TELEVISION
SUNDAY DECEMBER 20
THE BEST FOODS CHRIST-MAS COMEDY GALA (TVNZ 2, 8.30pm, and MONDAY, 8.35pm). This two-part stand-up special was recorded at Auckland’s Civic with host Pax Assadi, fast becoming one of our most in-demand funnymen. The line-up includes the Topp Twins, Urzila Carlson, Ben Hurley, Hayley Sproull, Melanie Bracewell and many more, with Laura Daniel backstage.
WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 23
British Indian filmmaker Gurinder-style drama with her 2017 film which starred the Earl of Grantham himself, Hugh Bonneville, as Lord Mountbatten. In she wound the clock back to 1795 and set her series in a Delhi mansion in the days of the East India Company. There, former soldier John Beecham (Tom Bateman) hopes to begin a new life and become an honest trader. The six-parter involves interfering mothers, opium abuse, diamond trading, for-bidden interracial romances and brushes with the Mughal Empire.
