PICK OF PAY TV AND MOVIES

NETFLIX

NEW! DASH & LILY

(All eight parts) HHH Two New Yorkers trade dares through a notebook left in a bookshop, and steadily fall in love, in Netflix’s undeniably cute festive romance. It’s based on Dash & Lily’s Book Of Dares, by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn. From Tuesday. THE LIBERATOR

NEW! (Season 1) HHHH Impressive (if very American) animated drama that follows a US military unit full of outsiders through Second

World War Europe. From Wednesday. MOVIE JINGLE JANGLE: A CHRISTMAS JOURNEY

(2020) PG l HHH Musical tale with a Dickensian look, in which a betrayed toymaker

(Forest Whitaker) has his emotional wounds healed by his granddaughter. Ricky

Martin, Hugh Bonneville and Keegan-michael Key pop up in a well-financed festive spectacular.

From Friday. THE LIFE AHEAD

MOVIE (2020) 12 u HHHH Sophia Loren shines as a beacon of humanity in this drama directed by her son, Edoardo Ponti. The story follows the bond between a Holocaust survivor (Loren) and the boy who robs her. From Friday.

AMAZON PRIME

DRAMA BROTHERS & SISTERS

(All five seasons) HHHH This superior US family drama, with Sally Field as a rich, widowed matriarch, is a recent arrival on Amazon.

MOVIE WHIPLASH (2014) 15 HHHH Also recently arrived is this pummelling drama, with Miles Teller as the jazz drummer whose dreams are turned into a nightmare.

MOVIE MISS CONGENIALITY (2000) 12 HHHH Undercover beauty pageant comedy, with Sandra Bullock on top form as the infiltrating agent. From Tuesday. NEW! JAMES MAY: OH COOK

(All seven parts) HHHH James May (left) seems to have his sights set on becoming TV’S latest renaissance man. It’s a goal that looks quite attainable judging by the results of his new cookery series, in which he attempts to learn the ways of the kitchen more or less from scratch, and write a cookery book in the process. From lesser men, such a project could seem arrogant – in the hands of May, it’s just good TV. From Friday. DARK WATERS

MOVIE (2019) 12 u HHH Based-on-truth legal thriller with a prestige cast, led by Mark Ruffalo as a corporate-fighting lawyer. From Friday.

SKY / NOW TV

NEW! THE EPIC ADVENTURES OF MORPH

(All 15 episodes) HHHH The claymation legend (near right) ventures out into the wider world in this new

Aardman series. From Monday.

LAST CHANCE NASHVILLE (All six seasons) HHHH The pilot of this country music drama is a barnstorming piece of work that sets up the show’s main rivalry – the friction between a Nashville legend (Connie

Britton) and a poisonous, fast-rising star (Hayden Panettiere). The early seasons that follow are good, too. Until Monday.

DISNEY+

NEW! MARVEL’S AGENTS OF SHIELD (Season 7, Episode 1) HHHH The final, 13-episode season follows the agents to New York City, 1931, where face-stealing aliens are mucking up the future. All in all, it’s a swinging start to the season – and with some great period costumes to boot. A new episode arrives every Friday.

NEW! INSIDE PIXAR HHH Pixar made a name for itself long before Disney scooped it up. These five short films provide a behindthe-scenes look at the work of the people behind Toy Story and the like. From Friday.

BEST OF THE REST

NEW! THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF SALT LAKE CITY

(hayu) HHH Mormonism adds an intriguing dimension to this latest instalment of the glitzy US reality show franchise. The housewives include Whitney, once ‘Mormon royalty’, who left the church after having an extramarital affair. A new episode arrives every Thursday. NEW! BECOMING YOU

(Apple TV+) HHH Olivia Colman narrates a global series about how a child’s first 2,000 days – that’s five and a half years – shape their life. From Friday.

PAY MOVIES

PERFUMES

(2019) 15 (BT TV Store, Virgin) HHH So French, it virtually wears a beret and corrects your pronunciation of ‘croissant’, this rather lovely film follows the blossoming friendship between a grumpy fragrance designer (Emmanuelle Devos) and her earthy, divorced chauffeur (Gregory Montel). From Monday. SAINT FRANCES

(2019) 15 u (BT TV Store, Sky Store, Virgin) HHHH Unflinching, bittersweet US indie drama about an unintended pregnancy for a thirtysomething who starts a job as a nanny. From Friday.