murder in Afghanistan is overturned — only for damning CCTV footage from a night out in London to surface and jeopardise his freedom. CB Strike’s Holliday Grainger co-stars in what The Guardian dubbed “perfect TV for our paranoid times … both deeply unsettling and terrifyingly plausible”. But the Sydney Morning Herald countered: “It’s gripping up to a point, but really it’s just you staring at a screen while watching another person staring at a screen” …

➢➢ Kings of Pain (Duke, 8.30 Wednesdays from July 22) is the Fear Factor of science: a new History Channel series about two masochistic daredevils, wildlife biologist Adam Thorn and professional animal handler Rob “Caveman” Alleva, who scour the remotest places on Earth to be bitten and stung by creatures as poisonous as a bird-eating tarantula and a reticulated python …

➢➢ “These are animals that aren’t necessarily deadly, but you’ll feel like you’re dying,” Thorn says. “They inflict a lot of pain, but the risk of dying is quite low. They’re animals that people encounter quite a bit, as well. That’s why we want to do the pain index, so that when people do encounter one of these animals or get stung by one of these animals, they know exactly what to expect, how long they can expect it for and if it’s going to leave them with any damage” …

➢➢ Big Beasts: Last of the Giants (Maori TV, 8.30 Tuesdays from July 21) explores why size matters in the natural world through “encounters with big box-office animals – grizzlies, sperm whales, Komodo dragons and Great Whites”. Biologist Patrick Aryee presented the three-part series about “the Earth’s biggest creatures and their prehistoric ancestors” for Britain’s Sky 1 …

➢➢ The same week Maori TV will premiere The Armstrong Lie (8.30 Monday), which chronicles the legendary cyclist’s rise and ultimate fall from grace; and Billy and the Kids (8.30 Wednesday), which documents how Billy Graham’s saviour, boxing coach Dick Dunn, set up gyms as safe havens for other troubled teens …

➢➢ Returning that week will be One Born Every Minute Australia (TVNZ 2, 8.45 Monday) and First Dates Hotel (TVNZ 2, 9.00 Tuesday) while ending their runs will be Selling Houses Australia, Race Across the World andThe ABC Murders …

➢➢ There will be two network movie premieres the weekend of July 18-19: The Lego Ninjago Movie (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Saturday) and The Leisure Seeker (Maori TV, 8.30 Sunday) …

➢➢ Other HD coming attractions in the third week of July will include:

• Bee Movie (Three, 7.00 Saturday)
• The Pirates! Band of Misfits (Maori TV, 7.00 Saturday)
• Cellular (Duke, 8.30 Saturday)
• Bride Wars (TVNZ 2, 8.45 Saturday)
• Cop Out (Three, 8.45 Saturday)
• Argo (TVNZ 1, 10.20 Saturday)
• Everly (TVNZ 2, 10.30 Saturday)
• Dangerous Minds (TVNZ 2, 12.10am Sunday)
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens (TVNZ 2, 8.30 Sunday)
• X-Men: Apocalypse (Three, 8.30 Sunday)
• Blood Diamond (TVNZ 1, 10.30 Sunday)
• Sleepy Hollow (TVNZ 2, 11.50 Sunday)
• Ocean’s Twelve (Prime, 8.30 Monday)
• Total Recall (Duke, 8.30 Tuesday)
• Kong: Skull Island (TVNZ 2, 8.00 Thursday)
• Cowboys & Aliens (Three, 7.30 Friday)
• Meet the Spartans (Duke, 8.30 Friday).