Stuff to Watch: Your guide to the week’s best on Sky and free-to-air TV

Listen to the Stuff To Watch podcast by hitting the Play button below, or find it on podcast apps such as Apple or Spotify.

House of the Dragon (1pm, Mondays from August 22, SoHo)

Three years after Game of Thrones’ much-maligned final season, we’re back in Westeros for this 10-episode prequel set two centuries before.

Based on George R.R. Martin’s 2018 novel Fire & Blood, it aims to tell the story of House Targaryen. The impressive assembled ensemble includes Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Fabien Frankel, Sonoya Mizuno and Rhys Ifans. There will be a prime-time replay of each episode at 8.30pm on Monday nights.

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Grantchester (8.30pm, Wednesdays from August 17, BBC UKTV)

The seventh season of this popular British drama picks up the action during the long, hot summer of 1959.

As the Reverend Will Davenport (Tom Brittney) unites happy couples in holy matrimony, Detective Inspector Geordie Keating (Robson Green) is being kept as busy as ever investigating a range of murder cases in and around the small Cambridgeshire village of the title.

This week’s episode involves the death of a lord on his family estate. However, Geordie and Will find themselves in disagreement with new boss, DCI Elliott Wallace (Michael D. Xavier), as to whether it was murder – or something else.

David Lomas Investigates (8.40pm, Wednesdays from August 17, Three)

The former documentarian and current affairs and newspaper journalist is back with another round of attempts to solve Kiwi family mysteries.

In this latest season, he assists Christchurch’s Patricia Siataga search for her Super Rugby playing son Sebastian’s biological father, Wairarapa farmer Rosie Farrier locate her birth parents and Māori magician Aperahama Wairau-Mason in trying to track down the biological father he’s never known.

Mean Mums (8.30pm, Thursdays from August 18, Three)

Now broadcast in the US on Peacock, this Kiwi sitcom about a group of mothers at an upscale private school is back for a third round.

In tonight’s season premiere, it’s school photo day at Kate Sheppard Primary, an occasion Jess (Morgana O’Reilly) has misheard as “crazy hair day”. Meanwhile, Heather (Anna Jullienne) and Aroha (Heather Maloney) try to get in on the act by pitching for a “school fundraisers’ photo” and a new teacher (Johnny Barker) gets his first taste of the interfering mums – with mixed results.

Rams (8.30pm, Saturday, August 20, Eden)

Our own Sam Neill and The Castle’s Michael Caton star in this Western Australia-set, English-language 2020 remake of the charming Icelandic tale about two brothers, who haven’t spoken in 40 years, who have to come together in order to save what’s dearest to them – their sheep.

Tonally, Rams covers a gamut of emotions, from heartwrenching, sometimes unflinching, raw drama to almost knockabout Ealing-style comedy. There’s more than hint of Whisky Galore or Waking Ned Devine about the boys’ attempts to deceive the Department of Agriculture.

The cast also includes Miranda Richardson and Asher Keddie.

The Lost Boys (9.30pm, Saturday, August 20, Duke)

Kiefer Sutherland, Coreys Haim and Feldman, Jason Patric, Dianne Wiest and Jami Gertz head a terrific ensemble for this 1987 pitch black horror-comedy that’s a favourite among Generation X. It’s about two brothers who discover their new home of Santa Clara, California, is actually a haven for vampires.

“It laughs at the form it embraces, adds a rock-and-roll soundtrack and, if you share its serious-satiric attitude, manages to be very funny,” wrote The New York Times’ Caryn James.

Poi E (8.30pm, Monday, August 22, Whakaata Māori)

It was a breath of fresh air and a very different beat for a land where the likes of Foster and Allen could still dominate the charts.

It gave hope and new spirit to a community ravaged by economic recession. And it provided more than one generation of Kiwis the opportunity to be proud of our indigenous language and culture.

Poi E might have seemed like something of a novelty record when it first hit the airwaves in 1984, but the mix of lyrics mysterious to most New Zealanders and a cutting-edge hip-hop beat soon made it a favourite in lounges, schoolyards and on dancefloors across the nation.

Christchurch-born director Tearepa Kahi’s lovingly crafted, intimate 2016 documentary captures the anarchic spirit of the song and its creator Dalvanius Prime.