HD Heads-Up: September 25 – October 1

➢➢ Sensational BBC submarine thriller Vigil will surface here on TVNZ 1 (9.30 Sundays from September 26). The series, which stars Suranne Jones as a Detective Chief Inspector investigating the murder of a crew member on board a Trident nuclear sub, also can be streamed in its entirety on TVNZ OnDemand from September 27. The Independent dubbed it “Line of Das Booty“ and said the six-part thriller “shows why everything should be set on a submarine” …

➢➢ TVNZ OnDemand will premiere two other UK dramas the same week: Pact of Silence, a six-part series about five friends implicated in a shocking and unexplained death that Radio Times thought “a compelling thriller with some intriguing character dynamics” (September 30); and  S2 of Back to Life, the sublime Daisy (Breeders) Haggard comedy about an ex-con’s troubled return to her home town (October 1) …

➢➢ TVNZ is switching Taskmaster UK from Duke to TVNZ 2. After the success of the NZ version, S12 of Taskmaster UK all air 8.30 Wednesdays on TVNZ 2 from September 29. It will be double-billed with a new season (13th) of Would I Lie To You? …

➢➢ Also returning for new runs the same week will be:

• the documentary series I Am (TVNZ 1, 8.30 Tuesday), which will open with the story of a teenager expelled from Gloriavale 17 years after being born into it
• Family Guy (Duke, 8.30 Monday), S20 fast-tracked from the US

➢➢ Death Row: Countdown to Execution (Three, 9.30 Wednesdays from September 29) features interviews with inmates contemplating imminent execution. Said The Telegraph of the 2019 series: “ITV screens far too much true crime fare of questionable quality … At least this was one of the more thoughtful and less salacious offerings” …

➢➢ Celtics/Lakers – Best of Enemies (Duke, 10.35 Tuesdays from September 28) is a three-part ESPN documentary about “the greatest tug-of-war in NBA history” …

➢➢ Prime is pre-empting the low-rating Succession on September 28 to screen Kiwi coming-of-age dramedy Inked, about a drop-out who starts her own tattoo studio in Auckland …

➢➢ Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World (Maori TV, 8.30 Monday) is a 2016 documentary about American music’s indigenous influences, including Charley Patton, Mildred Bailey, Link Wray, Jimi Hendrix, Jesse Ed Davis, Buffy Saint-Marie, Robbie Robertson, Randy Castillo and Taboo …

➢➢ Ending their runs in the last week of September will be In Defense Of, Head High, The Spanish Princess, Kirstie and Phil’s Love It or List It, Ambulance, Fast Justice, Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords, A Life in Ten Pictures and Law & Order: Organised Crime …

➢➢ There will be two network movie premieres that week: The Secret Life of Pets 2 (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Saturday) and Zombieland: Double Tap (Three 9.00 Saturday). Other HD coming attractions will include:

• Ghostbusters II (Three, 9.00 Saturday)
• We’re Back (Maori TV, 7.00 Saturda)
• Contagion (TVNZ 2, 8.30 Saturday)
• Sense and Sensibility (Maori TV, 8.30 Saturday)
• The Apparition (Duke, 9.25 Saturday)
• Fatal Deceit (Three, 11.00 Saturday)
• Natural Born Killers (Duke, 11.00 Saturday)
• Kingsman 2 – The Golden Circle (TVNZ 2, 8.30 Sunday)
• Spider-Man 3 (Three, 8.30 Sunday)
• Coriolanus (Maori TV, 8.30 Sunday)
• Cloverfield (TVNZ 2, 11.10 Sunday)
• Dragon Eyes (Prime, 9.35 Monday)
• Full Metal Jacket (Duke, 8.30 Tuesday)
• G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (Three, 7.30 Friday)
• Stepmom (Maori TV, 8.30 Friday)
• My Super Ex-Girlfriend (Duke, 9.30 Friday)
• Queen of Katwe (TVNZ 2, 2.55am Saturday).