Cairo Knife Fight, the band that is, on bFM, and Wossy weturns with John Bishop, Brian Cox and Lana Del Ray.
TV
Cairo Knife Fight, photo Kat Saunders
Rugby (TV1, noon and 6.30pm). Another full day of Sevens, but we were too busy looking at the costumes to discover who was winning yesterday. The Wellington leg of the tournament wraps up tonight. (Coverage also on Sky Sport 1, Sky 030, from 10.30am.)
Camelot (SoHo, Sky 010, 8.35pm). Oh Camelot, you are very silly. No wonder you were not renewed for a second season. Arthur’s evil sister, Morgan (Eva Green), has assumed the visage of Igraine, Arthur’s mother, and she’s wrecking a little bit of havoc back at Arthur’s gaff. Only two episodes to go after this one, and that’s all she wrote. We’ll have to make do with that other fine Starz network series, Spartacus: Vengeance, which starts on February 12 on The Box.
The Jonathan Ross Show (TV1, 10.15pm). Wossy weturns, with John Bishop and Brian Cox on his couch, and Lana Del Ray performing.
FILM
The Accidental Husband (TV2, 8.30pm). Griffin Dunne! You ex-actor-turned director. How could you reduce Colin Firth to the wet sop of a fiancé he plays in this by-the-book romcom – to be made to look prissy and boring while Jeffrey Dean Morgan gets to play the tough-guy New York fireman who you just know Uma Thurman is going to fall for, even though he has married her without her knowledge. Unforgiveable. And the critics hated it even more than The Unborn (see below). Ha ha. (2008) 3 – Diana Balham
The Unborn (Four, 9.00pm). Oddly, Idris Elba – Stringer Bell from The Wire, the TV series some critics called the best ever – chose to appear in this lame thriller when the show finished. So did Gary Oldman. Unfortunately for them, it was ridiculed by nearly everyone who saw it: “painfully clueless”, “scares that border on silliness” and the really nasty “should have been aborted” were some of the comments. (2009) 4 – Diana Balham
Saving Grace (Maori TV, 9.30pm). A completely, er, potty comedy about a hard-up homeowner who grows dope to supplement her income. But it stars Brenda Blethyn who, for at least some of this, is having a high old time instead of being catatonically depressed in a Mike Leigh film. (2000) 6
Waist Deep (TV3, 10.30pm). No, that would require at least some depth. (2006) 5 – Diana Balham
Moon (TV1, 12.15am). Duncan Jones is turning out to be a director of note; his second feature, Source Code, is “a thinking person’s thrill ride”, said our reviewer David Larsen, and his debut, Moon, is a thoroughly clever, concise piece of work that references a number of sci-fi classics, including 2001: A Space Odyssey. Sam Rockwell holds the picture together with a compelling performance as a worker on the Moon who is about to end his three-year stint gathering the fuel source helium-3. But two weeks before he’s due to leave, he gets into an accident, and wakes up to find he has a spooky visitor. Kevin Spacey is the voice of HAL, er, GERTY, the computer. (2009) 9
RADIO
Saturday Morning with Kim Hill (Radio New Zealand National, 8.10am). Today: Egyptian activist and computer engineer Wael Ghonim on social media and the Arab Spring; Norwegian lawyer, peace researcher, and author of Nobel’s Will, Fredrick Heffermehl; novelist and playwright Anthony McCarten; Dr Richard J Meyer, who teaches film at Seattle University, Washington; Playing Favourites with Megan Salole, a member of the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra; Dutch Artist of the Year 2012, Ted Noten; and Children’s Books with Kate de Goldi. Info and audio here.
Cairo Knife Fight/Golden Axe, Recorded Live at Roundhead Studios (95bFM, 11.00am and Friday, 2.00pm). If you google “Cairo Knife Fight”, you’ll get depressing updates about trouble in the Middle East, but we have our own little piece of Egyptian trouble right here, in the form of Christchurch duo Nick Gaffaney and Aaron Tokona. The indie rockers have a big programme of gigs for the rest of the summer, but will go down in Kiwi music history as being part of the line-up for the last Big Day Out, in January. Golden Axe may or may not be named after the arcade game from 1990 where you choose to be a dwarf, a man or a woman, then eviscerate the evil dead as revoltingly as possible. Either way, this Golden Axe is a couple of retro electro guys called Chris and Dave from the “Rainbow Province” of New Zealand who say: “We’re an Auckland-based keyboard/waveform and saxophone music team. We started playing outside Burger King and now we do shows in bars and galleries and at parties.” Bet they got lots of free Whoppers after that little bit of product placement. There will be live streaming and podcasts on 95bfm.com and video on this website after February 4. – Diana Balham
Music Alive (Radio New Zealand Concert, 8.00pm). Young English pianist Freddy Kempf takes to the stage with the NZSO (conducted by Alexander Lazarev) in this concert recorded in Wellington’s Michael Fowler Centre in June 2010. He plays Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto, The Ruslan and Lyudmila Overture by Glinka and Glazunov’s The Seasons. – Diana Balham