HD Heads-Up: October 24 – 30

➢➢ The ‘latest’ season of Britain’s Got Talent leads Labour Weekend’s free-to-air ‘highlights’. Season 14 will screen 7.30 Saturdays on TVNZ 1 from October 24 — more than a week after the winner was announced on ITV. The series went to air in the UK in April but screened in two halves because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The audition episodes aired between April and May, and the rest of the series between August and October. Another complication was Simon Cowell breaking his back, which led to him being replaced by Ashley Banjo …

➢➢ TVNZ 1 also will re-run ABBA Forever – The Winner Takes It All on Labour Sunday at 7.30 (ahead of a repeat of the movie, Sully) and Bradley Walsh: Happy 60th Birthday on Monday at 7.30. The only other Labour Weekend specials are network movie premieres: Born Racer (Three, 8.30 Saturday), I, Daniel Blake (Maori TV, 8.30 Saturday), At Eternity’s Gate (Maori TV, 8.30 Sunday), Once Upon a Prince (TVNZ 2, 11.20am Monday) and Blue (Maori TV, 8.30 Monday) …

➢➢ Other HD coming attractions for the week starting October 24 will include:

• Dumb and Dumber (TVNZ 2, 1.05 Saturday)
• The Ring (Duke, 8.30 Saturday)
• Godzilla (TVNZ 2, 9.00 Saturday)
• The Night Stalker (Three, 10.25 Saturday)
• Payback (TVNZ 2 11.20 Saturday)
• The Imitation Game (TVNZ 2, 1.15am Sunday)
• The Switch (TVNZ 2, midday Sunday)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Sunday)
• Quantum of Solace (Three, 7.00 Sunday)
•  24 Hours to Live (Three, 9.15 Sunday)
• The Matrix Revolutions (TVNZ 2, 9.30 Sunday)
• Dodgeball – A True Underdog Story (Duke, 10.25 Sunday)
• Tales of Halloween (TVNZ 2, 12.05am Monday)
• The Glimmer Man (Prime, 10.05 Monday)
• Bad Lieutenant (Duke, 9.30 Tuesday)
• X-Men: The Last Stand (Three, 8.30 Friday)
• Unfinished Business (Duke, 8.30 Friday)
• Billy (Maori TV, 8.30 Friday)…

➢➢ No sign of new episodes of Top Gear, which last season were fast-tracked on Duke. But the channel’s about to launch How to Build a Motorcar (8.30 Wednesdays from October 28). Reads the blurb: “Featuring unrestricted access to the factory floors, from Cheshire’s prestigious Bentley complex to Italy’s innovative Maserati plant, this series gets down to the nuts and bolts of how these remarkable cars go from bare metal to finished product” …

➢➢ Three will resurrect Blue Bloods in another late-night slot. S8 of the Tom Selleck police clan saga will screen 11.05 Thursdays from October 29. S11 has just started in the US …

➢➢ Ending their runs that week will be Civilisations, Walking Britain’s Lost Railways, Storage Wars, Criminal Minds, Demolition NZ, Man Enough, Mom, Sue Perkins: Along the U.S – Mexico Border, Tough As Nails and Project Blue Book.