Saturday Morning With Jack Tame

Tara Ward's got some TV picks for your weekend. Mare of Easttown: Kate Winslet stars in this gritty drama about a detective from Pennsylvania who tries her best to prevent her life from falling apart while investigating a mysterious murder (Neon). Creamerie: A darkly funny dystopian New Zealand series set eight years after a plague has killed all men, and where three women who run a dairy farm accidentally run over the last surviving male human on the planet (TVNZ OnDemand). Starstruck: The brand new six-part romcom created, written by and starring Edinburgh Comedy Award-winning comedian, writer and actor Rose Matafeo kicks off this week on TVNZ. Starstruck follows Jessie (Rose Matafeo), a millennial living in East London juggling two dead end jobs when she discovers the complications of accidentally sleeping with a famous film star (from Wednesday 28 April, TVNZ 2 and TVNZ OnDemand). LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Comedian Chris Parker spent 2020 getting famous in the most 2020 way possible: making vidoes about life in lockdown and posting them to instagram.   Specifically he learned to felt, made characters like Ashley Bloomfield, and pulled them together into a hat .. while tens of thousands of people watched along online.   The hat was later sold to the Auckland museum. But it wasn’t all felting and Covid. On his Instagram page he perfectly captured the weird and wonderful about last year, with viral sketches about modern life from pay wave to why everyone suddenly owns a cavoodle. He’s created a show around his felting "This is how I felt" and it’s part of this year’s Comedy Festival. Chris has been in studio with Jack Tame. LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

GORGEOUS GREEK SWEET CHEESE PIES  This recipe is inspired by the Greek tradition of using soft, fresh cheeses in sweet pastries – in fact it was the way I started every morning when I travelled in Crete, along with a puddle of very strong coffee. Bliss. These are perfect for brunch, dessert or for party nibbles.  Makes 6 small pastries  3 sheets filo pastry 100g feta 50g cream cheese 3 Tb caster sugar  1/2 egg, beaten lightly  30g butter, melted 2 TB Honey  Zest from one lemon or orange Heat oven to 180 C.  Mix together the feta, cream cheese, caster sugar and egg in a food processor. Pulse until just blended but still with little lumps of feta as these provide creamy, salty bursts of flavour in the end result.  Cut each sheet of filo down the middle, lengthwise, so that you have rectangles with the short edges at the top and bottom. Assemble the parcels one at a time by brushing the pastry with butter then dolloping two tablespoons of the cheese mixture onto the pastry, then rolling/folding the parcel, tucki

Movie reviewer Francesca Rudkin has been watching Eddie Izzard's war thriller Six Minutes to Midnight and Netflix movie Stowaway.LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kevin Milne's been watching coverage of Prince Philip's funeral, and he's unimpressed at the attempts to lip read Princes Harry and William's reunion. LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It was the 81st minute. A dewy-looking night in the ‘Tron and the Chiefs were behind by one point. They had posession at about halfway. The Hurricanes defended desperately. Penalty Chiefs. One last play. One last kick. 45 metres. A game of Super Rugby to be decided by Damien McKenzie’s boot. If you were watching last night or listening to Nige... you’ll know what happened next. McKenzie did his trade mark little set up. He leaned forward, gave that slow turned-up little grin. He stepped up, and he slotted it. You didn’t need to wait for touch judges to lift their flags... the crowd told you everything you needed to know. Damien McKenzie slotted it. The Chiefs, at home, were victorious.It’s hard to keep up, but by my count it was at least the fourth or fifth time in the last few weeks where a Super Rugby game was decided in the last seconds of the game. A fortnight ago we had two golden-point deciders in one weekend, including another Damien McKenzie clutch play. Last weekend, the Crusaders went down to the Ch

Music reviewer Estelle Clifford has been listen to The Offspring’s first album in over a decade: Let the Bad times Roll.LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Getting rid of E-waste Oh, we love our phone and laptops, our toasters, blenders, vacuums, hairdryers, smoke detectors and everything that plugs in. We couldn’t live life without them! They unfortunately aren’t necessarily made to last a long time, and at the end of their lives they are all e-waste - you can’t put any of these in your recycling and shouldn’t put them in your normal rubbish. This is obvious with the larger items like TVs and washing machines , but smaller items need careful disposal as well.  We are looking at around 80,000 tonnes of e-waste generated each year and only about two percent is recycled. This is one of the highest per capita amounts in the world. Also New Zealand is one of the only countries in the OEDC without a national e-waste scheme.  The Ministry for the Environment has an initiative to create a product stewardship process for electronic waste, with results expected later this year. The insides of electronics are full of toxic materials. A Cathode Ray tube TV or monitor may c

Book reviewer Catherine Raynes has been reading The Crocodile Hunter by Gerald Seymour and Sunflower Sisters by Martha Hall Kelly. LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Travel writer Mike Yardley has been playing tourist in Auckland. LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lawns and their problems  Autumn time is a great time to work on “lawns”. This is the best time to “sow” a new lawn, after totally spraying the old grasses and weeds, leaving nothing but a bare soil. Of course you can also get yourself a series of rolled-up turf mats (ready-lawn) or, as I noticed some school principals prefer, create an “all weather” playing field from artificial grass. Spare me!  My definition of a lawn is a place where you can walk from one end of the garden to the other – a pathway, low growing and easy to maintain. It can have flowers and lots of perennials; the kids can play there and birds graze the grubs from under the roots. It certainly should not be a monoculture of grass plants – trimmed to an inch of their life and meticulously cut along the edges...  You’ve got it: I really am not impressed with lawns: few ecosystem services and very low biodiversity. I prefer a prairie, where different plants come to flowering fruition – a meadow of wild flowers with lots of perennials, carrying

Bob Campbell has a Sav recommendation for the weekend, the Stoneleigh 2020 Latitude Sauvignon Blanc $19.99.LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Microsoft's Edge browser is rolling out a kids edition If you share your laptop or desktop with a younger family member, now you can force the browser into a kids mode so they can only visit approved sites. The Windows version locks the browser so it's the only thing the kid can access. It comes with an 'allowed' list of 70 popular kids sites which you can modify. If they try to visit a site not on the list, the adult can approve that site with their password. It also forces kids into a safer version of Bing search.  Netflix has made kids updates too  It's trying to make the experience more visual - coz not all kids can read! The interface adds additional images of characters around the show art to help kids better identify what they want to watch.  Spotify introduces the 'Car Thing'  It's called a thing because it's a new kind of device.. it's a car screen or a car interface designed for cars that don't have the latest and greatest in connectivity options. Basically you connect it to your phone through Bluet

The Nevers: HBO’s new sci-fi fantasy series is an epic tale following a gang of Victorian women who find themselves with unusual abilities, relentless enemies, and a mission that might change the world (Neon).  Earth Moods: a new documentary/travel/nature series from National Geographic that promises a visual and soundscape experience. Five unique episodes capture a vast array of colorful and calming corners of the world, from blue glaciers and arid deserts to lush rainforests and pulsating metropolises, paired with an inspiring soundtrack. Slow TV fans will love this. (Disney+).  Younger: The final season of the comedy-drama about Liza, a 40-year old suddenly single mother who tries to get back into the working world only to find it’s nearly impossible to start again at her age, and pretends to be in her 20s to kickstart a new career (Neon). LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Covid has done nothing to slow comic Eddie Izzard down.   She - yes she does sometimes go by she - has just finished 31 remote marathons and performing 31 remote stand up gigs in 31 days for charity.   She's also co-written and produced a new war thriller, Six Minutes to Midnight, based on the true story of German schoolgirls living in Eddie’s hometown on the south-coast of England.   Eddie has been speaking to Jack Tame. LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Quince and space cakeQuince fruit are a wonderful autumn gift. Making quince paste or jelly is one use for them but poaching them to use in this cake is another and it’s simply gorgeous!   2-3  medium-sized quince ½ cup caster sugar 3 cups water  Cake batter 6 big tbsps golden syrup or maple syrup 125g butter ½ cup brown sugar 1 ½ cups + 1 tbsp self-raising flour 1 tsp cinnamon  ½ each ground ginger, ground nutmeg and ground allspice 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 2 medium eggs 240ml poaching syrup from the quinces    1. Poach the quince: peel and halve fruit and put in saucepan with the sugar. Cover with water and bring to a boil briefly before reducing heat to a simmer and cooking for 40 minutes, or until flesh is softened. Remove the pan from the heat and let the quinces cool a little in their syrup then take them out. When cool enough to handle use a spoon to scoop out the core and cut each half into 3 pieces. Reserve cooking liquid. 2. Heat oven to 180 C. Grease and line a 22cm round cake tin. Arrange quince

Movie reviewer Francesca Rudkin has been watching biographical film The United States v Billie Holiday, and Thunder Force. LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kevin Milne has been putting his hand into the dog poo bin in at the dog park.He's been on the phone to Jack Tame, to explain why. LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kiwis should be angry about the lack of checks on border testingThis weekend marks a milestone of sorts. Australia, we’re coming at'cha! I’m excited to visit my family over there. My brother and I are really close and it’s been almost 18 months since I saw my grandma. She’s 94 as of last weekend. She’s vaccinated. From the way she’s been talking, she’s in a fearsome vein of gin-rummy form that I’m hoping to end before long. I know for others, this bubble is even an more critical and urgent development. But in a way, we’re lucky this thing is even happening. Not because logistically it’s too difficult – the Australian government has had a bubble up and running for months, now. But because once again, our border defences have been exposed as significantly more vulnerable than we’ve been led to believe. It’s outrageous that at this stage of the response, a border worker could contract the virus and come to work having apparently not been tested for Covid-19 for more than five months. It’s flabbergasting. It’s ut

Our music reviewer Estelle Clifford has been listening to the new album by Demi Lovato. LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.