HDTV Heads-Up: January 19-25

TV One has the lion’s share of HD premieres for the week starting January 19, including Africa and the return of Criminal Minds, Winners and Losers, and Rapid Response.

Africa will air in the 8.30 Tuesday slot that TV One last year turned into a top-rating showcase for BBC natural history series like Frozen Planet and Yellowstone.

Africa promises to be one of the year’s HD highlights.

Said the New York Times: “Africa,the latest blockbuster from the BBC Natural History Unit, turns the dark continent bright.

“Sand dunes, water holes, escarpments and ancient trees are etched with the surreal clarity the BBC team has perfected in previous opuses like The Blue Planet and Planet Earth.”

It dubbed the high point the brutal dust-up between two giraffes that opens the programme and called it “more hypnotic than anything in Raging Bull”.

Rapid Response will resume 8pm Monday, ahead of the season eight premiere of Criminal Minds, and Winners and Losers will take over the 8.30 Wednesday hour from Alcatraz, which is being rescheduled to 11.35 for the rest of its short run.

The same week, TV One will re-run First Crossings in the 7.30 Saturday slot and screen the season finale of Dallas on Friday at 8.30.

The only HD programming of note on TV2 will be the season premiere of Pretty Little Liars at 5.30 on Sunday, and re-runs of the movies Cars at 7pm on Sunday and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire at 7.30 on Tuesday.

Cars will go head-to-head with TV3’s re-run of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, which precedes a repeat of Me, Myself & Irene.

On Monday at 8pm, TV3 will premiere The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader and at 8.30 on Wednesday, Green Zone.

Guesting on Friday’s Graham Norton Show will be Quentin Tarantino, James McAvoy and Alan Davies.