68 LISTENER JUNE 8 2019
THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT
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Sport
The week’s best live action
The Story
of God,
Thursday.SOCCER
Go the Football Ferns! The
Women’s World Cup begins
in France with a match
between the home team and
Korea (Sky Sport 4, Satur-
day, 6.30am). The Ferns’
first game is against the
Netherlands on Wednes-
day (Sky Sport 4, 12.30am,
replayed on Prime, 6.30am);
the other teams in their
pool are Cameroon and
Canada. The Ferns’ new
coach, Tom Sermanni, has
named a squad featuring six
players with more than 100
internationals and six players who are attending their first
FIFA Women’s World Cup. It’s a “good balance”, he says,
especially with the return of striker Hannah Wilkinson from
injury. The team’s aim is to make history by reaching the
knockout stage for the first time. Prime is adding a Women’s
World Cup highlights show to its schedule, starting on
Saturday at 5.00pm.force is not enough for Moana
Maniapoto. She is now turning
her considerable intellect and
mana to current affairs. In
this new show, she examines
international stories through
a Māori lens. Māori Tele vision
begins two new shows fronted
by wahine toa tonight: Hunt-
ing with Tui follows at 9.00pm,
in which Tui Keenan and her
daughters go huntin’ and
fishin’. In the first episode,
Keenan’s uncle takes her deer
hunting on Mt Hikurangi,
north of Gisborne, and then
she heads down the coast for
pig hunting with another
outdoorsy wahine, Anita.THURSDAY JUNE 13
The Story of God with Morgan
Freeman (National Geographic,
Sky 072, 9.30pm). God gets a
third season. Well, of course
s/he does. Morgan Freeman
continues his exploration
of faith around the world,
starting with a search for the
Devil. In other episodes, he
meets a young living goddess
in Nepal, talks with people
who’ve had divine visions,
examines the fight against sin
and looks into religion’s love
of secrecy.FRIDAY JUNE 14
Brian Cox: Life of a Universe
(BBC Earth, Sky 074, 7.30pm).
Prof Brian Cox is in Australia
for this special in which he
explains the beginning and
the end of the universe. He is
there on tour, but it’s also a
really great place to explore the
southern sky and talk about
creation stories, including sci-
ence’s explanation for life, the
universe and everything, the
theory known as the Big Bang.The Graham Norton Show
(Three, 8.00pm). For the first
time in 20 years, Graeme
Norton is not hosting an
episode. While he was away
hosting the Euro vision Song
Contest, comedian and actor
Jack Whitehall filled in. On
the couch are footballer Peter
Crouch, author and comedian
David Walliams, and actors
Luke Evans and Gwendoline
Christie. The latter has gone
from Game of Thrones to play-
ing Titania in A Midsummer
Night’s Dream, directed by
Nicholas Hytner at the Bridge
Theatre, London’s newest the-
atrical venue. By all accounts,
cheeky chappie Whitehall
does very well.CRICKET
The Black Caps cautioned against getting too excited after
their warm-up win against India at the Oval. And with
good reason. They then lost to the West Indies. But if the
top-order batting can sort itself out, the Kiwis will be unstop-
pable. Conditions count, but the Black Caps shouldn’t have
any trouble against Afghanistan at Taunton (Sky Sport 2,
Saturday, midnight). India will be looking for a better result
on Thursday, however, at Trent Bridge (Sky Sport 2, 9.00pm).GOLF
One of golf’s big four tourna-
ment tees off on Friday (Sky
Sport 4, 7.00am); Pebble
Beach, California, is once
again the venue for the US
Open. Brooks Koepka, who
is looking for a third straight
PGA Tour win, is the betting
favourite, but Phil Mickel-
son, although a long shot, is
hoping to become just the
sixth player to win a career
grand slam. No one can rule
out Tiger Woods, of course,
after his win at the Masters.Brooks KoepkaHannah
Wilkinson