FILMS OF THE WEEK

THE BIG MOVIE

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT (2018) 12 ◆

New Year’s Day, 9pm, Ch4 ★★★ Tom Cruise is back as Impossible Mission Force agent Ethan Hunt (above), proving for a sixth time that the missions are difficult and dangerous – and rarely go to plan – but are not entirely impossible. Terrorist group The Apostles have armed themselves with nuclear weapons, promising a ‘baptism of fire’ to cleanse the world and start anew. So, it’s a race against time for Ethan and an unwelcome CIA chaperone (Henry Cavill) to get their hands on stolen plutonium before another devastating nuclear attack can be launched. Along the way are the gadgets, codenames, concealed weapons, stunts, crashes and handto-hand combat that fans of this film series have come to expect.

CLASSIC FILM CHOICES

THE APARTMENT / (1960) PG

● SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959) U

● Monday, 1pm/3pm, BBC2★★★★★

What a double bill. Two films, pairing director Billy Wilder with star Jack Lemmon, that play smartly and hilariously on mistaken identity. In The Apartment, Lemmon is an office worker who shares his well-appointed New York flat with various philandering senior managers, giving him the erroneous reputation of being a playboy. In Some Like It Hot, Lemmon and his buddy (Tony Curtis) impersonate female band members (in drag) to fool the mobsters who want them dead. Both films also pair their male leads with unforgettable female stars: in The Apartment, it’s Shirley Maclaine; in Some Like It Hot, it’s Marilyn Monroe (above, with Lemmon), as the inimitable singer and ukulele player Sugar.