FILMS OF THE WEEK

THE BIG MOVIE Mr Holmes (2015) PG Sunday, 6.20pm, BBC2

In this endearing portrait of fictional sleuth Sherlock Holmes, Ian McKellen plays him as both an elderly recluse, tending to his apiary in Sussex, and as a younger man (above), living in London and working on his final case, fictionalised by Watson as The Adventure Of The Dove Grey Glove. Aged 93, the retired Holmes is still relatively sprightly, but his memory is fading and, with the help of homeopathic remedies, he sets about recalling the events of the Dove Grey Glove case to write his own account. McKellen had previously worked with director Bill Condon on Gods And Monsters, playing British film director James Whale (famous for the 1931 Frankenstein), and this film is an apt companion piece to that. In both, McKellen portrays a man in old age, reconciling his life and his legacy.

CLASSIC FILM CHOICE 49th Parallel (1941) PG Monday, 12.30pm, 5Spike

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger made a total of eight films as part of their dedication to the war effort, and these films stand up today as thrilling entertainment as well as propaganda. With 49th Parallel, they aimed to bring America into the war by shifting public opinion, and to achieve this, the pair shaped a suspenseful script and cast some fine actors – namely, Laurence Olivier (above) and Leslie Howard.

The film follows a group of Nazi sailors, stranded in Allied Canada and hoping to reach still-neutral America and safe passage home. In their brutality towards the Canadians they meet, the message of the Nazi threat is brought boldly home. The film won an Oscar for Best Story, and set Powell and Pressburger on a path to glory in wartime film-making that would culminate in A Matter Of Life And Death, in 1946.