HD Heads-Up: November 28 – December 4

➢➢ Ahead of David Attenborough’s latest, A Perfect Planet, TVNZ will premiere Primates (7.30 Sundays from November 29). The three-part series will reveal the huge variety of stunning landscapes in which primates are found and how they are natural tool users, problem solvers and surprisingly political animals. Said The Telegraph: “The BBC’s latest natural history series has fabulous footage and incredible access and interesting insights into animal behaviour. What it doesn’t have is Sir David Attenborough. It’s an absence keenly felt. An Attenborough narration brings such gravitas and intelligence to proceedings that he could provide the voiceover to your neighbour taking the bins out and you would watch in awe. Primates has Chris Packham, who is fine, but doesn’t make for event television” …

➢➢ Taranaki Hard (Three, 8.40 Monday) is billed as “a coming of age docu-series with unique access into the lives of young Kiwis growing up in Waitara” but reportedly has shades of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. Producer Charlotte Hobson, who grew up in New Plymouth, told Stuff: “One of our directors, Ian Hart, lives in London and had seen some content in the UK celebrating smaller towns and thought it could totally work in a New Zealand context. We put Ian into the town for three to four weeks, and he fully immersed himself into the community” …

➢➢ Also new that week will be:

• 2020 Country Music Association Awards (Three, 10.40 Saturday), hosted by Reba McEntire and Darius Rucker
• The Apprentice UK (TVNZ 1, 8.30 Monday), which the broadcaster will use as the curtain-raiser for its own version (apply at https://www.tvnz.co.nz/what-to-watch/news-feed/we-want-you)
• Filthy House Swap (TVNZ 2, 9.35 Monday), in which families swap homes and work around the clock to clean each other’s home with the help of experts
• Naughty Nursery (TVNZ 1, 8.30 Thursday), a two-part series set in a British nursery with a difference: it was created by child psychologist Laverne Antrobus to tackle the extreme and shocking behaviour of some of the UK’s most challenging children
• Building the Ultimate (Duke, 8.30 Wednesday) uses immersive actuality and CGI animation to reveals the engineering secrets behind Europe’s fastest passenger train, the largest luxury cruise ship, North America’s toughest bridge and the world’s mightiest heavy-lift aircraft
• Million Dollar Wedding Planner (TVNZ 1, 8.25 Friday), a documentary about a woman who gave up a career in finance to plan weddings for Assia’s wealthiest families …

➢➢ On or near the red sofa on the December 3 broadcast of The Graham Norton Show (Three, 8.30) will be Bruce Springsteen, Dame Kristin Scott Thomas, Mawaan Rizwan, Stephen Mangan, Matthew McConaughey and Sam Smith …

➢➢ Ending their runs that week will be Black Hands, Australian Crime Stories, Big Birthers, Prison, Late Night Big Breakfast and Suits: Jessica Pearson …

➢➢ HD coming attractions for the last week in November will include:

• Arthur Christmas (TVNZ 2, 3.05 Saturday)
• Sister Act (TVNZ 2, 5.05 Saturday)
• Sister Act 2 (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Saturday)
• The Pirates – Band of Misfits (Maori TV, 7.00 Saturday)
• American Made (Three, 8.25 Saturday)
• The Lost Boys (Duked, 8.30 Saturday)
• Blue Jasmine (Maori TV, 8.40 Saturday)
• The Longest Yard (TVNZ 2, 9.10 Saturday)
• Foxcatcher (TVNZ 2, 11.30 Saturday)
• Criminal (TVNZ 2, 2.05am Sunday)
• Inspector Gadget 2 (TVNZ 2, 4am Sunday)
• 101 Dalmatians (TVNZ 2, 8.05am Sunday)
• Without a Paddle (TVNZ 2, 12.15 Sunday)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Sunday)
• Knight and Day (Three, 8.30 Sunday)
• Macadam Stories (Maori TV, 8.30 Sunday)
• Logan (TVNZ 2, 9.30 Sunday)
• Stealth (Duke, 10.15 Sunday)
• The Butterfly Effect (TVNZ 2, 12.15am Monday)
• Ender’s Game (TVNZ 2, 2.20am Monday)
• Never See Her Again (Three, 1.05 Monday)
• Pacific Warriors (Maori TV, 8.30 Monday)
• Cliffhanger (Prime, 9.45 Monday)
• Nowhere to be Found (Three, 12.55 Tuesday)
• Duke (TVNZ 2, 8.30 Tuesday)
• Bad Neighbours (Three, 8.40 Tuesday)
• Secrets in the Snow (Three, 1.00 Wednesday)
• The Sinister Surrogate (Three, 1.00 Thursday)
• Dispatch (Three, 1.00 Friday)
• Spider-Man 2 (Three, 8.30 Friday)
• The Last Stand (Duke, 8.30 Friday)
• The Drop (Maori TV, 8.30 Friday).