Perfectly punctilious Poirot returns and Tono and the Finance Company live at Roundhead Studios.
TV
Poirot
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.
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.
FILM
Sabrina Down Under (Four, 6.30pm). Tie me teenage witch down, sport. (1999) 5 – Diana Balham
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (TV2, 7.30pm). TV2 is managing to play the Pirates of the Caribbean series in order, which is more than can be said for its random assault on Harry Potter. Tonight, it’s No 3: Jack Sparrow and the rest of the gang must summon the Pirate Lords from the four corners of the globe to overcome Cutler Beckett and the heartless Davy Jones. Best scene by a nautical mile: Cap’n Jack is trapped in Davy Jones’s Locker and hallucinates that the entire crew of the Black Pearl looks like him, each representing a different facet of his character. Suddenly, the stones crack and turn into thousands of crabs, which manoeuvre the marooned ship back into the sea. Surreal. (2007) 6 – Diana Balham
aimRenderAd(300, 250, '300X250','ContentRect','/POS=POS2'); if(!$.browser.msie){ ContentRect_frame = $("#ContentRect")[0]; ContentRect_frame.src = ContentRect_frame.src; }The Bourne Identity (TV3, 8.30pm). Gee, I forget things sometimes, but I’ve never washed up in the Med with bullet wounds and no clue who I am. That’s what happens to poor old … whatever his name is. He can’t remember and the only clue to his identity is a Swiss bank account number etched on a capsule and implanted in his body. Ew! Based on the novel by Robert Ludlum, this is the first of three Bourne thrillers, all directed by Doug Liman and starring Matt Damon. (Another one is due out next year.) This is good, solid, old-fashioned running-around-with-guns stuff, delivering up plenty of excitement and even the odd smile. Also stars Clive Owen, Chris Cooper, Franka Potente and Julia Stiles. (2002) 8 – Diana Balham
Remember the Titans (TV1, 9.30pm). One of those fact-based underdog sports team dramas that just requires you to identify the “disability” and let the thing run itself. Are they the scrawniest players, the dimmest players, the least posh players …? In this case, the Titans are the most newly integrated players: in 1971, coach Herman Boone is charged with turning a team of deeply distrustful black and white footballers into a fighting unit. Maybe, in New Zealand, we just can’t imagine people from all communities not mucking in together on the sports field but, here, hard times have been turned into feel-good melodrama. A super-slick Jerry Bruckheimer production with Denzel Washington as the chief rebuilding block. (2000) 6 – Diana Balham
Adam’s Apples (Maori, 9.30pm). The fruit has all kinds of symbolic importance in this Danish black comedy about Ivan, a rural minister who tries hard to find the goodness in everybody. These things are sent to try him: a violent Saudi immigrant, a drunken tennis pro who can’t keep his pants on, and then Adam, a psychotic neo-Nazi sentenced to community service at his church. Adam sarcastically declares his goal is to bake an apple cake and he is put in charge of the highly allegorical tree in front of the church. But will he instead produce a humble pie or an apple Danish? This isn’t a thigh-slapper, being Scandinavian, but the black humour is subversive and satisfying. (2005) 7 – Diana Balham
RADIO
Saturday Morning with Kim Hill (Radio New Zealand National, 8.10am). Author, reporter and New York Times columnist Thomas L Friedman has the creative energy of an insomniac flea: he has already written five best-sellers, including From Beirut to Jerusalem and The World Is Flat, and received three Pulitzer Prizes for his trouble. He’ll no doubt be talking about his new book, written with Michael Mandelbaum, That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back. Even his titles are exhausting. Friedman will be in the capital for the Writers and Readers Week during the NZ International Arts Festival in March. At 11.45am it’s our favourite person from Christchurch, ex-Listener writer Bruce Ansley, who has turned out another book – Christchurch Heritage: a Celebration of Lost Buildings and Streetscapes. It’s a Canterbury tale: a timely look at his beloved city before it changed forever, featuring photos from the Press archives. As far as we know, actress Dame Kate Harcourt hasn’t put out a book lately, but she did recently win her first acting award, at the Rhode Island Film Festival for her role in the movie Pacific Dreams. If you’re of a certain age, her rounded vowels will take you back to the preschool radio programme Listen with Mother, which kicked off her professional career in the 1960s. She’s currently in Sex Drive at Wellington’s Circa Theatre, which probably won’t be anything like that. – Diana Balham (Also today: Sir Paul Callaghan; Simon Wallace, general manager of a company that runs a large dairy farm in Brazil; Playing Favourites with New Zealand writer Garth Cartwright; and Dame Kate Harcourt who is in a new play at Circa. Info and audio here.)
Tono and the Finance Company and She’s So Rad Recorded Live at Roundhead Studios (95bFM, 11.00am and Friday, 2.00pm). This bFM blurb sounds as if it was written by someone who drinks too much coffee, but judge for yourself: “Dunedin-raised Tono performs an Auckland-centric set of songs about Herne Bay landlords, K-Rd bar-hopping and writing break-up songs in Grey Lynn … with nods along the way to Hamilton, disagreeing with David Bowie and – of course – a little economic theory. Tono is joined in the studio by Lisa Crawley and Graham Panther.” (PS: Graham Panther is his real name.) Then, it’s She’s So Rad – Sami sister Anji and award-winning producer and songwriter Jeremy Toy (also his real name) who play, writes bFM, “paisleyed shoegaze psychedelia” from their debut album, In Circles. This is their live debut performance as a duo, which means they recorded an album having never played together in public … There will be live streaming and podcasts on 95bfm.com and video on this website after October 22. (The first part of this concert will be repeated on Radio New Zealand National at 4.10pm and on Friday at 8.06pm.) – Diana Balham
No comments:
Post a Comment