films of the week

THE BIG MOVIE GET OUT (2017) 15 ◆

Saturday, 9pm, Ch4 ★★★★

A critical and commercial hit, Jordan Peele’s Oscar-winning horror satire puts race front and centre in an inventive, chilling and hugely entertaining way. Daniel Kaluuya stars as Chris (above), who, ahead of going to meet the parents of his white girlfriend, Rose, asks her if they know that he is black. Rose assures him that her parents aren’t racist – they would have voted for Barack Obama a third time if they could. The set-up is similar to Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, with Rose’s parents, Missy and Dean, the stand-ins for the avowedly liberal parents played by Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in the earlier film. The danger that Chris faces – and the dread that slowly creeps up on him – is far worse than awkward dinner-party talk.

CLASSIC FILM CHOICE SPLASH (1984) PG ●

Sunday, 3.20pm, Ch4 ★★★★

This sweet and fondly remembered fantasy romcom, starring Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah (above), was the film that launched Ron Howard, the former Happy Days actor turned director – and

Hanks himself – into the A-list. Hanks was known as a sitcom star when he was cast as relatable everyman Allen Bauer; Howard had been impressed with Hanks’s performance in a 1982 episode of Happy Days, and got him to audition for the film. The result is a true old-school romance with a dash of screwball comedy, pushing its fish-out-of-water themes to joyful effect. Hannah, too, is perfect as Madison, the mermaid who comes ashore to spend ‘six fun-filled days’ with Allen, the man she repeatedly saves from drowning, and who must also step up to save her.