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SATURDAY

Octopussy (1983) PG 9PM, ITV4 By the time Roger Moore made his sixth 007 film, he was too old and out of shape for the role – so much so that it’s easy to spot the stuntmen standing in for him. The humour had got silly, too, but Louis Jourdan was a menacing villain.

X-Men: Days Of Future Past (2014) 12 9PM, CH4 This time-travelling addition to the X-Men franchise has roles for the First Class generation – including Jennifer Lawrence as the young Mystique – as well as old hands Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart. But, as usual, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine (below) does most of the hard work – and all of the heavy drinking.

Shaun Of The Dead (2004) 15 11.05PM, ITV This hugely successful horror spoof follows down-on-his-luck Simon Pegg and pals (Nick Frost, Penelope Wilton and Kate Ashfield) in a fun, spirited tale of zombies rampaging in London. Watch out for the many reanimated nods to other famous genre films.

The Cider House Rules (1999) 12 11.15PM, BBC2 Tobey Maguire is Homer, an orphan growing up under the care of Michael Caine’s eccentric yet kindly doctor in early 20th-century Maine. A whimsical adaptation of John Irving’s novel.

The Drop (2014) 15 11.35PM, CH4 Tom Hardy stars as decent guy Bob Saginowski in this excellent Brooklyn crime thriller, based on a Dennis Lehane story. His uncle (James Gandolfini, above, with Hardy) runs the bar where he works, which is used as a drop point for scary local mobsters – and their powerful, destructive orbit can’t help pulling Bob in.

Borrowed Time (2012) 15 1.10AM, BBC2 Unpretentious and enjoyable British comedy starring Phil Davis as a surly OAP who forms an unlikely bond with the debt-ridden young lad (Theo Barklem-Biggs) who tries to burgle his house.

SUNDAY

Evolution (2001) PG 1PM, CH4 Ivan Reitman’s sci-fi comedy has more than a trickle of The X Files running through it. David Duchovny (above, with Orlando Jones) is a professor discovering an alien entity in Arizona.

Ben Hur (1959) PG 2.45PM, ITV3 See Classic Film Choice (right). Toy Story (1995) PG 3.35PM, BBC1 The first film in the record-breaking franchise. As the title would suggest, the secret life of toys is what this is all about – a heart-warming story that’s also technically breathtaking.

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015) PG 9PM, CH4 PREMIERE See The Big Movie (right).

Chappie (2015) 15 9PM, CH5 PREMIERE District 9 director Neill Blomkamp returns to entertaining, subversive form after the formulaic Elysium with this sci-fi, which borrows from RoboCop and in which the main character is a robot. Dev Patel (left) is the tech genius whose AI police droid is kidnapped at a key stage in its childlike development.

Unbroken (2014) 15 11.30PM, CH4 The remarkable true story of US Olympic athlete turned Second World War PoW Louie Zamperini is brought to life by Angelina Jolie, taking her second spin as director. Brit Jack O’Connell plays one of life’s great survivors.

Carrie (2013) 15 12.35AM, ITV2 The Stephen King story – first filmed in 1976 – gets a 21st-century revamp by director Kimberly Peirce. Chloe Grace Moretz steps into the illfated prom dress as the shy high-school teen discovering that she has telekinetic powers.

Departure (2015) 15 1.55AM, CH4 PREMIERE Languid drama, set in France, starring Juliet Stevenson as a woman facing a new stage of her life, with her son (Alex Lawther) doing the same. The film belongs, heart and soul, to Stevenson (left, with Lawther).

MONDAY

Desk Set (1957) U 12 NOON, TALKING PICTURES TV Written by Nora Ephron’s parents, Phoebe and Henry, this workplace comedy deploys the scintillating synergy of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. As employees face obsolescence when two computers are brought on board, Hepburn and Tracy make it work. (Freeview 81, Freesat 306, Sky 343, Virgin 445)

The Dog Who Saved Christmas (2009) PG 12.25PM, CH4 Home Alone with a waggy tail, with ex-police dog Zeus protecting his owners’ house from robbers who want to snaffle the family’s hardearned Christmas presents. This cheesy TV movie spawned a mini-franchise all of its own.

The Rooftop Christmas Tree (2017) PG 1.30PM, CH5 PREMIERE Fact-based festive drama about the exploits of a man who defies local laws to erect a Christmas tree on his roof each year – and ends up in jail for doing so. A local lawyer sets out to get to the root of the matter.

Mamma Mia! (2008) PG 7.50PM, ITV3 Set to the music of Abba, this uplifting romantic comedy has sun, sea, songs and a top-notch cast. Meryl Streep (above, with Julie Walters and Christine Baranski) is the mum whose daughter wants to know who her dad is – from three potential candidates.

Gangs Of New York (2002) 18 11.40PM, ITV4 Martin Scorsese brings mid-19th-century New York history to life. While immigration transformed life in the Big Apple, the Civil War raged elsewhere. Daniel Day-Lewis and Leonardo DiCaprio lead warring factions, while Cameron Diaz (below) comes between them.

The Rewrite (2014) 12 1.05AM, CH4 Campus romcom starring Hugh Grant as a washed-up Hollywood screenwriter taking a teaching job. Marisa Tomei is the single mum who sees past his bluster to his soft centre.

TUESDAY

Too Late For Tears (1949) PG 12 NOON, TALKING PICTURES TV Film noir queen Lizabeth Scott (above, with Dan Duryea) stars as the leading scheming lady in this greed-fuelled thriller. A suitcase of abandoned cash leads to the downfall of the men in the life of Scott’s housewife – her husband, and a few more dopes besides.

Fairytale: A True Story (1997) PG 2PM, 5STAR Inspired by the famous Cottingley Fairies, this charming period drama follows two little girls who attract the attention of famous figures when they take photographs of fairies in their English country garden. Peter O’Toole, Paul McGann and Harvey Keitel star.

Silent Hill (2006) 15 9PM, HORROR Visually striking fantasy horror based on a ground-breaking video game franchise. Radha Mitchell is the mother pulled, with her adopted daughter, to the abandoned town of Silent Hill, a bleak, broken shell of a place that harbours a terrible secret in its ghostly dimensions. (Freeview 70, Freesat 138, Sky 319, Virgin 149)

Bigger Than Life (1956) 12 10PM, TALKING PICTURES TV Nicholas Ray’s thriller – overlooked in its day – stars James Mason (left) as a schoolteacher and family man who, diagnosed with a debilitating illness, is transformed by his dependency on a new medication. Mason’s descent into addiction feels hellishly real.

Empire (2002) 15 11.05PM, SONY MOVIE CHANNEL John Leguizamo is a gangster who goes into ‘business’ with Peter Sarsgaard’s white-collar criminal, and comes out fighting after he is betrayed. (Freeview 32, Sky 323, Virgin 425)

Runner Runner (2013) 15 11.25PM, 5STAR By-the-numbers crime thriller starring Justin Timberlake as a brainy college student who is sucked into the alluring but flimsy glamour of Ben Affleck’s online gambling business, which proves to be less than legal. Gemma Arterton (right) is the love interest and lucky charm.

WEDNESDAY

All Over The Town (1949) U 2PM, TALKING PICTURES TV British comedy about an idealistic journalist (Norman Wooland). Returning to work after serving with the RAF during the war, he ends up running his local newspaper, where his principled stance upsets corrupt local officials.

The Three Musketeers (2011) 12 8PM, E4 Ostentatious update for the Alexandre Dumas classic, starring Matthew Macfadyen (below, with Gabriella Wilde and Luke Evans) as the noble Athos. Mixed with Richelieu and Milady’s dastardly schemes is a dash of midair action, courtesy of Leonardo da Vinci’s airship designs.

The Hangover Part II (2011) 15 9PM, ITV2 This sequel to the absurdly silly 2009 comedy hit finds the friends in Thailand, where disaster again befalls them. Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, Ed Helms and Bradley Cooper star, and also saddle up for Part III (Friday, 9pm, ITV2).

Bait (2012) 15 9PM, 5SPIKE When a tsunami strikes the Australian coast, a group of survivors are stranded in a waterlogged supermarket, and they are not alone – trapped along with them are hungry great white sharks. As films about being soaking wet and in grave danger go, this is one of the better ones.

Over Her Dead Body (2008) 12 11PM, 5STAR Fantasy romcom in which Paul Rudd is haunted by his fiancee, Kate (Eva Longoria, above), after she dies before their wedding. One year on, Henry (Rudd) is moving on and falling for a psychic (Lake Bell), to dead Kate’s horror. Time for Kate to move on – and into the light.

Sleeping With The Enemy (1991) 15 11.35PM, SONY MOVIE CHANNEL Julia Roberts hit the big time with comedy Pretty Woman in 1990, but with this thriller and its even creepier predecessor, Flatliners, she was able to show her darker side. In a subHitchcock mystery, she’s an abused wife on the run from her nasty husband (Patrick Bergin).

THURSDAY

Texas Blood (2016) PG 6.20PM, SKY PREMIERE PREMIERE Contemporary western starring Jon Voight (above) as a rancher who resists suggestions to move with the times to keep the family business afloat. Instead, he’s obsessed with an old rivalry, a long-standing feud with a neighbouring rancher (played by James Caan).

Commando (1985) 9PM, FILM4 Arnold Schwarzenegger goes commando, so to speak, in one of his first major roles since hitting the big time with The Terminator.

The film is light on dialogue, but heavy on destruction, with Schwarzenegger as a one-time special forces man out to stop the former colleagues who have turned rogue.

Poltergeist (1982) 15 9PM, TCM Recently remade – somewhat pointlessly – this supernatural horror is downright scary. Heather O’Rourke (left) is the little girl who innocently speaks to voices in the TV. Zelda Rubinstein is the medium summoned by a helpless family when their daughter becomes trapped on the other side – a sinister, spiritual netherworld.

Hattie (2011) PG 10PM, ITV3 This biopic of larger-than-life Carry On actress Hattie Jacques (Ruth Jones) focuses on the love triangle between Hattie, her driver (Aidan Turner) and her accepting husband, Dad’s Army actor John Le Mesurier (Robert Bathurst). First shown on BBC4, this sympathetic and moving film has stunning performances all round.

Divergent (2014) 12 10PM, 5STAR First in a young-adult sci-fi film series, based on the novel by Veronica Roth. Shailene Woodley stars as the nonconformist in a dystopian future divided by personality type. It doesn’t quite have the propulsive energy of The Hunger Games, but Woodley is a watchable heroine.

Species (1995) 18 11.45PM, ITV4 This sci-fi horror shares the same designer as the Alien movies – H.R. Giger, whose work was known for putting the sexy into extraterrestrial. Natasha Henstridge is the easy-onthe-eyes alien (right) out to mate with a human man. It’s not very good, but several sequels followed.

FRIDAY

Fist Fight (2017) 15 8PM, SKY PREMIERE PREMIERE Two schoolteachers – Charlie Day and Ice Cube – turn on each other in this lively comedy, in which the adults behave worse than the children. Lessons are learned, but first, the two colleagues meet for an after-school bout.

Before I Go To Sleep (2014) 15 9PM, MORE4 Nicole Kidman excels in this British thriller as an amnesiac whose memory only lasts for one day – she must relearn her identity and predicament every morning. But are her husband and therapist telling her the truth?

The Impossible (2012) 12 9PM, E4 Fact-based tale of survival against the odds, about a family separated by the 2004 Boxing Day Indian Ocean tsunami. Naomi Watts (above, with Tom Holland) and Ewan McGregor star.

Peyton Place (1957) 15 9.35PM, TALKING PICTURES TV Sweeping adaptation of the biting bestseller by Grace Metalious, which also became a popular 1960s US television serial. Lana Turner (below, with Diane Varsi as her daughter) stars as one of the residents of a New England town mired in sex, violence and despicable secrets.

Hyena (2014) 18 11.15PM, FILM4 PREMIERE Violent British crime drama, starring Peter Ferdinando as a corrupt police detective who profits from the drugs he’s supposed to be keeping off the streets. After a dodgy deal goes bad, his woes get even worse when he is teamed up with an old rival (Stephen Graham).

Monsters: Dark Continent (2014) 15 12.10AM, CH4 Sci-fi movie sequel that pits teams of soldiers against huge, tentacled invaders which are taking over the Earth. Though it’s not short on action and fire power, it’s a largely charmless affair, lacking the inventive energy of Gareth Edwards’s low- to no-budget original.