WEEK 35 Saturday 29 August - Friday 4 September 2009

Local - Save Our Home , Wednesday 2 September, 8pm: The Kiwi ideal to own your own home and hold on to your house is fast slipping from the grasp of hard working New Zealanders. Hard economic times get the blame but personal spending is what is really behind most of the sad stories of people losing their homes.

New Zealanders are at a crisis financially. On average Kiwis spend more than they earn, 22 cents more than every dollar made. But the good news is, home ownership is still affordable for the average Kiwi. Even a family on the minimum wage can pay off a mortgage. The real problem is not how much money people earn, but how they spend it.

TV ONE's new local series Save Our Home (tonight at 8pm), joins top property expert Sarah Pearce and financial whiz Hannah McQueen as personal trainers in financial fitness and house owning savvy, to come to the rescue of different struggling Kiwis who are in a home-owning predicament. Between them, the pair know the hard truths of home owning and the secrets to getting ahead.

Tackling Kiwis' spending behaviour head-on, and the 'buy now - pay later' attitudes held by many, they attempt to help families have or hold onto their home. Pearce and McQueen provide tough love and some inspiring action plans to people in all kinds of situations.

At one end they find overcommitted couples facing bank foreclosure; X and Y generation spenders blowing the budget; or cash strapped newlyweds nervous about affording a family. At the other end are those doing well, but needing expert help to do better; and some just looking for a smarter way to pay the mortgage and enjoy life.

The Save Our Home duo say saving homes is as much about understanding people, as it is about the property they live in. The pair believe they can save anyone a home, as long as they are willing to face-up to why they spend the way they do.

"Most of us spend more than we earn, and most of us don't know that we do," says McQueen, the accountant and financial advisor. "Saving a home usually requires people to change the spending habits of a lifetime, so sometimes it's hard to save peoples' feelings, as well as their homes."

No stranger to telling people what they'd rather not hear, McQueen says, "You can't sugar-coat the numbers or the consequences if they continue doing what they've always done."

Not everyone who seeks their help is prepared to listen. The Save Our Home duo sometimes find themselves on the receiving end of people reacting badly to the tough strategy that will save their home and financial future.

Pearce says an owner's emotional attachment to their house, can often be the biggest obstacle to saving their home: "Every home is an emotional extension of the owner, and it's difficult for any of us to admit that our own financial decisions could be costing us the home we hold so dear. It's impossible to look at your house objectively when you've got an emotional connection, that's why people so often over-value their home."

Episode one follows Shane and Leah - a couple whose knack for looking on the bright side is blinding them to future financial disaster as they push on with a home do-up scheme. Can Sarah and Hannah wipe off the rose-tinted specs and help them face facts before they lose their home.

Factual - River Cottage Gone Fishing, Saturday 29 August, 5pm: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is off on a fishy fact-finding tour to the seafood hotspots of the British Isles with his new series, River Cottage Gone Fishing (today at 5pm on TV ONE).

Fish is one of the UK's favourite foods and the benefits of eating it regularly are widely reported. From sardines to smoked salmon to scampi, fish takes pride of place on Britain's menus and still rates as one of the UK's favourite dishes. Yet with diminishing fish stocks there's a crisis at sea. It's not just the fish on our plates that are becoming an endangered species, but the whole fishing industry itself. So what's a fish lover to do?

Fearnley-Whittingstall begins an investigative culinary journey around the British Isles to tackle this in River Cottage Gone Fishing. He is hoping to discover alternative, delicious and sustainable seafood that fishmongers should be selling and people should be eating, his fishy foray begins in the Channel Islands.

Departing from Weymouth, and joined by fish expert Nick Fisher and skipper Pat Carling, Fearnley-Whittingstall grapples with gurnard and garfish, samples alternatives to smoked salmon, and jumps into the sea with none other than 'Jaws'.

Heading to the Islands, he experiences his first case of 'fish envy', as all three of them catch their dinner of pouting, served in the time-honoured egg and breadcrumbs tradition. "I can't think of a better way to set the agenda for finding out some more about some fish we don't eat that much," Fearnley-Whittingstall says of the super fresh and much underrated pouting.

Before tackling what the islands have to offer fish wise, Fearnley-Whittingstall jumps aboard a Harley with a local biker to stock up on 'hedge-veg', before heading out to sea in search of Garfish, an ideal alternative to Mackerel. Having green bones means it's not a commercially viable fish and it proves to be too elusive for Fearnley-Whittingstall.

It takes a local helping hand before he gets his hands on the oily blighter, and in return, Nick Fisher cooks for them. With an empty hook, Fearnley-Whittingstall resorts to mackerel for his dish to entertain the local fishermen.

Join Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, armed with rod, line and an adventurous palate, and plenty of help from local fish fanciers, as he discovers a vast array of underrated seafood, and great ways of making it taste fantastic on River Cottage Gone Fishing.

Drama - Sunday Theatre: Wall Of Silence, Sunday 30 August, 8.30pm: Starring James Nesbitt (Midnight Man and Cold Feet), Sunday Theatre: Wall Of Silence (tonight at 8.30pm on TV ONE) is based on true events around a teenage boy beaten to death by a gang of youths in South London. The brutality of the attack shocks the community, but the violence involved causes a 'Wall Of Silence' to rise up around all the witnesses involved. The drama unfolds when teenager Jamie Robe, a normally well behaved quiet lad, has a drink and is spurred on to speak his mind. But when he stumbles across the wrong crowd of lads on a housing estate in South East London, the thugs beat him to death, while neighbours witness everything. But the witnesses clam-up and provide a united, silent front, while the police set about breaking down the defences, and counteracting the intimidation, to allow justice to be served.

For Tony Cottis (Davis), the detective in charge of the case, there was something about Jamie's death that shook him to the core. Together with Jamie's father Stuart Robe (Nesbitt) and local MP Simon Hughes, he fought a long and arduous battle to bring the killers to justice. The drama charts the extraordinary lengths all three men went to to break this 'Wall Of Silence', including a teenage witness who was given a new identity to protect her; and an illegal immigrant whose deportation was overruled because he was a key witness.

Sunday Theatre: Wall Of Silence shows how fear and peers can bias the most moral of people, and influence human behaviour.

Factual - MasterChef Australia, From Monday 31 August, 4.55pm: Hosted by Sarah Wilson, MasterChef Australia (tonight at 4.55pm on TV ONE) gives budding chefs the ultimate once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to develop their cooking skills, to be mentored by the best, and ultimately make a change in their lives. Signing up as MasterChef's three-person judging panel are two of Australia's most respected chefs and restaurateurs Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris, plus one of the world's most acclaimed food critics Matt Preston.

Thousands of applications flooded in from across Australia: students; mums; professional sportsmen; solicitors; nurses; and cleaners, all applied. Young and old, each came prepared with raw talent and enthusiasm to leave their old life behind and enter the kitchen with one driving aim: to be Australia's first ever MasterChef.

From high octane challenges at Sydney's famous Fish Markets, to time-pressure challenges with mystery boxes of food, surprise encounters with celebrity chefs, to tasks that will test their creativity and nerve, the MasterChef Australia contestants will be put through their paces.

With no prior professional cooking experience, these budding foodies have serious goals they want to fulfil. Their desired end results all differ - whether it is running a Michelin-star restaurant, opening a small organic caf in the hills of Adelaide; creating a catering business in Newcastle; or opening a flagship restaurant in their home town utilising local produce, these contestants' dreams are on the path to becoming a reality.

Drama - Packed To The Rafters, Tuesday 1 September, 8.30pm: On Packed To The Rafters tonight (at 8.30pm on TV ONE), Dave Rafter (Erik Thomson) is tormented by the sudden endless replays on the radio of 'Suburban Boy' - the hit song Dave co-wrote many moons ago, but never received credit nor remuneration for.

Reconnecting with his old band mate and surrogate brother Steve Wilson (Craig McLachlan, McLeod's Daughters and Neighbours), Dave agrees to join Steve for the 'Greaties from the Eighties' tour.

But as history repeats itself, Dave is again forced to choose between his family and the band. Nathan needs Dave's help when Nathan's plans to impress a client, with money he doesn't have, fails.

Documentary - Real Life: The Virgin Daughters, Tuesday 1 September, 9.30pm: Award-winning documentary maker Jane Treays follows a group of fathers and daughters as they prepare to attend a 'purity ball' in Colorado Springs, on tonight's Real Life: The Virgins Daughters (at 9.30pm on TV ONE).

The girls, dressed in virginal white gowns, dance around a giant cross and then walk under swords with their fathers as they vow to remain a virgin until their wedding day, when they will wed the man their father has helped choose for them. The phenomenon of purity in young girls is sweeping the United States in both secular and religious circles, and one in six American girls pledges purity - some even to save their first kiss - until they walk down the aisle. But is this their decision or that of their fathers?

This annual event organised by Randy Wilson - the self-appointed minister of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs - and his wife, attracts dozens of girls and their fathers across the Christian heartland in the United States.

Amidst the splendour of the five-star Broadmoor Hotel, in a chandelier lit ballroom overlooking the Rocky Mountains, Wilson, the father of five daughters, invites fathers and daughters to spend an evening together to honour and celebrate their love and commitment to be a pure father to a pure daughter.

A pledge is spoken and signed between the fathers and daughters, some as young as six. Mothers are not specifically invited to attend, but all the families subscribe to a single fundamental notion. They want their daughters to be virgins when they marry, and preferably receive their first kiss at the altar. Wilson says, "The cultural winds of fire are racing towards our homes and devouring them and our daughters with pop culture. We fathers have to stand up and be the answer to the pressures our daughters face in the modern world. Studies have proved where a father is engaged in the heart of his daughter, she is less likely to be depressed, suicidal or promiscuous."

The girls seem happy to oblige, gliding without protest, not only to the Ball, but Wilson believes, to the altar as untouched virgins. He says they seem extremely focussed and determined to succeed in this goal. Those who do stick to their purity vows tend to enter into marriage much younger - around 20 (the average age in the US is 26).

But not everyone is so sure - a recent Harvard study showed more than half of all teens who took a virginity pledge ended up breaking it within a year, and 88 per cent end up having sex before marriage. Critics say it leaves young girls unprepared, with lack of choice and no sex education.

Wilson disagrees: "We in society don't understand how desperate our daughters are for our words of admiration, our love and reaffirmation that they are beautiful and belong to us and God. I encourage dads to carve out time for their daughters. "Girls are pressurised into having sex and we let them have their heart broken again and again. It's one thing to curse the darkness... another thing to light a candle and we are giving them a beautiful vision of their destiny," he says.

Documentary - Real Crime: Martina Cole - Girls In Gangs, Wednesday 2 September, 9.30pm: Best-selling author Martina Cole (Dangerous Lady) immerses herself in the brutal world of girl gangs in Los Angeles and London in the Real Crime documentaries Martina Cole - Girls In Gangs. Tonight's second documentary takes a look at girl gangs in Los Angeles (at 9.30pm on TV ONE).

Determined to find out what drives teenage girls into violence and crime, Cole draws on her own research into gang culture to gain the trust of real life gang members and reveal the depths of fear, anger and despair they face on a daily basis.

With girl gangs responsible for some of the most serious crimes in both cities, many members are themselves the victims of horrific and unrelenting violence, both from rival gangs and their own.

ONE Sport - ONE Sport This Week From Saturday 29 August, 7.30pm: Saturday 29 August, 7.30pm: ONE Sport: International Netball Series Toni Street hosts LIVE coverage of the third test match between the Silver Ferns and a World 7 from Auckland. Commentary from former Silver Ferns Jenny-May Coffin and Julie Coney, plus sideline comments from Kiri Wills and behind the scenes colour from Jordan Vandermade.

Sunday 30 August, 1pm: ONE Sport: Powerbuilt Tools Motorsport Geoff Bryan presents highlights from Round 14 of the Indy Car Series from Infineon Raceway in California, followed by LIVE coverage at 1.45pm of Round 15 under lights from the Chicagoland Speedway in Chicago, as Scott Dixon continues his quest for back to back IRL titles.

Sunday 30 August, 4pm: ONE Sport: Contact Tri TV Mark Watson introduces highlights from Round 7 of the ITU World Championship Series, raced in Yokohama, Japan.

Sunday 30 August, 5pm: ONE Sport: Powerbuilt Tools Motorsport Geoff Bryan returns with more Motorsport, including highlights of Round 11 in the MotoGP Series from the Czech Republic, plus reaction from the today's Indy Car race in Chicago.

PLEASE NOTE: There are two Powerbuilt Tools Motorsport shows listed. Please ensure they are correctly billed across all print media.