WEEK 43: Saturday 24 October - Friday 30 October 2009

Drama - Sunday Theatre: The Tudors, Sunday 25 October, 8.30pm: Starring Golden Globe-winner Jonathan Rhys Meyers, season three of The Tudors begins with the marriage of Henry (Rhys Meyers, Elvis) to his third wife, Jane Seymour (Annabelle Wallis, True True Lie), tonight at 8.30pm on TV ONE.

In contrast to the scheming upstart Anne Boleyn, Jane is a shy and demure young woman of noble birth, given away on her wedding day by her brother Edward Seymour (Max Brown, Mistresses). Henry's wife may have changed, but his marital ambition remains constant - siring a male heir to the Tudor Dynasty. Though the Queen's pregnancy is cause to rejoice, Henry is faced with mounting threats to his authority from a commoners' revolt inside England, and an angry Pope determined to stem Protestantism's rising tide. As attacks on his new church foreshadow trouble for the King, the increasingly powerful Thomas Cromwell (James Frain, Empire) doubles his efforts to crush Catholicism across England. When Jane dies shortly after giving birth to Henry's first son, Cromwell looks to capitalise on the tragedy - to find a new wife who will bring with her the alliances needed to stave-off a Catholic invasion - only to be undermined by Henry's staunchest supporters. And as an anguished Henry struggles to codify his position as the head of the new church, no one is safe from his growing madness. Jonathan Rhys Meyers says Henry finds himself in a dark place this season and faces a lot of anxiety: "The combination of all the trauma that he's been through ever since being a child, remember being a child at this time was very, very difficult, he was king at 16 years old, he had all this responsibility, and death was very much a part of his life, it's very apparent. "He's got an illness in his leg, which is affecting his brain because of the poison in the ulcer, so he's going into that dark place of psychosis, that madness of power, having too much power and having nobody to stop you." He says Henry is also getting older and his vanity is becoming affected. "He enjoyed being that young vibrant king, and this is what we wanted to portray in The Tudors." Rhys Meyers says he was chosen for this reason: "They could have done this with a different actor, not me. They could have cast somebody who immediately looks like the Holbein painting, but it's already been done, and done by many other people. The way we've done it, is we tried to bring something quite new." In playing Henry, he says he wanted to stay away from that wild loush, sort of incredibly flagrant king. "I wanted to bring him as someone who is very very controlled, very mannered. There's something almost psychotically sort of methodical about the things that he does, especially in season one as the kind of spoilt brat king, because he was, he's an incredibly spoilt man, probably one of the most spoilt kings in history." The new season of The Tudors starts tonight at 8.30pm on TV ONE.

Factual - Heston's Feast, Sunday 25 October, 10.30pm: Heston Blumenthal becomes a gastronomic time lord as he turns off his blowtorch, puts on his chef whites, and travels back in time to culinary worlds that have gone untasted for centuries, on the new TV ONE series Heston's Feast (tonight at 10.30pm).

Blumenthal's mission is to surprise jaded 21st century palates by scientifically reconstructing an inventive back-to-the-future banquet consisting of forgotten flavours, textures and taste sensations. Through each episode, he will create a historical feast, complete with all the sumptuous, orgiastic, excessive mayhem that people's ancestors took for granted. Blumenthal says he doesn't do food in an ordinary way. "I think food should be fun. A delicious, spectacular adventure with every bite being a delight to the senses. I want to create meals that people will remember for the rest of their lives." As head at one of the best restaurants in the world, Blumenthal says he takes inspiration from all around. "I've discovered lately that history has incredible ideas I can use. These aren't dead recipes, these are the future of cooking." "I believe the future of cooking lies in the secrets of the past. So I'm on a mission to use myth science and history to create the greatest feasts ever seen," he says. Key moments recreated in Heston's Feast include Henry VIII's Feast of Beasts, and the Roman shagging-food orgy of Caligula - and all for a room full of demanding celebrities, hard-nosed critics and hungry revellers. Episode one sees the culinary conjuror create a feast inspired by the food marvels of the Victorian age. But to give things a typically Heston twist, he's using his favourite novel from the time - Alice's Adventures In Wonderland - to theme his dishes. It is 'Heston's Mad Hatter's Tea Party' and his specially invited celebrity diners are in for a truly remarkable eating experience. On the menu: Alice's body-transforming 'Drink Me' potion, mock turtle soup, edible insects and absinthe jelly served with flavoured helium balloons.

Local - Good Morning, Monday 26 October, 9am: TV ONE's Good Morning will pay tribute to the late Sir Howard Morrison, with an encore screening of his 74th Birthday Special, held in August this year (today at 9am).

For viewers who missed it the first time, this is a chance to see the stage icon in one of his last performances. Sir Howard Morrison chose every guest himself - filling the studio with family, friends and fellow musicians. A showcase of music and memories, the show includes performances by the Sir Howard Morrison Quartet and Carl Doy's seven-piece band. Ray Columbus; Russell Harrison; Elizabeth Marvelly; The Musical Island Boys; Rewa Ututaonga; soprano Timua Brennan; and Taisha from the LadyKillers, all line up to sing. Good Morning host Sarah Bradley says: "The most memorable memento for me was the impromptu haka led by Sir Howard's son, Howard Junior, after we went off air. There was not a dry eye in the studio. We will include this performance in our Labour Day show." Special guests include opera star Dame Malvina Major, long-serving quartet members Hori Bennett and Tony Williams, and an intimate interview with Sir Howard's whanau - including his wife Lady Kuia and children Donna, Richard and Howard Jr. Good Morning producer Sally-Anne Kerr says, "To celebrate the late Sir Howard's 74th birthday, with a guest list of his choosing, was a wonderful privilege for all of us who were part of it." Co-host Steve Gray agrees: "To see the joy on his face at watching the people he'd performed with and nurtured for years was a beautiful gift." Complete with video flashbacks showcasing Sir Howard's 50-plus years in showbiz, it was a television birthday party like no other. Join Good Morning again in celebration of New Zealand's most legendary entertainer, from 9am on Labour Day, Monday 26 October.

Drama - Hunter, Monday 26 October, 8.30pm: Hugh Bonneville (Lost In Austen) and Janet McTeer (Sense And Sensibility) star as detective team Barclay and Foster, in tonight's drama, Hunter (at 8.30pm on TV ONE).

Writer Mick Ford (William And Mary) took the duo of detective team superintendent Iain Barclay and detective sergeant Amy Foster, created by Gwyneth Hughes in the critically acclaimed series Five Days, and put them at the heart of a team of unpredictable detectives, who are faced with a highly sensitive crime. When extremists kidnap two seven-year-old boys from very different backgrounds and promise to release them only if their radical demands are met, the case falls into the hands of the intuitive and pragmatic Iain Barclay. Faced with a relatively inexperienced and increasingly unreliable team, Barclay soon calls his firm friend and faithful deputy Amy Foster out of 'early retirement' to support him in solving the crime. With children's lives at risk, the boys' families demanding answers, and no leads as to who is behind the abductions, the detectives are faced with a hugely complicated moral dilemma, to which there is no easy or comfortable solution - and the clock is ticking. Having played Det Supt Iain Barclay in Five Days, Bonneville was delighted to reprise the role in the police thriller, Hunter. "Five Days worked very well as a state-of the nation drama, and I thought the idea of giving the character of Barclay future life, and developing his working relationship with DS Amy Foster in a stand-alone show, was a very exciting prospect." He says writer Mick Ford created a compelling story, in which the protagonists face increasingly daunting tests of character and professional skill, and he was impressed with Ford's achievement. "The script is tense, dynamic and thought-provoking. Mick's done a superb job of taking these characters, setting them in a familiar but fresh environment, and giving them an almost insurmountable problem to overcome. "The case isn't simply one of the 'goodies' catching the 'baddies'. The plot is complex, and the moral and ethical questions it raises are not easily answered. Moreover, Barclay is no super-hero, he's flawed, makes mistakes, so there's frailty and failure as well as success along the way. It's a gripping story." Describing his character, he says Barclay can be summed up by the way he lives: "His house is on the edge of town but within sight of it. He's an observer, an outsider, yet his absolute lifeblood is the work he does within the community of which he is never quite a part. He seems to have a slower pulse rate than the rest of us, calm under pressure, considered, thoughtful. "And there's another reason he chooses to live on the edge of town: less light pollution means there's more chance of seeing his favourite constellation in the night sky - Orion, The Hunter." Reflecting on other qualities that make Barclay a great detective, Bonneville continues: "His real skills are founded in his fascination with astronomy. Where some people see a thousand points of light, Barclay sees patterns, constellations. His brain is always active, constantly sifting information, sorting order from chaos, yet all the while he maintains a calm and collected exterior." This all sounds markedly different to Amy Foster's feisty, impatient character. "It's because Barclay and Foster are chalk and cheese that they're such a great team. Amy often speaks before she thinks, he's the opposite. Even though she's a bit of a loose canon, she's been in the force her whole life, so her ability to play the game and anticipate the pitfalls is invaluable to him." Their unusual and strong friendship amuses Bonneville: "They're a pair of workaholics with a great rapport, whose relationship is based on mutual respect and mutual irritation. I can picture them in retirement, sitting on a sea front, rugs over their knees, staring out to sea - and bickering."

Local Documentary - Real Life: Fatal Attraction, Tuesday 27 October, 9.30pm: TV ONE's local Real Life documentary Fatal Attraction shows the stories of women who fall in love with men behind bars - and explores the psychological reasons for the phenomenon (tonight at 9.30pm).

Throughout New Zealand, women are longingly penning love letters to prisoners and spending weekends in depressing prison visiting rooms. But it takes considerable effort to meet men in secure containment facilities, and many women will write to a number of prisoners before they finally make a sustainable connection. Little is known about the trend of women falling in love with inmates, but prison romances seem in no danger of dying out. Every so often an affair between a prison officer and an inmate makes the news. Then there are women who seek out high-profile prisoners. But what explains this kind of behaviour is still far from being completely understood. "I think why the men seem so attractive in prison is because they look lonely and you're probably lonely too, and you think that you can help them, and you think you're going to have a life-time partner," says one woman whose identity has been concealed. Many of the women, who forge relationships with men in prison, go to incredible lengths to keep their relationships alive. Whether they travel hours by bus with small children or write letters daily, they seem consistent in their efforts to stay true to their men. Convinced that their partners will change when returning to the outside world, it seems no matter how extreme or appalling the crime with which an inmate has been charged, there is always a woman keen to stand by the man. "I know he's quite capable of hurting, yeah definitely, and he probably has, many a times before I got with him. But this time round it has to be different, there's just no other way around it," says Wairemana - a woman whose black power partner is currently serving time for a string of violent assaults.

Real Life: Fatal Attraction attempts to uncover the truths behind the relationships real-world women share with inmates, and show the emotional struggle surrounding them.

Local Movie - No. 2, Saturday 24 October, 8.30pm: Set in Auckland's Mt Roskill, and infused with the vibrancy of the South Pacific, the local film No. 2 is a big-hearted, exuberant story about what it takes to bring family together (tonight at 8.30pm on TV ONE).

The heart has gone out of Nanna Maria's (Ruby Dee American Gangster) family. There are no parties - they don't even fight anymore. Inspired by a dream of her childhood back in Fiji, Nanna demands that her grandchildren put on a big feast at which she will name her successor. One by one the grandchildren reluctantly turn up, but as the day progresses, their preparations unravel into chaos and an outraged Nanna calls the whole thing off. That's when everyone realises they have to pull out all the stops to give the crazy old lady what she wants, which is what they all need. No. 2, Toa Fraser's first written and directed feature film, is based on an adaptation of his internationally acclaimed, award-winning stage play of the same name. In creating the film, he transformed a one-woman stage show into a screenplay for a large ensemble cast. Fraser says the creation process was a deeply personal experience. "I see No. 2 as a love letter, I always have. I wanted to write a love letter to family, to friends, to life. It didn't take long to figure out it was going to be a story about Mt. Roskill, the area of Auckland where my large Pacific family has lived for more than 50 years." The film is all about family - the love that bonds and brings them together, the differences that create division; where they come from; where they're heading says Fraser. At the head is the matriarch, Nanna Maria. Actor Ruby Dee says she was immediately drawn to Toa Fraser's script: "Particularly the emphasis on cultural estrangement and finding a way back to family." Fraser was thrilled to have had such a wonderful, supportive cast come on board to make the movie. He says "We were so incredibly blessed that Ms Dee believed in our project enough to travel from the other side of the world to appear in it." He says it takes all sorts of people to make a movie and everybody who worked on No. 2 poured their heart and soul into the movie. "Those hearts and souls are up there on the screen, in every frame."

Local - Westfield Style Pasifika, Saturday 24 October, 10.20pm: Now in its sixteenth year, Westfield Style Pasifika has truly established itself as an annual, unique and iconic New Zealand event that celebrates the cultural diversity and creativity of the nation. Recognised as a major New Zealand fashion award show, it incorporates the best in fashion, music and dance.

Tonight, TV ONE gives viewers a chance to see highlights from this years multicultural, multidisciplinary show (at 10.20pm on TV ONE). Co-hosted by Sonia Gray and Stan Wolfgramm, Westfield Style Pasifika 2009 brings together the combined talents of artists, singers, dancers and designers to showcase, in one spectacular show night. Wolfgramm says more than 300 designers, from throughout New Zealand and the South Pacific entered this year's competition - the youngest being 10, the oldest, a grandma more than 60 years old. "It's amazing to see a year's work bring the various communities of New Zealand together with more than 350 cast and crew back stage, and a full house at the Vector Arena to celebrate the fact we are all people of the pacific." This year, Westfield Style Pasifika, in conjunction with Westfield New Zealand, held a nationwide talent quest to find someone to perform at the event. Wolfgramm says the winner, 16-year-old Shana Llorando from Sancta Maria College Botany, got to rehearse and perform on the night, accompanied by New Zealand Idol winner Ben Lummis and the Mt Roskill Primary School Ukulele Orchestra. He says, standout moments from this years show included the performance from iconic Kiwi band 'Herbs', and the rewarding experience of working with the New Zealand Navy Kapa Haka group who performed the opening. Watch highlights from this year's Westfield Style Pasifika, tonight at 10.20pm on TV ONE.

ONE Sport - ONE Sport This Week From Sunday 25 October, 1.30pm: ONE Sport coverage this week includes:

Sunday 25 October, 1.30pm: ONE Sport - Red Bull Air Race: Highlights from Round 4 of the 2009 World Championship staged in Budapest. Sunday 25 October, 2.30pm: ONE Sport - Powerbuilt Tools Motorsport: Geoff Bryan presents highlights from Round 14 of the Moto GP World Championship from Estoril in Portugal, Round 9 of the Euro F3 Championship from Dijon in France, plus last night's Round 2 in the Australasian Super X from Geelong.

Monday 26 October, 11.10pm: ONE Sport Football - FIFA U-17 World Cup: Full replay of the New Zealand v Costa Rica pool match played earlier today at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium in Enugu, Nigeria.

Thursday 29 October, 11.25pm: ONE Sport Football - FIFA U-17 World Cup: Full replay of the New Zealand v Burkina Faso pool match played earlier today at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium in Enugu, Nigeria.