Tuesday TV for December 31

Thomas and Friends Steam Team to the RescueCredit:

THOMAS AND FRIENDS: STEAM TEAM TO THE RESCUE

★★★

5.15pm, ABC Kids

So much has changed at Tidmouth Sheds since the 1980s TV adaptation of Reverend Wilbert Awdry’s 1945 storybooks. The dinky little train sets and miniature scenery have been replaced by computer animation, there are a few more female characters, and the toe-tapping theme tune (“They’re two, they’re four, they’re six, they’re eight…”) has been rewritten. Yet we’re still allowed to call the Fat Controller just that, and teamwork remains the central theme.

NYE FireworksCredit:

NYE FIREWORKS

★★★

8.30pm, ABC

Susie Youssef and Nazeem Hussain take charge of the ABC’s trans-national countdown to 2020 on Sydney Harbour, with kid-friendly fireworks going off at 9pm. The music line-up includes Baker Boy, Regurgitator and Shonen Knife, with plenty of surprise appearances from the world of ABC children’s television for the younger set – perhaps even Jimmy Giggle’s last? This coverage usually adds to the atmosphere of the occasion, if only as background to your own party.

Wellington ParanormalCredit:

WELLINGTON PARANORMAL

★★★★

8pm, NITV

This New Zealand comedy about a group of the nicest coppers you’ll ever meet who have formed a secret paranormal unit is hilarious and sometimes unexpectedly touching. In The Not Ness Monster, an episode with an eerily Harold Holt link, Officers Minogue and O’Leary are called to Wellington Harbour to investigate what appears to be an enormous creature from the deep churning up trouble. Their deadpan delivery and underwhelmed response to disaster is the source of much mirth.

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