HD Heads-Up: September 19 – 25

➢➢ Coronation Street fans can look forward to the resumption of hour-long episodes the same week TVNZ 1 premieres a comedy-drama series starring former Weatherfield stalwart Julie Hesmondhalgh (Hayley Cropper). The Trouble With Maggie Cole (8.30 Sundays from September 20) pairs Hesmondhalgh with Dawn French as neighbours whose lives are upended when the titular character, a self-appointed village oracle-cum-gossip, reveals too many secrets about their community in a radio interview  …

➢➢ The Guardian thought it “relentlessly unfunny … a simple waste of a grand cast, including Julie Hesmondhalgh” but The Telegraph was more generous: “A curious cautionary tale against gossip – and booze …  When every other new show is a police procedural, period adaptation or domestic thriller, at least it’s aiming for something different” …

➢➢ The first live leaders’ debate will air on September 22 (TVNZ 1, 7.00). John Campbell and TVNZ’s political editor Jessica Mutch McKay will moderate the 90-minute News Vote 2020 special that also will stream live on TVNZ OnDemand and the 1 News website, Facebook and YouTube pages …

➢➢ One of the issues Kiwis will be asked to vote on in a referendum this election will be if recreational cannabis should be legalised. Patrick Gower: On Weed​ (Three, 8.30 September 21) will explore what a ‘yes’ vote could mean, unearth what some New Zealanders are smoking illegally, examine what legalisation has meant for Uruguay and Canada, and set the record straight on medicinal marijuana …

➢➢ Gower’s 2019 take on weed smoked the competition and his latest will screen here three weeks after his Lockdown investigation topped the ratings …

➢➢ TVNZ’s All Stars season of Australian Survivor will screen 8.00 Thursdays and 7.30 Fridays from September 24. The Friday broadcast will face off against the premiere of Three’s The Masked Singer USA. The latter belatedly lands here eight months after its Fox premiere but the good news is Three’s picking it up from season four and will screen it a day after the US broadcast . An adaptation of a Korean reality format, it’s also spawned UK and Australian versions. In one of the S1’s few rave reviews, USA Today quipped: “It’s like The Voice meets Dancing with the Stars meets Where the Wild Things Are meets a Halloween party you once attended where the karaoke got out of control” …

➢➢ Season  four of Storage Wars will premiere on September 20 (Prime, 7.00) and S3 of Pure Fly NZ on September 23 (Duke, 9.35) while the latest in the Amazing Animal Family strand, Big Cats, will debut on September 22 (Maori TV, 8.30 Tuesday). Ending their runs that week will be The Force and The Titan Games …

➢➢ There will be three network movie premieres in the week starting September 12: The Jungle Bunch (Maori TV, 7.00 Saturday), Bumblebee (Three, 7.00 Sunday) and Suffragette (Maori TV, 8.30 Sunday). Other HD coming attractions will include:

• Norm of the North (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Saturday)
• Ghost (Three, 7.00 Saturday)
• 50 First Dates (TVNZ 2, 8.40 Saturday)
• The Lady in the Van (TVNZ 1, 8.55 Saturday)
•  I Am Patrick Swayze (Three, 9.30 Saturday)
• Phone Booth (TVNZ 2, 10.40 Saturday)
• To Have and to Kill (Three, 11.20 Saturday)
• Before We Go (TVNZ 2, 12.10am Sunday)
• The Hunger Games (TVNZ 2, 8.40 Sunday)
• Smokin’ Aces (Three, 9.15 Sunday)
• The Cable Guy (Duke, 9.25 Sunday)
• Visions (TVNZ 2, 11.10 Sunday)
• Poi E (Maori TV, 8.30 Monday)
• Crank (Prime, 10.05 Monday)
• Romancing the Stone (Duke, 9.00 Tuesday)
• The Transporter (Three, 8.30 Friday)
• Big Trouble in Little China (Duke, 8.30 Friday)
• The Jane Austen Book Club (Maori TV, 8.30 Friday).