Best films of the week

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Midway (2019) ✰✰✰ (Sky Cinema Premiere, 12.05pm & 10.05pm)

Tamon Yamaguchi (Tadanobu Asano), naval attache to Washington, listens intently to a radio news report about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. Hundreds of American servicemen die in Hawaii, including Lieutenant Roy Pearce (Alexander Ludwig), whose best friend, ace dive bomber pilot Lieutenant Dick Best (Ed Skrein), swears revenge. America formally enters the Second World War and Lieutenant Commander Jimmy Doolittle (Aaron Eckhart) spearheads a daring raid on the Japanese mainland. Midway is an all-guns-blazing dramatisation of six months of military brinkmanship between America and Japan. Director Roland Emmerich stages battles with customary abandon and a blitzkrieg of digital trickery.

Darkest Hour (2017) ✰✰✰✰✰ (BBC1, 7.35pm)

On May 9, 1940, Clement Attlee (David Schofield), leader of the opposition Labour Party, demands Neville Chamberlain (Ronald Pickup) stands down as prime minister. King George VI (Ben Mendelsohn) subsequently invites Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman) to form a government at a critical juncture in the fight against Hitler. Foreign secretary Lord Halifax (Stephen Dillane) spearheads senior figures within the Conservative ranks, who expect Churchill to agree to talks with the Germans – but they are gravely mistaken. Darkest Hour is a handsomely crafted character study, which elegantly dramatises the 27 tumultuous days that led to Churchill’s impassioned cry for the British to fight on the beaches. Concealed behind layers of make-up and latex, Oscar-winner Oldman conjures a mesmerising embodiment of the statesman.