TV & Radio Wednesday October 12

Aw, goodbye to gentle drama series Nothing Trivial; hello to David E Kelley's latest mad legal drama.

TV

Debbie Newby-Ward in Nothing Trivial

SPCA Rescue (TV1, 8.00pm). A Christchurch earthquake special that tells the hitherto untold story of a crack SPCA Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) team that assembled after the February 22 earthquake to risk their lives saving trapped animals in the red zone. The programme also follows the work of the Canterbury SPCA, city council animal control officers and other animal welfare workers who helped to find lost and abandoned pets. Most exciting, there is a “dramatic turtle rescue operation” two days after the quake.

Nothing Trivial (TV1, 8.30pm). Aw, goodbye to the gentle drama series that has barely put a foot wrong. Its debut episode had the highest number of viewers of any locally made drama since 2000, so it was a no-brainer that a second series is going to be made. Great work from all the cast, especially Blair Strang, who has displayed previously unknown subtleties as Brian the plumber. In the finale, Emma has some big news for him, while Mac (Shane Cortese) and Catherine (Tandi Wright) make some decisions about their future.

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Harry’s Law (TV1, 9.30pm). The creator of The Practice, Ally McBeal and Boston Legal makes … a legal drama. It could be David E Kelley’s “most egregious show with one of the best actors he’s ever had”, according to Entertainment Weekly’s Ken Tucker, or it might be “attractively amiable”, according to the LA Times. The Harry of the title is the wonderful Kathy Bates, who plays Harriet “Harry” Korn, a bored patent lawyer who is fired from her job and sets up shop in a poor neighbourhood so she can condescend … er, help the less fortunate. Perhaps, as with most of Kelley’s series, it is an acquired taste: after the first season, Bates was nominated for an Emmy
 this year, and co-star Paul McCrane won for Outstanding Guest Performance.

FILM

The Kingdom (Movies Greats, Sky 022, 8.30pm). Muddled nonsense that possibly sums up the US’s confusion over the Middle East: director Peter Berg acknowledges an entirely different culture in which the US is not necessarily welcome – in this case, Saudi Arabia – but wants to give US audiences their shoot-outs and explosions. A team led by Jamie Foxx goes to Saudi Arabia to investigate a suicide bombing at a US compound. Although a Hollywood-style car chase through Riyadh’s streets is novel, it’s not going to save this mess. (2007) 4

Sabrina (Rialto, Sky 025, 8.30pm). Leaving aside the massive and slightly-creepy-to-modern-eyes age difference between Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn, this Billy Wilder classic is charming entertainment and what’s more, started Hepburn’s lifelong association with Hubert de Givenchy, who created the costumes especially for her. It was remade in 1995 with Julia Ormond and Harrison Ford, but that movie is to be avoided at all costs. (1954) 8

RADIO

Music Alive (Radio New Zealand Concert, 8.00pm). Barely have you time to catch your breath from large amounts of promming, and RNZ Concert presents chunky helpings of Brahms – who is also composer of the week. The appropriately titled Brahmissimo! concert series begins, direct from the Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington, with his Symphony No 1 in C Minor (the one he spent 15 years perfecting) and his Piano Concerto No 2 in B flat. It features Canadian-born pianist Diedre Irons and the NZSO, under Pietari Inkinen. – Diana Balham

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