THURSDAY 28

The Sponge Bob Square Pants Movie

(2004) U 7.20AM, CH4

Marvellous spin-off of the hit TV cartoon sitcom. The delightfully absurd yellow hero (above) squeezes joke after joke out of this feature-length underwater adventure.

Babe

(1995) U 9.25AM, ITV

Dick King-Smith’s sheep-pig comes to life in this absolutely charming farmyard comedy. Babe is a plucky piglet, raised by sheepdogs, who learns how to be head of the herd.

Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing

(1955) U 12.15PM, BBC2

Romantic drama starring William Holden as the American reporter facing prejudice when he falls in love with a Eurasian doctor (Jennifer Jones) while staying in Hong Kong.

Flight

(2012) 15 9PM, CH5

PREMIERE Another reliable performance from Denzel Washington, who makes a dubious character sympathetic. He plays an airline pilot (left) who sees no reason to tackle his drink problem – until he is forced to make an emergency landing. The ensuing investigation lays bare his many personal troubles.

Slow West (2015) 15

11.25PM, FILM4

PREMIERE The plot of this western is triggered by a series of surprising twists and turns. Kodi Smit-McPhee is the young man – yearning to be reunited with his fugitive love – who teams up with Michael Fassbender’s bounty hunter.

Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa

(2013) 15 11.30PM, BBC2

Making his TV comeback next year (and on Wednesday 27 for a retrospective, at

9pm on BBC2), Alan Partridge (Steve

Coogan, right) here faces danger during a radio station siege.