Films of the week

THE BIG MOVIE

ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY (2016) 12 ◆ Saturday, 7.30pm, ITV ★★★★ Set in the familiar Star Wars universe, this cracking stand-alone adventure is set before the events of Episode IV, the first film to be released, back in 1977. It follows Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones, above), whose scientist father was kidnapped by the evil Empire when she was a child and forced to help to build a ‘planet killer’ – a Death Star like the one that features so prominently in the orginal. Jyn has grown into a fierce warrior – not a Jedi, but she has some of the Force in her. Teaming up with Diego Luna’s rebel officer and K-2SO, a straight-talking droid with a strong streak of sarcasm, Jyn faces a desperate mission to unite with her father and to stop the Death Star from unleashing its terrible power.

CLASSIC FILM CHOICE

THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES (1965) U ● Tuesday, 3.10pm, BBC2 ★★★★ The early days of aviation are given a broad sweep of comedy in director Ken Annakin’s colourful and lively epic. Robert Morley’s stinking-rich newspaperman stumps up a hefty cash prize for an air race from London to Paris, which James Fox’s ambitious pilot hopes to win, and claim glory for Britain – but he’s not the only one. Terry-thomas plays to his pompous bounder strengths as Sir Percy Ware-armitage (above), a cheat who sails, rather than flies, his plane across the Channel. They are up against an American cowboy and an amorous Frenchman – to name a few of the national stereotypes taking to the air – but the real stars are the planes, reproductions of 1910-era aircraft that are filmed in action with breathtaking flair.