SATURDAY NOVEMBER 26
Election 2011 (TV1, TV3, Maori, TVNZ 7, from 7.00pm). Just when we were thinking three weeks was a long time in politics and that, after the euphoria of the Rugby World Cup, we’d have to put up with blathering politicians and their lies, damned lies and statistics, the election campaign turns into more fun than we could have imagined. Fun, of course, is relative. The Prime Minister scores points by invoking Jerry Maguire at a leaders’ debate; the Leader of the Opposition calls the PM a liar; an MP has to apologise for an ill-considered remark about another MP; for the first time in history, spreadsheets seem interesting; the PM is savaged by an actress wearing pink; the term “teal deal” is coined; billboards are defaced by a Green Party assistant; and there was a cup of tea. A very special, bountiful (for the media, anyway) cup of tea. We can only hope the election night coverage on television, radio and internet will be as entertaining. Nearly all the coverage on TV1 gets under way at 7.00pm: Mark Sainsbury, Guyon Espiner, Simon Dallow and Corin Dann host, with Peter Williams and Greg Boyed out in the field. For light relief, Petra Bagust and Tamati Coffey are doing … something. Wendy Petrie gets to read the news. Over on TV3, John Campbell and Duncan Garner lead the charge, with commentators Therese Arseneau, Linda Clark, Chris Trotter, Paul Henry, Rodney Hide and John Tamihere in the studio. Maori Television’s coverage also features guest commentators and reporters in the field; Julian Wilcox is MT’s go-to guy. For a more convivial style of election night, Back Benches (TVNZ 7, 8.00pm) is live at its turangawaewae, the Backbencher Pub in Wellington. Wallace Chapman and Damian Christie herd the cats there. So much for the old school. For a thoroughly modern experience, the Listener is covering election night online at our special Election 2011 blog. Toby Manhire and a coterie of correspondents are at our Election Live blog, and we are on Twitter @ListenerLive.
Southland
Netball (Sky Sport 1, Sky 030, 2.00am Sun). The first day of the World Netball Series, the fastnet competition that is like netball’s version of Twenty20. Games are shorter (six minutes per quarter), goals from outside the circle are worth two points, and teams get one power-play quarter per game when points are doubled. The tournament is being played in Liverpool, and the six competing teams are New Zealand, Jamaica, England, South Africa, Australia and Fiji. New Zealand are the defending champions. Of course.
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 27
Kia Ora Molweni (Maori, 7.00pm). The third series following kura kaupapa students on cultural exchanges (the others were to China and Chile). Here, the students are in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province for three weeks, where they attend schools, stay with families and sightsee. The students were given video cameras on which they captured life in the township of Mdantsane, their stay with an Afrikaner family and their visits to Steve Biko’s grave, and Nelson Mandela’s childhood playground.
Antiques Roadshow (Prime, 7.30pm). New episodes of the antiques appraisal series that seems to exist in some delightful English parallel universe also occupied by Downton Abbey and Pride and Prejudice. This week, Fiona Bruce is beaming to us from the charming country pile of Stanway House in Gloucestershire, a Jacobean manor house that sports the world’s highest gravity fountain.
MONDAY NOVEMBER 28
Virtual Revolution (TVNZ 7, Sky 077, 9.05pm). Apart from Dr Aleks Krotoski’s annoying tendency to put herself in the picture, and a couple of contentious statements she makes about the internet, her Virtual Revolution is an informative ride through the greatest technological leap of the 20th century. The series had an interesting collaborative origin, in that the BBC asked its web audience to comment on clips, send questions, debate episode themes and put together their own videos before the finished programme went to air. Krotoski, who writes for the Observer and the Guardian, meets anyone who’s anyone on the internet, including its inventor Tim Berners-Lee, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Stephen Fry, Al Gore and Bill Gates. She also investigates how the internet (which she calls “the web”) is changing human behaviour and thinking, and the implications and potential dangers of this greatly connected virtual system.
Southland (TV1, 9.30pm). Good reviews for this new US cop drama that nonetheless struggled to find a big enough audience for the NBC network. Perhaps its natural home is cable, because after being compared favourably with shows like The Shield and Rescue Me, it was cancelled by NBC and picked up by pay channel TNT. It was created by Ann Biderman, who wrote for NYPD Blue, and its executive producers are Christopher Chulack and John Wells – yes, of ER fame. It centres on a group of LAPD cops, including Benjamin McKenzie (who we haven’t seen since he brooded so brilliantly in The OC), Kevin Alejandro (True Blood) and Tom Everett Scott.
TUESDAY NOVEMBER 29
Nigella’s Christmas Kitchen (Prime, 8.00pm). Has anyone in the history of anything ever cooked a Nigella Lawson recipe? Or do we just like watching her banging about in the kitchen making absurd food such as “puddini” truffles, triple cheese and onion strata, and glazed and toasted vanilla cake brioche?
East West 101 (Maori, 9.30pm). A repeat of the Australian SBS series about a Muslim cop (Don Hany from Offspring) fighting crime in Sydney. It’s a multi-award-winner based on the experiences of real detectives in Sydney’s western suburbs, and is perhaps the only Aussie cop show to actually tackle issues of racial and cultural difference.
WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 30
Engineered (TVNZ 7, Sky 077, 7.05pm). Marshall Brain is the brainiac who founded the How Stuff Works website, and he has been explaining things and writing about stuff for more than 20 years. In Engineered, he’s on the factory floor explaining how things are made – including golf balls, airbags, fireworks and speedboats.
The Borgias (TV3, 9.30pm). The scheming comes to an end … for now. More successful in the US than The Tudors, The Borgias has been renewed for another season, so Rodrigo Borgia (Jeremy Irons) and his evil offspring live to scheme another day. Tonight, however, it’s the big showdown, as Cardinal Della Rovere (Colm Feore), aided by the French army, marches into Rome – but Rodrigo, of course, has something up his voluminous sleeve. Meanwhile, Cesare and Micheletto hatch a scheme to have Lucrezia’s marriage annulled.
Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow (TV2, 9.40pm). Michael McIntyre is severely annoying, but tonight features stand-out stand-up Tommy Tieran, an Irish comedian who holds the Guinness world record for the longest stand-up show by an individual (36 hours and 15 minutes). Also on the bill are the slightly odd Andrew Lawrence and British funnywoman Zoe Lyons.
Curb Your Enthusiasm (TV2, 11.40pm). Larry David’s theatre of awkward returns for an eighth season, and reviews suggest it’s a return to form for the largely improvised series. It begins a year on from season seven, when Larry is finalising his divorce from Cheryl. Which means he’s going to try dating again. Oh god. It’s the watching between parted fingers that we find so difficult. Guest stars in the season include Ricky Gervais, Rosie O’Donnell, Christian Slater and Michael J Fox.
THURSDAY DECEMBER 1
Cricket (Sky Sport 1, Sky 030, 12.30pm). Day one of the test between Australia and the Black Caps. Oh god oh god oh god.
Tabatha’s Salon Takeover (TV3, 9.00pm). They got the title right – it’s not a makeover, it’s a takeover. By Tabatha Coffey, the tough Aussie sheila who’s not afraid to give failing hair salons a poke with her sharp scissors. It’s the third season of the series, and Coffey visits hairdressers in California, Texas and Massachusetts.
Benidorm Christmas Special (TV1, 9.30pm). Oh joy. Christmas is coming and so are the TV specials, which are never really that special, are they? Except maybe Doctor Who. Benidorm is like Are You Being Served? crossed with EastEnders, set on the Costa del Sol: it’s double entendre and broad comedy all the way. “How is it that this stuff is being made, and screened, in 2011?” asked the Guardian, to which we might add: and how is this relevant in any way to us?
Men of a Certain Age (TV2, midnight). Middle-aged men finally get their own sitcom, and TV2 puts it on at midnight. Recording devices at the ready, then, for this Peabody Award-winning series about late-forties disappointments. The idea comes from Ray Romano and Mike Royce, who worked on Everybody Loves Raymond; Romano, Andre Braugher and Scott Bakula play friends whose life trajectories haven’t exactly been stellar. Braugher was Emmy-nominated in 2010 and 2011 for his performance.
FRIDAY DECEMBER 2
Coronation Street (TV1, 7.30pm). Just as well Coro is back at 7.30pm, because the drama of the courtroom would be no good cut into five pieces and served at 5.30pm. Get ready for all the fun of Gail Platt in the dock, accused of offing hubby Joe. The first witness is lying Tracy Barlow, and with a mountain of other circumstantial evidence, it looks as if the Street’s annoying chipmunk is going to go down. When the trial screened in the UK, ITV filmed two outcomes – guilty and innocent – which could be seen on its website. Viewers would then have to tune in to see which verdict was delivered.
Into the Mind (BBC Knowledge, Sky 074, 8.30pm). A journey back in time to investigate some of the crazy experiments that have taken place in the name of psychology, including behaviourism founder John B Watson’s experiments on a five-month-old baby, CIA mind-control projects, electric-shock therapy and psychopharmacology. Presenter Michael Mosley subjects himself to some tests, including taking magic mushrooms in a lab.
Comedy Convoy (TV3, 9.30pm). Behind-the-scenes shenanigans and live performances from a great big convoy of comedians who played 11 cities over 12 nights in May. Jarred Christmas, back in the country after 10 years in the UK, hosts.