SATURDAY OCTOBER 22
The Palladians (History Channel, Sky 073, 5.30pm). A documentary into Italy’s Veneto region to meet people who live in houses designed by Andrea Palladio. Considered the most influential individual in the history of Western architecture, Palladio designed a cluster of villas (by which is meant massive country houses) in the mid-16th century, which sealed his reputation as a designer. They were intended to match the wealth and social standing of their owners and featured huge vaults, loggia and in the case of Villa Capra (known as La Rotonda) a dome inspired by the Pantheon in Rome. Palladio influenced British architects Inigo Jones and Christopher Wren, and also the design of the United States Capitol, Chiswick House in England and the Queen’s House in Greenwich (designed by Jones). The Palladian Villas in Veneto are now a World Heritage Site.
The Kennedys
Get Fresh with Al Brown (TV1, 7.00pm). Al Brown hops in his pickup truck and hightails it to Hawke’s Bay this week, where there are artichokes, asparagus, organic beef and fresh strawberries to enjoy. In the other culinary excursion series – these cooks can’t keep still – Mark Southon and Wylie Dean are in Taupo and Waihi for the Monteith’s Wild Food Challenge. It seems they may have to catch something before they can eat it. Which is usually the order of these things.
Weekend Murders: Poirot (Prime, 8.40pm). How perfectly lovely. A series 12 Poirot, which screened last year in the UK. In Three Act Tragedy, based on Agatha Christie’s 1934 story, Hercule Poirot (David Suchet) is in Cornwall visiting his friend, the retired actor Sir Charles Cartwright (played by Martin Shaw). When the local reverend chokes to death on a cocktail, it seems accidental, but a second death by the same method casts suspicion on the first fatality. The mystery features a classic Christie misdirection, so as to get Poirot’s leetle grey cells working overtime. The cast also includes Art Malik and Jane Asher.
SUNDAY OCTOBER 23
Rugby (TV1, 7.00pm; Maori TV, 7.30pm; Sky Sport 1, Sky 020, 8.15pm; TV3, 8.30pm). Holy cow, it’s finally here. The final of the Rugby World Cup. We offer no predictions, make no guesses, gaze in no crystal balls. It will be a game of no more than two halves, the winner will be the winner on the day, the teams will play the full 80, with stoppages. More television coverage than you can shake a stick at, and for celebrators and, ah, commiserators alike, it’s a holiday tomorrow to recover. Hurrah!
LABOUR DAY
Shortland Street (TV2, 7.00pm). Uh-oh. This is beginning to look more and more like an internet scam: Zlata (Kate Elliott) tells Luke that her father is being detained by the Romanian Government and a hefty bribe is going to be required for his release. But of course.
James May’s Toy Stories: The Great Train Race (TV3, 7.30pm). Even though he would be appalled at the suggestion, James May clearly needed closure for his failure a couple of years ago, in James May’s Toy Stories, to run a model railway between two towns. In this special, May returns to Bideford in Devon for another go, with the added incentive of beating the Germans – again. May wants to recreate, with Hornby model trains, the Atlantic Coast Express route that once linked Bideford with Barnstaple. Racing alongside will be the German owners of the biggest toy railway museum in the world.
Prime Rocks: Picture This – Blondie and Debbie Harry (Prime, 9.30pm). A 2004 documentary featuring photographer Mick Rock as he shoots Blondie frontwoman Debbie Harry. There’s also Blondie performances from the BBC archive (the band were initially more successful in the UK than the US) and an interview with Harry and Blondie guitarist Chris Stein, who discuss what it was like to go from an underground punk-pop act, playing at grimy venues, like Max’s Kansas City and CBGB, to one of the biggest bands of the post-punk era. The band broke up in 1982, but reformed in 1997, releasing No Exit in 1999. The album’s first single, Maria, became Blondie’s sixth UK No 1 single exactly 20 years after their first No 1, the now-classic Heart of Glass.
TUESDAY OCTOBER 25
NCIS: Los Angeles (TV3, 9.30pm). So TV3 was only teasing last week with its season two finale; it rolls straight into season three, so there’s no waiting on all those burning “G Callen” questions that have been keeping everyone up at night. Or not. “It’s the most revealing episode yet about Callen,” says the executive producer. Perhaps that means he will finally get a proper first name.
The Kennedys (Prime, 9.40pm). A mini-series with a chequered history, although perhaps producer Joel Surnow (24) felt vindicated when the series and three of its actors were nominated for Emmy awards this year (and Barry Pepper won for his portrayal of Bobby Kennedy). The Kennedys was first made for the History Channel, but it backed away from broadcasting the series because, according to Surnow, members of the Kennedy family put pressure on History’s parent company. The Kennedys then went around the traps until settling with ReelzChannel, a digital cable channel in the US, and it has since been broadcast in the UK, Serbia, Ireland and Australia. The story begins in 1938 as Joe Kennedy (Tom Wilkinson), US ambassador to the Court of St James, is trying to keep the US out of the war. After Roosevelt sacks him in 1940, Joe decides he wants his son Jack (Greg Kinnear) to run for president. Katie Holmes plays Jacqueline Bouvier.
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 26
2011 Fair Go Ad Awards (TV1, 7.30pm). It’s been a big year for Fair Go’s Gordon Harcourt. His greatest hits, so to speak, include being punched on the nose by a used car salesman, and saving a couple from financial ruin. “I got a bit weepy over that one, actually,” he says. It was an insurance issue, resolved after Fair Go got involved. It’s the kind of story that keeps the consumer programme in our most-watched list year in, year out. Those big stories, says Harcourt – and Milo. Incorrectly labelled Milo from the Philippines has been a hot topic, too: “That sort of quotidian, daily sort of thing, our viewers love that.” And now Harcourt and the Fair Go team are facing the end-of-year challenge of the 2011 Fair Go Ad Awards, the annual viewer-voted gongs for the best and worst ads on telly. The awards will be beaming out live from a bar in downtown Auckland, a first for the show, although Harcourt admits he has “no idea” why they’ve decided to do the awards in a bar. “It seemed like a good idea – it was opportunism, because all the OB vans are here for the Rugby World Cup.” The show will include the results of the schools competition – this year, the challenge for budding primary and intermediate advertising whizzes is selling cheese; prospective secondary school Kevin Robertses have made ads for a fantasy phone app. But most fun of all are Fair Go’s traditionally terrible spoof ads, where presenters Harcourt, Ali Mau, Phil Vine, Hannah Wallis, Ruwani Perera and Libby Middlebrook throw their dignity to the wind. This year, there is a spoof of the Sky TV RWC camera-man ad, which was filmed at a navy confidence course, and there is a dancing flash mob that has already hit the news: “Climbing up a rope netting and diving in the mud and running around is easy. “I love that stuff,” says Harcourt. “But dancing in public in an airport on a Saturday afternoon? That was absolutely terrifying.”
Fast and Loose (TV2, 9.00pm). Gosh, British improv in primetime on a Wednesday night. Makes a change from American situation comedy anyway. A “pacey mix of Whose Line Is It Anyway? and Mock the Week but in a good way”, said the Guardian. The highly amusing Hugh Dennis corrals a batch of British comedians, including The Thick of It’s Justin Edwards, Perrier Award-winner Laura Solon, Greg Davis (who plays sadistic Mr Gilbert in The Inbetweeners), and one-third of the comedy trio We Are Klang, Marek Larwood.
V (TV2, 10.35pm). The second season of the rebooted 1983 series was also its last, which was a shame for Kiwi actor Charles Mesure, who was promoted to series regular just as V was given only another 10 episodes before cancellation. At the end of season one, the aliens, led by sexy Anna (Firefly’s Morena Baccarin) had unleashed red sky and rain, although Anna claims its going to heal the Earth. Hm … Meanwhile, Elizabeth Mitchell (Lost) and a plucky band of rebels (including mercenary Mesure) are trying to find out the truth and how they can foil the reptilian invaders. Fun part: when the aliens have dinner. Mmm … rats.
FRIDAY OCTOBER 28
Psychoville: Halloween Special (UKTV, Sky 006, 9.00pm). Sometimes the BBC makes a programme just weird enough to restore your faith in the creative process. Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton’s Psychoville is possibly the most bizarre TV series you’ll ever see this side of The League of Gentlemen – which Shearsmith and Pemberton also wrote and starred in. In this special, the pair take their Psychoville characters – including horrible clown Mr Jelly, weirdo mother and son Maureen and David, and Joy the nurse (Dawn French) – and use them to tell a portmanteau of stories centred on the Ravenhill Psychiatric Hospital. “Blackly hilarious at one moment, and genuinely unsettling the next,” said the Independent. UKTV begins series two of Psychoville next week.
Headland: Where Sculpture Meets Nature (TVNZ7 and Sky 077, Friday, 10.05pm). The Waiheke Island sculpture walk has become a lovely day’s outing for many Aucklanders since its inception in 2003. Headland: Where Sculpture Meets Nature goes behind the scenes of the three-week event that attracts around 40,000 visitors to this small island in the Hauraki Gulf. The documentary captures the installation of some of the large-scale sculptures, which are placed on both land and sea, and includes interviews with some of the sculptors and the event’s founders. More information about the headland exhibition is at www.sculptureonthegulf.co.nz.