HD Heads-Up: June 24-30

June 15, 2023 0 Comments

➢➢ The last week of June unleashes a feast of live free-to-air sport on Three, Duke and Prime. Duke devotes its schedule to the second test in The Ashes from day one (9.00 Wednesday) and the next night Prime showcases Australia vs the Black Ferns in the Pacific Four Series (8.30). On Friday, Three bookends its 9.00 broadcast of the Warriors vs Rabbitohs NRL match with pre- and post-match analysis …

➢➢ The Footballer, His Wife and the Crash (TVNZ 1, 9.30 Monday) is a two-part documentary about the rise and fall of Premier League footballer Jlloyd Samuel. It details how gambling debts, injury and family tensions turned his footballing dream into a nightmare ahead of his death in a 2018 car crash. His widow Emma reveals how she discovered not only that Jlloyd had seriously mismanaged his fortune, but also that he had a secret second life. The series was shot in 4K-UHD for streaming service ITVX …

➢➢ Rogue Heroes (TVNZ 1, 10.30 Sunday) is the TVNZ+ series about the creation of the SAS, as wildly dramatised by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight. The Guardian dubbed it “a big and brash adventure drama … witty, pacy, confident, and, as you might expect, occasionally very violent.” Rotten Tomatoes summed it up thus: “With a terrific cast inhabiting this roster of likable rapscallions, Rogue Heroes is a fun throwback to down-and-dirty adventure stories” …

➢➢ Hightown (TVNZ 2, 12.15am Wednesday) is another TVNZ+ series making its belated linear debut. Monica Raymund plays a fisheries officer who gets caught up in a small Cape Cod community’s heroin crisis when she teams with a local cop to investigate a murder. The atmospheric Starz series earned largely favourable reviews and ran for two seasons …

➢➢ Spy in the Ocean (TVNZ 1, 2.10 Sunday) is a visually spectacular 2023 BBC exploration of the emotions marine animals feel (it starts June 18 and continues June 25). “Undercover robotic creatures immerse themselves in a watery world of wonder in this fitfully successful series,” said The Telegraph. “Footage was astounding and frequently affecting, but David Tennant’s narration tried too hard to be cutesy, anthropomorphising the animals at every opportunity” …

➢➢ In an unusual move, TVNZ 2 is ending its weeknight strip of The Simpsons. The S16 finale screens on Wednesday at 6.00 (S5 re-runs of Young Sheldon replace it). TVNZ says the ‘toon staple is taking a break, although double-eps of earlier seasons continue 7.30 weeknights on Duke. It’s possible the interruption is rights-related now that all seasons, including the latest, stream exclusively on Disney+ …

➢➢ New to Whakaata Māori are the short film My Friend Michael Jones (10.30 Sunday) and the documentary Central to the Soul (7.30 Wednesday), in which Central Otago communities enjoy performances around the region …

➢➢ Returning for new seasons are Your Home Made Perfect UK (TVNZ 1, 7.30 Tuesday) and Resident Alien (TVNZ 2, 12.15am Saturday) while ending their runs are Lap of Luxury, Metalocalypse, Inside the Midlands Prison and Sky Med …

➢➢ HD coming attractions in the last week of June include: