Explorers, monks and even a hobbit on TV over Easter

Break out the Easter eggs and pull up a chair. FIONA RAE looks at highlights on the box over the long Easter weekend.

The big-budget Shackleton leads Easter's viewing line-up on TV One (Sunday, 8.30pm) - no, not made by the BBC, but it is the most money Channel 4 has thrown at a drama.

Kenneth Branagh plays Ernest Shackleton, whose 1914 expedition set out to traverse the South Pole from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea.

Branagh was made for the part, said the Daily Mail in Britain, while the Daily Express reviewer thought that Matt Day as photographer Frank Hurley was the Next Big Thing.

New Zealand navigator Frank Worsley, whose skill played a major part in the men's survival on that treacherous boat journey to South Georgia Island, is played by Kevin McNally.

Earlier on Sunday on TV2 (4.35pm), another major feat is profiled, that of the lovely Peter Jackson and his thousands of tireless workers in A Passage to Middle-earth: The Making of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

Apart from having a long title, the nearly hour-long programme has a "video diary" kept from the earliest days of production. There's commentary from Jackson, plus cast and crew interviews.

Of all the extraordinary film-making feats Jackson has performed, surely the most extraordinary is the love and respect that all involved are still expounding. None more so than young Elijah Wood: "it's such an adventure ... truly wonderful", he says here.

While LOTR fans will be religiously taping and keeping that documentary, the only other religious observance to be found on telly at Easter is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, whose 325 voices can be heard at 6.15am Saturday on TV One.

The religion of sport this weekend sees the Hurricanes meeting the Reds in the Super 12 on Saturday and the Highlanders going up against the Chiefs.

Sky Sport has it live from 5.20pm, while TV3 replays that first match at 8.30pm.

TV One promises a new look for the return of Sportzone (2.30pm Saturday); this week has Swedish Match Grand Prix sailing from the Auckland Viaduct, the Dunedin PGA Golf classic and woodchopping from the Highland Games.

Meanwhile, the Black Caps get their chance to square the test series with England as they meet for the third time on Saturday at Eden Park. TV3 has coverage.

TV2 and TV3 wheel out a couple of family movies for the Easter break. On Sunday at 7pm TV2 has that warning tale for greedy children, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. TV3 has the updated version 101 Dalmatians starring Glenn Close as Cruella DeVille, also at 7pm.

If you thought being a Tibetan monk was all austere chanting, think again. The Cup (TV3, 10.30pm Sunday) shows the playfulness behind the walls: young soccer-mad monks play practical jokes on one another and try to persuade the older ones to rent a satellite dish so they can see the World Cup.

Easter Monday's Documentary New Zealand (8.30pm) Pokarekare Ana: A Maori Love Song reveals the history behind our "unofficial national anthem".