HD Heads-Up: June 4 – 10

May 26, 2022 0 Comments

➢➢ Three will refresh Thursday nights with a mix of new NZ and UK comedy shows from June 9. Following 7 Days at 8.30 will be season three of New Zealand Today, which will open with Guy Williams revisiting Golden Bay, ahead of the premieres of Comedians Giving Lectures (9.00) and Outsiders (9.30). Three is bypassing S1 of the former, in which stand-up comics perform their gigs in the guise of a lecture, to air S2 (but will “most likely” play S1 later); in the latter, David Mitchell challenges three pairs of comedians to prove they can thrive in the great outdoors. “If there is a badge for making comics go way beyond their comfort zone in the name of entertainment Outsiders definitely deserves one,” said Beyond the Joke …

➢➢ Vintage American comedy will be showcased in two Queen’s Birthday Weekend specials on TVNZ 1: Betty White: Pure Gold (7.00 Sunday) and Lucille Ball: We Love Lucy (8.00 Sunday). Pure Gold is a British-made tribute to the Golden Girl of US comedy from Britney Spears: Breaking Free director Jordan Hill; Lucy is a 2020 documentary about the comedienne’s on-screen longevity …

➢➢ Said the Sydney Morning Herald of We Love Lucy: “There are the requisite talking heads – Carol Burnett and Carole Cook, who both worked with Ball, female comedians including Debra Messing and Lily Tomlin, and others who worked with Ball in her 50-year career. There are clips of Ball in action (a highlight is her pantomiming with Harpo Marx) and archive footage, but the stories of how Ball single-handedly changed the television landscape, especially for women, is the most incredible story here. And it’s a legacy that still continues: I Love Lucy still earns CBS a staggering $20 million each year, having never been off-air since 1951″ …

➢➢ Other holiday weekend specials will include Bradley Walsh & Son: Breaking Dad Midwinter Christmas (TVNZ 1, 7.00 Monday) and The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart (TVNZ 1, 8.00 Monday), which charts the group’s rise, while due later in the week will be An Audience With Adele (TVNZ 2, 7.30 Tuesday) and The Big Fat Quiz of Everything 2022 (TVNZ 2, 8.30 Friday), in which Jimmy Carr quizzes Richard Ayoade, Roisin Conaty, Joanne McNally, Rob Beckett, Rosie Jones and Mawaan Rizwan on “everything from Ringo Starr to Lynx deodorant and a bomb-defusing dog” …

➢➢ The latest BBC natural history series to screen on TVNZ 2 instead of TVNZ 1 will be the Helena Bonham Carter-narrated Eden: Untamed Planet (6.00 Sunday from June 5). Wildlife buffs also will enjoy Maori TV’s Baboons: Rules of the Troop (8.30 Tuesday from June 7), a Sky UK series that follows four baboon families in vastly different environments …

➢➢ Returning will be Your Garden Made Perfect (TVNZ 1, 7.30 Thursday) and, for its fourth and final season, Killing Eve (TVNZ 2, 10.35 Wednesday) while TVNZ 1 will screen Line of Duty late-night Sundays from S1 …

➢➢ Also new will be S2 of Match Fit (Three, 7.30 Wednesday), which will premiere the same night as Three screens live coverage of Game 1 of the State of Origin 2022 (10.10) …

➢➢ Duke will disrupt its Monday night ‘toon block to resurrect Ricky Gervais’ The Office on an 8.55 live-action double-bill that will include S3 of The Orville express from the US. The same week it will premiere seasons two of Icons of Auto (8.30 Thursday) and How to Build a Motorcar (9.25 Thursday) …

➢➢ TVNZ 1 will air the series final of The Ellen DeGeneres Show not in its usual weekday slot but at 4pm on Queen’s Birthday Sunday. Also ending their runs that week will be Trigger Point, LEGO Masters NZ, Down For Love, The Casketeers, Lap of Luxury, Aroha Nui: Say I Do, Snack Masters NZ and Roadkill …

➢➢ Building Alaska (Rush, 9.30 Wednesday) is a ‘new’ 2012 series that follows hunting and fishing guide Bob May as he battles the elements to build his dream cabin in the Alaskan Wilderness …

➢➢ Obscure NZ-Canadian co-pro Together Forever Tea will have its free-to-air premiere on Saturday (TVNZ 1, 9.40). Other HD coming attractions will include: