HD Heads-Up: March 16

Prime is bringing back 60 Minutes in a new slot. The veteran newsmag, which last year aired 8.30 Mondays, will screen 9.40 Sundays from March 26. It will open with an inside look at the Broadway smash Hamilton and interview members and the maestro of the Pope’s Choir. Still no word on when the latest season of Top Gear or Planet Earth II will screen. But with the rescheduling of 60 Minutes, Prime may be looking to double-bill them 7.30-9.30 Mondays as an alternative to the more likely Sunday platform. Certainly it will be heartened by Top Gear winning back fans in the UK, where the ratings are steady and the reviews largely positive …

“Episode two of the latest Top Gear series didn’t suffer the same huge drop in ratings as the second instalment of the Chris Evans-fronted series 23,” the Car Trottle website reports. “It’s perhaps a sign that viewers are liking what they see this time around. We’re certainly fond of the new-look show, and hopefully in time it’ll find its feet after this solid start. Top Gear is arguably more about cars than it has been in a while, so it’s something we’re keen to see stay on air” …

But GQ magazine was scathing of the latest revamp: “The Top Gear format is a classic piece of port manteau television, but it should have been parked when the BBC made the unnecessary, politically motivated and financially ruinous decision to fire Jeremy Clarkson. Instead the producers have once again drafted in a generic celebrity and two Muggles who both look as though they have spent formative parts of their career working in local radio or children’s TV” …

And while The Telegraph wasn’t as critical of the second episode, it was “still not tip-top Top Gear. There were plenty of creaky moments, with the studio exchanges between the hosts and tetchy Time Lord David Tennant especially painful” …

Prime’s delaying of Planet Earth II means there still isn’t a NZ release date for the 4K-UHD version of the series. It goes on sale this month in the UK, the US and Australia. The good news is it can be imported from any of these territories and played on NZ-sourced 4K-UHD decks because the discs are region-free. Trusted Reviews dubbed Planet Earth II “this year’s must-buy” 4K-HD Blu-ray because it “offers more impact and insight than I could ever put into words. Whether you’re a nature lover or a tech-head looking to show off your new TV, this is television at its best” …

Prime will premiere The Story Of 10cc – I’m Not In Love in its March 28 Prime Rocks slot. “The film isn’t just about one song, of course, but it just so happens that that one song does kind of encapsulate the 10cc story,” The Guardian said. “I used to be ever so slightly embarrassed about loving 10cc; I now realise, after seeing this excellent documentary, that I was silly to feel embarrassed” …

Three will air the network movie premiere of Transformers: Age of Extinction on March 26 at 8.20. The same week it will re-run in HD: The Jackal (8.55 Saturday), The Sitter (11.20 Saturday) and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (8.30 Thursday). Prime’s HD movie that week will be Firewall (8.35 Monday) …

Appearing on the March 31 broadcast of The Graham Norton Show (Three, 8.00) will be Denzel Washington, Jamie Dornan, Keanu Reeves and Whoopi Goldberg …

Guesting on Prime’s The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon this week and next are: Ice Cube, Paris Jackson and Khalid (11.30 tonight); Elizabeth Banks, JJ Abrams and Kate Tempest (11.30 Friday); Taraji P. Henson, Pitbull and Run The Jewels (10.45 Monday); Jake Gyllenhaal, Paris Jackson and Julia Michaels (11.30 Tuesday); and Jessica Chastain, Joe Manganiello and  Gary Clark Jr. Prodigy (11.30 Wednesday) …