HD Heads-Up: March 6 – 12

➢➢ Typifying yet another lacklustre week of premieres on free-to-air TV is what sounds like just one more police reality show — but critics suggests Inside the Irish Police: The Guards (TVNZ 2, 9.35 Tuesdays from March 9) is anything but. The series was filmed over two years in Dublin’s Wild West, the K-District, where gangland feuds and murder are common.  “Full of humour and passion, it’s a revelatory police docu-series where nothing is off-limits, but everything is at stake,” the publicity promises — and reviewers agreed …

➢➢ “There are certainly the raw materials for a tabloid-style plunge into Dublin gangland’s heart of darkness,” the Irish Times said. “So it is to the credit of Virgin Media that Inside the K prioritises journalistic verisimilitude and resists both negatively stereotyping west Dublin and portraying crime there as a glorified game of cops and robbers.” Ireland’s Independent hailed it as “a first-class production and totally compelling – but you walk away feeling nothing but despair” …

➢➢ Despair is how viewers without subscription services like Sky, Netflix and Disney+ will be feeling about the highlights lined up for the second week in March. At least TVNZ 1 has a provocative local documentary, Six Angry Women (8.30 Monday), which re-examines the bizarre 1984 kidnapping of controversial playwright Mervyn Thompson by six unidentified women who accused him of rape and chained him to a tree. A social and political furore ensued without anyone being arrested. This documentary investigates who the women were and what drove them to kidnap Thompson …

➢➢ Also new on TVNZ 1 will be National Treasures (8.30 Sundays from March 7), which rummages through people’s homes for “treasures, objects, and taonga that have special significance to New Zealand and our history”. It will be double-billed with the return of Prodigal Son at 9.30 …

➢➢ The week’s only other newcomer will be The Royals Revealed (TVNZ 1, 8.30 Wednesdays from March 10). The premiere, The Women Who Would be Queen, chronicles the love triangle of Prince Charles, Camilla Parker Bowles and Lady Diana Spencer. The eight-part series was a co-pro between Britain’s Channel 5 and Australia’s Network 10 …

➢➢ Appearing on the March 11 broadcast of The Graham Norton Show (Three, 8.30) will be Daniel Kaluuya, Sienna Miller, Adrian Lester, Mayim Bialik, Marcus Brigstocke, Rachel Parris and Arlo Parks …

➢➢ Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse (Three, 7.00 Saturday) will be the only network movie premiere in the week starting March 6. Other HD coming attractions will include:

• Zootopia (TVNZ 2, 5.10 Saturday)
• Alexander (TVNZ 2, 8.30 Saturday)
• One Hour Photo (Duke, 8.30 Saturday)
• Django Unchained (Three, 9.10 Saturday)
• Pay It Forward (TVNZ 2, 11.50 Saturday)
• The Losers (TVNZ 2, 2.10 Sunday)
• Nacho Libre (TVNZ 2, 12.05 Sunday)
• The Bourne Legacy (Three, 8.30 Sunday)
• Ten Canoes (Maori TV, 8.30 Sunday)
• Ocean’s 8 (TVNZ 2, 9.00 Sunday)
• Coach Carter (Duke, 9.35 Sunday)
• Aliens (TVNZ 2, 11.10 Sunday)
• Braven (Prime, 8.30 Monday)
• Collateral (Duke, 8.30 Tuesday)
• Ghost Rider (Three, 7.30 Friday)
• Meatballs 2 (Duke, 8.30 Friday)
• Alex Cross (Maori TV, 8.30 Friday)
• Hancock (TVNZ 2, 8.35 Friday).