New Zealand Listener - May 26, 2018

66 LISTENER MAY 26 2018

THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT

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Sport by FIONA RAE

The week’s best live action

Chicago P.D., Tu e s d ay.

SOCCER

After qualifying rounds

that began in June last year,

a play-off round, a group

stage and a knockout phase,

the final of the 63rd UEFA

Champions League finally

arrives. It will be played at

the NSC Olimpiyskiy Sta-

dium in Kiev between Real

Madrid and Liverpool. The

Spanish team are hoping to

win for the third consecu-

tive time, a feat unachieved since 1976. The match screens

early Sunday our time (SS2, 6.00am).

Chicago franchise series (fol-

lowing Fire, P.D. and Med), was

cancelled after just one season.

Winchester has gone from

playing Michael Stonebridge

in Strike Back to portraying

Peter Stone in SVU, which may

seem like a failure of imagina-

tion by whoever makes up the

names. In fact, Stone is the

son of original Law & Order

character Benjamin Stone, por-

trayed by Michael Moriarty in

the 1990s. With the departure

of Raúl Esparza, who played

snappy dresser Rafael Barba,

Winchester is now a main cast

member. He has started on the

wrong side of Mariska Hargi-

tay’s Olivia Benson, and it is

revealed tonight that he has a

schizophrenic sister.

Chicago P.D. (Three, 10.55pm).

Dick Wolf’s Chicago franchise

has been a boon for the Windy

City: the productions employ

30,000 people, whose wages

perhaps offset the tax breaks

that Wolf receives from the

state of Illinois. Here’s season

three of the law enforcement

side of the triangle. The down-

side for us is that crossover

episodes with Fire and Med are

out of sync, but how much

American heroism can we

take?

THURSDAY MAY 31

Jono and Ben (Three, 7.30pm).

A new season of inventive

comedy and silly sketches

from cheeky chappies Jono

Pryor and Ben Boyce. They’ve

added to their roster this year,

bringing in comedians Brynley

Stent, Hayley Sproull, Chris

Parker, Kura Forrester, Ray

O’Leary and Angella Dravid. In

addition, there will be a weekly

update from “Jacinda Ardern”

• Laura Daniel, that is – and
  Guy Williams will report from
  the regions in new segment
  New Zealand Today. l

Mohamed Salah

BASKETBALL

The NBA is almost at the end

of its tortuously long season.

The Eastern Conference final

between the Boston Celtics

and the Cleveland Cavaliers is

on Saturday (ESPN, 12.30pm);

the Western Conference final

between the Houston Rockets

and the Golden State Warriors is

on Sunday (ESPN, 1.00pm). (Steve

Adams’ Oklahoma City Thunder

went down to Utah Jazz in the

first round of the play-offs.)

Then the 2018 NBA Finals best-

of-seven playoff between the

Conference champions starts on

Friday (ESPN, 1.00pm).

TENNIS

Clay is Rafael Nadal’s medium, and with some of the

other big names out for the count, he’s surely the

favourite to win the French Open men’s singles title

again at Roland Garros (begins Sunday, SS4, 9.00pm, with

additional coverage on SS Pop-up 1 from 9.00am). No

Roger Federer, no Andy Murray, and Novak Djokovic

has been struggling with his fitness. Nevertheless,

young up-and-comers such as Alexander Zverev Jr

and Dominic Thiem may give Rafa something

to think about. In the women’s draw, Serena

Williams is in doubt; Jelena Ostapenko is

the defending champion, but the oppo-

nent she beat last year, Simona Halep,

will be keen to cement her World No 1

status with her first Grand Slam win.

Te r r y R oz ie r

Simona Halep

Jono

and Ben,

Thursday.