HD Heads-Up: May 21 – 27

➢➢ TVNZ 1 is dumping ITV’s highest-rating drama series in a decade to late-night. The thriller about a bomb disposal squad, Trigger Point, will screen 11.45 Saturdays from May 21. It’s the latest OnDemand attraction to earn an off-peak linear run, despite the premiere drawing 10 million viewers in the UK. The scheduling also surprises given the series lead is Vicky McClure, one of the stars of Line of Duty, which TVNZ picked up last year and is a streaming as a box set OnDemand. Clearly Trigger Point didn’t deliver online or was so popular that the network sees little mileage left in its linear run …

➢➢ Reviews ranged from “utterly preposterous … but what a blast” (The Guardian) to “a visceral look at counter-terrorism policing in the UK and the work of London’s Metropolitan Police Bomb Disposal Squad” (The Australian) while The Spectator said: “I can’t think of many TV dramas that have forgone dramatic depth in favour of flat-out thrills so effectively since the glory days of 24” …

➢➢ The Cleaning Lady (Prime, 8.30 Sunday) is a Fox network series about a Cambodian doctor whose desperate struggles as an undocumented worker with an ill son in the US force her to become a crime scene cleaner for the Mob. Reviews were middling, with Rotten Tomatoes summing up the consensus thus: “Elodie Yung is winning as a resourceful protagonist in over her head, but The Cleaning Lady needs to polish its clichés into something more substantial if it wants to truly sparkle” …

➢➢ Prime’s own struggles to rebrand itself as a premium drama channel continue with the demotion of Your Honor to 11.50 Tuesdays from May 24. Replacing it at 9.30 will be S2 of Succession. The media mogul drama is a vastly superior series but its appeal will be dented by it being so dated (S3 screened last year on SoHo/Neon) …

➢➢ Her Majesty The Queen’s Jubilee Celebration (TVNZ 1, 2.00 Saturday) will broadcast from Windsor Castle, with Dame Helen Mirren, Damian Lewis, Omid Djalili, Tom Cruise, Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, Ant & Dec, Dame Joan Collins, Sir David Jason, Alan Titchmarsh, Dame Kelly Holmes and Sir Trevor McDonald among the guest to celebrate her 70th year on the throne …

➢➢ TVNZ 2 will mark the 30th anniversary of Shortland Street in the week starting May 21 with the arrival of some new residents, special guests and a new version of the theme tune …

➢➢ Ahir Shah: Dots (Three, 8.30 Thursday) will explore “identity, faith, family and the desire for certainty in uncertain times” in the UK comedian’s first stand-up special …

➢➢ Returning for new seasons or episodes will be Filthy House SOS (TVNZ 2, 9.30 Thursday), 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown (TVNZ 2, 8.30 Friday) and Skindigenous (Maori TV, 9.30 Friday) while ending their runs will be The Holiday, The Cube, Tough as Nails, Ambulance, High and Julia …

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

• Patch Adams (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Sunday)
• A Dog’s Way Home (Three, 7.00 Saturday)
• Playmobil: The Movie (Maori TV, 7.00 Saturday)
• Survivor (Eden, 8.30 Saturday)
• Employee of the Month (Three, 8.50 Saturday)
• Get Out (Duke, 9.30 Saturday)
• The Watcher (Three, 10.55 Saturday)
• Adrift (TVNZ 2, 9.10 Saturday)
• A Time to Kill (TVNZ 2, midnight Saturday)
• 100% Wolf (TVNZ 2, 3.50 Sunday)
• The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (TVNZ 2, 8.15 Sunday)
• American Made (Three, 8.30 Sunday)
• Stockholm (Eden, 8.30 Saturday)
• The Mercy (Maori TV, 8.30 Sunday)
• Bastille Day (Prime, 9.30 Monday)
• The Last Boy Scout (Duke, 8.30 Tuesday)
• The Next Three Days (Maori TV, 8.30 Wednesday)
• Jack Reacher (Three, 7.30 Friday)
• Big Momma’s House (Duke, 8.30 Friday).