TV picks of the week: Going behind the crimes

The difficulties faced by our CIB detectives are explored in a series on TV One starting next week.

Five TV shows that will keep couch potatoes glued to their seats over the coming week.

Pick of the week: NZ DETECTIVES - SERIOUS CRIME INVESTIGATION

Retired Detective Sergeant Catherine McEvedy was haunted for a long time by the bloody scene of a murderous home invasion in Christchurch. Following Ronald Krynen's attack on the Dell family in 1995, during which Bernard Dell was killed, McEvedy used to have dreams that she was a real estate agent showing people around the family's home.

"I'd be stepping round the blood going, 'Don't mind the blood, here's the kitchen, here's the lounge ...', and I kept seeing the floor and the walls [covered in blood]. I couldn't get the blood out of my head," she reveals in this new three-part series about the work of detectives from the Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB).

It's typical of the honest and compelling accounts that the many detectives and officers interviewed for the series give - and combined with archival footage and intense dramatisations, NZ Detectives offers a gripping and informative insight into the work of the CIB and many of the country's high-profile murder cases.

As well as the Dell home invasion case, the first episode also looks into the circumstances surrounding the grisly murder of Raymond Mullins by three teenage girls in Papatoetoe in 1999, and the murder of businessman Graham Kirkwood in 1997 and, what turned out to be a bizarre and dogged search by police for his gold BMW.

Assistant police commissioner Allan Boreham remembers how, because of overwhelming public feedback, there were many sightings of Kirkwood's unique-looking BMW on the weekend he went missing.

In the end, their persistence in finding the car (or what was left of it) led to the arrest of five men.

The series reveals the techniques detectives use to catch offenders and how these practices have evolved as criminals become more sophisticated and their operations more complex.

As Detective Inspector Darrin Thomson says: "There's always a trail and we've just got to dig and work hard enough to find that trail and then put that before the courts." Or, perhaps McEvedy sums up the job best when she says: "You know why you're there. You're there to get the bad guy."

When: Tuesday, 9.35pm
Where: TV One
What: To catch a killer

Sport pick: WIMBLEDON

It's time for the world's best tennis players to get green stains on their best whites when Wimbledon starts on Tuesday, because it's "white fashions only" at the world's oldest and most highly regarded competition.

In the women's competition, defending champion Serena Williams, who beat Agnieszka Radwanska last year to win her fifth Wimbledon title, is the hot favourite following her French Open win. The defending men's champion is Roger Federer.

When: Starts Tuesday, 12am
Where: TV One
What: Anyone for a spot of tennis?

Live pick: SKYWIRE: NIK WALLENDA'S LIVE GRAND CANYON CROSSING

Watch Nik "The King of the High Wire" Wallenda walking on a tightrope across the Grand Canyon.

The 34-year-old will be tightrope-walking higher than ever, 457m above the Little Colorado River - that's higher than the Empire State Building - without a harness.

Wallenda says the Grand Canyon walk is a chance to honour his great-grandfather, Karl Wallenda, who died after falling from a tightrope in Puerto Rico in 1978.

When: Monday, 12pm
Where: Discovery
What: High heroics

Music pick: AOTEAROA REGGAE ALL STARS

Friday is music night on Maori Television, with the highlight this week the remake of Herbs' 1987 hit, Sensitive to a Smile, by an all-star Kiwi reggae group.

Aotearoa Reggae All Stars was the brainchild of Avina Kelekolio, from Tomorrow People, and Rio Panapa of Sons of Zion. The group includes Che Fu, Katchafire and Ria Hall. All proceeds from the single, which is released tomorrow, go to the Mana Ririki child advocacy charity.

When: Friday, from 8pm
Where: Maori TV
What: Singing to stop child abuse

Crime pick: NCIS AND NCIS: LOS ANGELES

NCIS and spin-off NCIS: Los Angeles wrap up their current seasons this week. In NCIS, Gibbs (Mark Harmon) and his team are at the centre of a federal witch-hunt related to the team's unconventional investigation methods.

In NCIS: Los Angeles, starring Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J as special agents Callen and Hanna, an explosion in the desert means the search for stolen nuclear weapons is back on. Over on TV One (Monday, 8.30pm) it's the two-hour finale of Criminal Minds.

When: Tuesday, 8.30pm and 9.30pm
Where: TV3
What: Investigating the investigators

- TimeOut