It seems that none of the major TV guides provide ITV HD listings, so below you will find a list of all the latest programmes coming up in high-definition on ITV HD. The schedule typically covers a 2 week period.
Wednesday 3rd June 2009
Terminator 2: Judgement Day (film) - 11.05pm to 1.40am
Sci-fi sequel unfolding a life-and-death battle to avert a nuclear holocaust. A supercomputer that sought to destroy humankind sends a virtually indestructible, shape-shifting cyborg back to our time to kill the human resistance leader in his youth. Aided by another cyborg, the boy and his mother try to alter the events that led to the computer’s creation and the nuclear war it triggered.
Thursday 4th June 2009
Jarhead (film) - 10.35pm to 12.45am
The first Gulf War hasn’t yet proved fertile ground for Hollywood film-makers, although David O Russell’s Three Kings did set a caper plot in the aftermath of Saddam’s withdrawal from Kuwait. Director Sam Mendes takes a more literary run at the subject with this adaptation of Anthony Swofford’s memoir Jarhead, in which he relates not only his experiences of the absurdly short war - the ground operation lasted less than 100 hours and he didn’t get off a shot in anger - but also the brutal process of being transformed into a marine. Mendes delivers some stunning imagery, notably the hellish sights that greet the soldiers as they wander among the blazing oil wells of the Kuwaiti desert, and he renders everyday marine-life well, both in its tedium and occasionally unpleasant detail. He also draws good performances from his young cast, particularly Jake Gyllenhaal as our narrator, “Swoff”. But he’s finally hamstrung by a screenplay that delivers an inevitably anticlimactic third act - without any chance to see the characters tested in the combat for which they yearn, the audience becomes curiously uninvolved and almost as frustrated as the marines themselves.
Saturday 6th June 2009
Beethoven (film) - 2.00pm to 3.35pm
Fans of shows such as Rolf Harris’s Animal Hospital will be in seventh heaven watching this cute family comedy about an adorable St Bernard dog named Beethoven and the effect he has on an American family. Charles Grodin, best known for his performance opposite Robert De Niro in Midnight Run, is the father who ends up with a puppy he doesn’t want, which turns into a huge eating and slobbering machine. The Flintstones director Brian Levant keeps the comedy coming fast and furious, and Beethoven is gorgeous enough to soften even the hardest dog-hater’s heart. Watch out for The X-Files’s David Duchovny as the sleazy yuppie who reckons he’s a coffee connoisseur.
Saturday 6th June 2009
Twins (film) - 3.35pm to 5.30pm
Here’s one of those rare things: a one-joke comedy that actually works. Danny DeVito plays the dim-witted scuzzball who discovers naive, intelligent Arnold Schwarzenegger is his genetically engineered brother. Comic moments abound as the odd couple team up to find their long-lost mom - Arnie’s first awkward attempt at romance with Kelly Preston (now Mrs John Travolta) is a highlight. DeVito is on great form and Arnie shows that he can handle comedy, although when the pair (and director Ivan Reitman) teamed up again for Junior, the result wasn’t quite as successful.
Sunday 7th June 2009
Stephen Tompkinson’s African Balloon Adventure (documentary) - 8.00pm to 9.00pm
Stephen Tompkinson and hot air balloon pilot Robin Batchelor take an aerial tour of Africa in the first of three programmes. Setting off in Tanzania, they travel over the Ngorongoro Crater, where one of the world’s densest concentrations of game inhabits an enormous extinct volcanic crater. Landing in the Serengeti, Stephen shadows a local vet on his rounds treating the wildlife of the famous national park. Then he takes to the air again, this time heading westward into the dense forests of Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park in search of one of the planet’s most awe-inspiring animals - the mountain gorilla.
Sunday 7th June 2009
Kingdom (drama) - 9.00pm to 10.00pm
Drama about a solicitor in a small seaside town. Peter has the tricky task of helping an injured Iraq War veteran come to terms with his future, and Lyle takes the reins when an attractive young woman is sexually discriminated against by the army. Meanwhile Gloria has a very demanding father to cope with and Beatrice is adjusting to motherhood in her own special way.
Monday 8th June 2009
Bird on a Wire (film) - 11.05pm to 1.05am
Mel Gibson has another crack at a drugs-related role (first seen in Tequila Sunrise), although this time the mood is considerably lighter. He plays a former small-time drugs courier who has been in hiding since he turned FBI informant, but who ends up on the run with an old flame (Goldie Hawn) when his cover is broken. It’s frothy nonsense for the most part, but expertly packaged by director John Badham, and it does boast the rare sight of macho Mel impersonating a camp hairdresser. Hawn is an able if sometimes irritating foil, while David Carradine, Bill Duke (best known now as the director of films such as Deep Cover and A Rage in Harlem) and Stephen Tobolowsky are an entertaining trio of villains.
Tuesday 9th June 2009
Nature’s Fury: Hurricane (documentary) - 8.00pm to 9.00pm
Chris Terrill goes in search of some of the world’s biggest storms. Today he tracks two enormous hurricanes, trying to get directly in the path of destruction. Still dazed after the impact of Hurricane Gustav, the southern states of America are told to brace themselves for one of the biggest storms ever recorded - Hurricane Ike, which has already devastated Cuba. After a frantic chase across America, Chris finally reaches coastal Galveston, Texas, where he is warned that anybody remaining by the sea faces ‘certain death’.
Wednesday 10th June 2009
World Cup Qualifier: England v Andorra (football) - 7.45pm to 10.20pm
Steve Rider presents live coverage of England’s World Cup qualifier against Andorra from Wembley. This is England’s final qualifier of the season and they will hope to sign off with another three points on the road to South Africa 2010. With analysis from Andy Townsend and Teddy Sherringham, commentary by Clive Tyldesley and David Pleat, and pitchside reports from Gabriel Clarke and Ned Boulting.
Thursday 11th June 2009
Total Recall (film) - 10.35pm to 12.40am
This rip-roaring slice of sci-fi excess remains Arnold Schwarzenegger’s most satisfying film since his breakthrough hit, The Terminator. Director Paul Verhoeven, armed with a smart script from Ronald Shusett, Gary Goldman and Dan O’Bannon (itself loosely based on a short story by cult novelist Philip K Dick), cuts loose with a gloriously over-the-top mix of black humour, ultra-violence and spectacular effects. The result was a massive worldwide hit. Schwarzenegger plays the dull construction worker on a futuristic Earth, who is drawn into a conspiracy on the planet Mars when a virtual reality holiday awakens long-dormant memories. Ronny Cox, fresh from his bad-guy role in Verhoeven’s RoboCop, delivers another villainous performance, and is ably assisted by Michael Ironside. However, the real find turned out to be Sharon Stone; she had been on the fringes of Hollywood for some time, but it was this performance that led to her ground-breaking role in Verhoeven’s next movie, Basic Instinct.
Saturday 13th June 2009
Beethoven’s 4th (film) - 1.35pm
Synopsis to follow…
Saturday 13th June 2009
Junior (film) - 3.25pm
Synopsis to follow…
Sunday 14th June 2009
Stephen Tompkinson’s African Balloon Adventure (documentary) - 8.00pm to 9.00pm
Stephen Tompkinson goes deep into northern Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park, in search of the mighty mountain gorilla and meets local Pygmy tribesmen who are being literally changed from poachers into gamekeepers. His next stop is Kafue National Park in Zambia. Passing over Victoria Falls, he visits Shiwa Ng’andu - which looks like an English country house complete with lawns and rosebeds, built by Sir Stewart Gore-Browne in the early 1900s. Then it’s on to Botswana and the Okavango Delta.
Sunday 14th June 2009
Kingdom (drama) - 9.00pm to 10.00pm
Crop circles in a local field grab the attention of the Market Shipborough sci-fi community, and Peter’s pub quiz grabs everyone else’s. Lyle falls for his nemesis in a compulsory purchase case, and Beatrice fills in for Gloria on reception.
Tuesday 16th June 2009
Nature’s Fury: Fire Storm (documentary) - 8.00pm to 9.00pm
In the last of three programmes, Chris Terrill attempts to find one of the rarest of all storms - the terrifying firestorm. He travels to southern California at the height of the fire season when ideal conditions lead to devastating conflagrations that can destroy whole forests and towns. He joins a team of frontline fire fighters, each one a convicted criminal, who have chosen to fight fires instead of serving their time behind bars.
