HDTV Heads-Up: April 23-May 6

William & Kate's Nico Evers-Swindell and Camilla Luddington

TV One may not be screening the Royal Wedding in HD but it will broadcast in 1080i the scorned telemovie, William & Kate.

It will play 8.30pm on April 30, on a double-bill with Muriel’s Wedding.

Reviews for the cable-TV dramatisation of the couple’s relationship ranged from “a familiar story and an entertaining one” (Wall Street Journal) to “a royally forgettable bit of banality” (Boston Globe).

Entertainment Weekly dubbed it “the royal-family version of an Archie comic” while the Chicago Sun-Times said: “If the movie had gone all-out camp, it could have been a classic.

“If it had gone all-out cheesy, we could mock it more mercilessly.

“As is, William & Kate is as benign as the actual couple.”

William is played by NZ-born Nico Evers-Swindell, who’s previously had small roles like “Blond Russian #1” and “State Trooper #2” in TV shows and movies like NCIS: Los Angeles and Edge of Darkness; likewise, co-star Camilla Luddington.

The same night TV3 will air in HD the movies 27 Dresses and The Secret Life of Bees, and the next night will launch in HD Survivor: Redemption Island, following the return of Modern Family at 7pm (there’s also an Easter Monday screening of the comedy); thereafter, Survivor will screen 7.30pm Wednesdays.

May 1 also is when TV2 will premiere The Middle in HD, when season two starts at 8pm.

Off-peak, TV2 will re-run FlashFoward in HD Saturdays at 12.30am, starting April 29; TV3 will air the tepid US re-make of The Worst Week of My Life from 11.30am Saturdays, starting April 30 (the ex-C4 series, Accidentally on Purpose, already airs in HD 1pm Saturdays); and TV One is repeating in HD the Suranne Jones thriller, Unforgiven, at 12.10am on Sunday.

Also of note in the first week of May are the season finales of Go Girls, Off the Map and Sons of Anarchy.

Expect TV2 to replace Girls and Map with new seasons of Grey’s Anatomy and, for the first time in HD, Private Practice.