New Zealand Listener – March 02, 2018

66 LISTENER MARCH 10 2018

THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT

have used “these tactics and

methods he first perfected

2000 years ago”.

Rillington Place (UKTV, Sky 007,

9.30pm). Tim Roth and Saman-

tha Morton as a serial killer

and his wife: we may have

reached peak Brit-noir gloom.

Roth plays John Christie who,

during the 1940s and early

50s, murdered at least eight

women and, in the time-hon-

oured tradition of British serial

killers, buried them under and

around his house. Just as bad,

he helped send his neighbour

to the gallows when in all like-

lihood Christie had killed the

man’s wife and child. The dark

and dank flat at Rillington

Place, Notting Hill, is designed

The Great British

Bake Off, Tuesday.

providing a refreshing splash

of irreverence. Prue Leith is

the new Mary Berry, and Paul

Hollywood clearly didn’t give

a fig what channel he was on.

Wisely, the format remains

unchanged: cakes, biscuits,

bread, puddings and pastry

are to be attempted, although

we are looking forward to

new “forgotten bakes” week,

in which the challenges

are Bedfordshire clangers,

Cumberland rum nicky, and a

Victorian Savoy cake.

Miami Vice (Jones! Too, Sky 208,

8.30pm). Don Johnson and

Philip Michael Thomas wore

five to eight different outfits in

an average episode of Miami

Vice, all in a colour palette

designed to match the art deco

pastels of Miami (no earth

tones were allowed). Written

for an MTV audience and

featuring hits of the 80s, the

show was a television turning-

point, which means, ironically,

that it is now so dated it hurts.

Here’s season two, which

features cameos by Eartha Kitt,

Phil Collins and Frank Zappa.

WEDNESDAY MARCH 14

For the People (TVNZ OnDe-

mand). The Shondaland train

keeps on chuggin’ along,

although For the People (and

the upcoming Station 19, a

Grey’s Anatomy spin-off star-

ring Miranda Bailey’s husband)

sticks to its genre template.

It’s a legal drama created by

Scandal writer Paul William

Davies that follows newbie

public defenders and prosecu-

tors who work at the Southern

District of New York. Expe-

rienced support comes from

Hope Davis, Vondie Curtis-

Hall, Anna Deavere Smith and

Ben Shenkman. This isn’t the

only new show debuting on

The Lucky Country has

60,000km of coastline, so it’s

not surprising that Neil Oliver

has turned up again for a

second season of Coast Aus-

tralia (Prime, Sunday, 7.30pm).

There are eight new coast-

lines to explore, from Torres

Strait in the north to the main-

land’s southernmost point,

Wilsons Promontory.

With its usual mix of ancient

and modern, Coast Australia

begins with a trip out to an oil-

and gas-drilling platform in

Bass Strait, then segues to the

site of Australia’s first dino-

saur find at Cape Paterson.

Palaeontologist Tim Flannery

is on hand to explain the 1903

Documentariesby FIONA RAE

Miami Vice, Tuesday.

Coast Australia, Sunday.

to be a character, as it was

integral to Christie’s evil work:

“The house reflected the man

and, in the end, the house

was the keeper of his secrets,”

says co-writer Ed Whitmore.

Very creepy. “The black misery

spreading from one man’s evil

has surely rarely been better

done,” said the Guardian.

TUESDAY MARCH 13

The Great British Bake Off

(Prime, 7.30pm). In an incred-

ible turn of events, the sky did

not fall when British national

treasure Bake Off moved

from the BBC to Channel

4. Instead, it has been an
   unmitigated success, with new
   hosts Sandi Toksvig and Noel
   Fielding (inspired choices)