FILMS OF THE WEEK

THE BIG MOVIE

Saving Mr Banks (2013) PG Friday, 8.30pm, BBC2 A Disney film about the making of the hard-won, much-loved Disney property Mary Poppins, this drama tells the story of P.L. Travers, the protective, intractable creator of the famous nanny, and how it took Walt Disney (Tom Hanks, above, with Emma Thompson as Travers) 20 years to secure her blessing for the film. Travers is proud and uptight; Disney, or Walt, as he insists on being called, is open and gregarious. The two inevitably clash, and it’s money – what Travers perceives as Disney’s cynical ‘dollar-printing machine’ – that fuels the conflict, explained by flashbacks to Travers’s childhood with the banker father she adored. The performances are wonderful, but ultimately, it’s the Disney version of the story that we’re given, to be gulped down with a spoonful of sugar.

CLASSIC FILM CHOICE

Scrooge (1970) U Sunday, 5.45pm, Ch5 Virtually anything gets turned into a musical these days, from films such as Groundhog Day to Jerry Springer’s TV talk show. But back in the 1970s, turning a much-loved classic of English literature into a series of song-and-dance numbers was enough to raise eyebrows – especially when the film musical had, for most, had its day. Albert Finney stars as Ebenezer Scrooge (above), with Alec Guinness, Edith Evans and Kenneth More on ghostly duties. Finney wasn’t known for his singing voice, and doesn’t unleash hitherto unheard dulcet tones here – but then, who’d believe that wizened old curmudgeon Scrooge had the voice of an angel anyway? Defying accepted wisdom of the time, this adaptation works splendidly, and succeeds by remaining largely faithful to the source material – just with a few toe-tapping tunes.