Friday's TV highlights

7.30PM & 8PM, TV ONE
NZ HOUSE & GARDEN, KIWI KITCHEN
Two new local lifestyle series. NZ House and Garden has Miriama Smith, Peta Mathias and Tony Murrell roaming about the place, profiling the best in our homes, gardens and cuisine. In Kiwi Kitchen, host Richard Till tours provincial New Zealand seeking out iconic kiwi food - from the lamingtons of Levin to a farmer's roast on a high country station - which he'll then recreate in his own contemporary way back at his place.

8.30PM & 9.35PM, TV ONE
NEW TRICKS, MURDER IN SUBURBIA
It's opening night for a couple of new series of also-ran British crime dramas. In New Tricks, Alun Armstrong, James Bolam and Dennis Waterman return as three retired, cranky cops recruited by Superintendent Sandra Pullman (Amanda Redman) to reinvestigate unsolved crimes. The lightweight Murder in Suburbia comes with a double female lead pairing - Lisa Faulkner (of Spooks) stars as street-smart Detective Sergent Emma Scribbins, while Caroline Catz plays stubborn Detective Inspector Kate Ashurst.

8.30PM, TV2 & TV3
GHOST WHISPER, MEDIUM
That's spooky - both these psychic detective shows have season finales on the same night. In Ghost Whisperer, Melinda is having a rough day at the office, dealing with hundreds of victims of a plane crash needing help to cross over. In Medium, Allison has a vision of what her life would have been like if she had married someone else.


MOVIES
[rated out of 5]

8.30PM, SKY MOVIES 1
THE CIDER HOUSE RULES
Herald rating: * * * *
Delightful film from Swedish director Lasse Hallstrom, based on the book by John Irving, who adapted it himself for the screen. Set in 1943, the film stars Tobey Maguire as a young man named Homer Wells, who has been raised in an orphanage and trained to be a doctor by Dr Larch (Michael Caine). Larch, the director of the orphanage, also provides safe, if illegal, abortions. The story follows Homer as he leaves the orphanage for the wider world and ultimately discovers where he belongs. Also stars Charlize Theron. (1999)

8.40PM, PRIME
DEEP IN MY HEART
Herald rating: * * *
Moving film based on a true story about an adopted woman (Gloria Reuben) who has been diagnosed with a severe medical condition and sets out to find her birth mother (Anne Bancroft), only to uncover a tragic past. (1999)

11.30PM, TV3
IN THE BEDROOM
Herald rating: * * * *
Nick Stahl plays the son of a smalltown doctor and a school choir leader (Sissy Spacek) who returns home from his first year at college and has a summer fling with a young mother (Marisa Tomei). Trouble is she's not quite divorced yet and her husband is going nuts. Outstanding performances from Spacek and Tomei in a powerful drama that moves towards a tragic conclusion. (2001)