What to watch this week: joyful music doco The Piano; the year’s wildest travel show The List
Amanda Keller’s music documentary The Piano is a joyful delight, while the guys from the Inspired Unemployed take their unique brand of idiocy to the world.
Entertainment
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We’ve sifted through the latest offerings from TV and streaming platforms to find the best shows you should be watching this week.
THE PIANO
SUNDAY, 7.30PM, ABC
The Voice and Australian Idol are all well and good but they don’t come close to capturing the transformative power of music in the same way that this simple, unshowy but brilliantly executed and utterly joyous six-part documentary does. The premise is simple enough – a piano is set up in a public place in cities around the country and host Amanda Keller chats to the pianists from all walks of life who have been invited to perform before impromptu crowds. Unbeknown to them, Grammy-winning jazz great Harry Connick Jr and acclaimed classical pianist Andrea Lam are watching and will invite one performer from each location to be part of a special concert. In this week’s first episode, the world’s favourite instrument is set up in the cavernous concourse at Sydney’s Central Station and the pianists include a 16-year-old crooner who idolises Connick Jr, a 103-year-old who is losing his sight and hearing but still lives to play, four senior citizen women who combine to form an eight-handed musical marvel and a self-confessed piano nerd and stroke victim whose one-handed skills will leave your jaw on the floor. Keep the tissues handy.
JEREMY CLARKSON’S WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE
WEDNESDAY, 7.30PM, CHANNEL 7
Former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson can be insufferably smug sometimes but he’s found an ideal outlet for his talents as the host of the UK version long-running and much-loved game show. He’s much more together than the bumbling grump he portrays on Clarkson’s Farm and is quick with a mildly insulting quip for contestants as well as a good line in self-deprecation. Australian viewers playing along at home might be a little frustrated with the some of the UK-centric questions, but Clarkson does a good job of teasing out personal stories – a la Slumdog Millionaire – from this week’s red-hot contestant Eleanor that help explain why looks like she’s read the entire internet, as well as ratcheting up the tension before the inevitable ad breaks.
JUST ONE THING WITH MICHAEL MOSLEY
WEDNESDAY, 8.40PM, SBS
There’s a real bittersweet feeling that comes from watching the program that beloved presenter Michael Mosley was working on when he died last year, particularly given it’s all about simple changes we can all make to live better. His infectious laugh, easy manner, boundless curiosity, and willingness to put his own body on the line are all on show in this first episode about the benefits of a daily 30-second cold shower, from reduced anxiety and fewer sick days and even potential breakthroughs in the battle against dementia. Mosley traces the trending practice back centuries and demonstrates how it should be done while also recruiting a busy single mum whose manic and exhausting life has previously put her in hospital to put the bracing challenge to the test.
BRETT GOLDSTEIN: THE SECOND BEST NIGHT OF YOUR LIFE
MAX
He might seem to have become an overnight sensation thanks to his Emmy-winning role as the foul-mouthed hard man football veteran Roy Kent in Ted Lasso, but Brett Goldstein has been plying his trade as a comedian for nearly two decades and is no stranger to the live arena. His first filmed comedy special is the culmination of two years of touring across the US and the UK and leans heavily into the differences between the two countries and cultures as well as drawing on his experiences at the White House and on Sesame Street. It’s a little patchy and a lot sweary – with some gags and topics that would make the stony-faced Kent blush – but plenty of big laughs to be had, mostly at his own expense.
THE LIST
THURSDAY, 7.30PM, CHANNEL 10, PARAMOUNT+
As you might expect from the lads behind The Inspired Unemployed, the mighty comedy triumvirate of nudity, fart jokes and bodily-harm are in full effect in the first episode of their new six-part series that comes across as a mash-up of The Amazing Race and Jackass. Jack Steele and Matt “Falcon” Ford have long harboured a desire to do a travel show, but rather than ticking off items on their own bucket list, they are made to perform increasingly ridiculous tasks in Germany, Japan, India, Finland, South Africa and Malaysia on a list supplied by the producers and wryly narrated by Angus Sampson. First up is the land of lederhosen, where the intrepid duo are tasked with carrying beers at Oktoberfest, sword fighting with a medieval re-enactment society, staring down ghosts in a haunted castle and nuding up for badminton a naturist resort.
LIBERATION: D-DAY TO BERLIN
THURSDAY, 8.35PM, SBS
Yes, World War II documentaries are a dime a dozen, especially with the 80th anniversary of the end of the devastating conflict approaching, but this one is a cut above thanks to its colorised and restored footage, which give it an immediacy that others lack, as well as illuminating archival interviews with former soldiers and other key players. Beginning with the storming of the beaches at Normandy on D-Day in 1944, it explains how that was just beginning of the brutal battle to reclaim occupied France, sometimes one field at a time. In addition to the fierce fighting as the Germans dug in, there were also horrific civilian deaths courtesy of Allied carpet bombing of towns in their way and conflicting priorities between French, American and English leaders, as well as bloody reprisals against Nazi collaborators that left thousands dead in mysterious circumstances.
AUSTRALIA VOTES
SATURDAY, FROM 4PM, ABC, CHANNEL 7, CHANNEL 9, CHANNEL 10, SKY NEWS
There’s really only one show in town on Saturday night, so once you’ve done your national duty and scoffed the democracy sausage, the biggest decision remaining is where to watch the results roll in or whether to channel surf between the lot. Michael Usher and Natalia Barr will host for Channel 7 alongside political editor Mark Riley, while on Channel 9, Ally Langdon and Peter Overton will be in the hot seats. Channel 10 will add a comedy spin to their coverage hosted by Sandra Sully, Hugh Riminton and Ashleigh Raper, with Errol Parker and Clancy Overell from The Betoota Advocate chiming in, and David Speers and Sarah Ferguson will do the honours for the ABC. Chief News Anchor Kieran Gilbert will also wrangle a panel of experts from around the country for Sky News.
BERGERAC
SUNDAY, 8.30PM, ABC
After farewelling one great British detective in Vera last weekend, it’s time to welcome back another in the form of Jim Bergerac, a part made famous by John Nettles in the ‘80s series of the same name. This time it’s Damien Molony in the title role of the leather-jacketed Jersey copper in this solid reboot, who audiences first meet while he is on leave and still reeling from the death of his wife and is a barely functioning alcoholic. When the once highly regarded detective demands his old job back to solve the murder of woman from a rich and prominent family on the Channel Island, not everyone is pleased to see him – including the frenemy who has been filling in for him – and his past prejudices threaten to get in the way of his new investigation.
ANIMALS UP CLOSE WITH BERTIE GREGORY
TUESDAY, 8.30PM, ABC FAMILY
First up, a trigger warning for animal lovers for this outstanding nature documentary – there are adorable seals in this first episode focused on Antarctic Killer Whales and not all of them make it to the final credits. That aside, filmmaker and National Geographic explorer Gregory has made something as thrilling as any Hollywood movie from the cat and mouse game between the endangered B1 killer whales and their seal prey, made increasingly difficult by shrinking sea ice caused by man-made climate change. The footage the team gets under very hostile conditions is extraordinary as the killer whales demonstrate their intelligence using team work, innovation and communication to form formidable hunting packs and close-knit family structures.
HAVOC
NETFLIX
British actor Tom Hardy is on fire right now as the wily and brutal fixer Harry Da Souza in MobLand on Paramount+ and he’s also the best thing about this manic and mostly mindless action thriller. As you’d expect from Gareth Evans, the man behind The Raid and its sequel, the frequent fight scenes are brutally and expertly staged as Hardy’s crooked cop battles his way through a bleak cityscape that makes Gotham City look like a kids playground to save the son of his crime lord boss from rival gangs and other bent officers. For a Friday-night-on-the-couch double bill that won’t require an iota of grey matter, pair it up with hilariously awful G20 on Prime Video, which has Oscar-winner Viola Davis as the US president kicking arse to save her fellow world leaders from an evil Aussie terrorist.
Originally published as What to watch this week: joyful music doco The Piano; the year’s wildest travel show The List
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