MIKE WARD’S SMALL SCREEN
T2 TRAINSPOTTING (18) (Download now, DVD and Blu-ray from Monday) DIRECTOR Danny Boyle knew he was taking a risk, following up his 1996 classic Trainspotting and reuniting its four reprobates: Renton (Ewan McGregor), Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), Spud (Ewen Bremner) and Begbie (Robert Carlyle).
While T2 may not thump you between the eyes with quite the nerve-shredding force of the original, Boyle’s gamble undoubtedly pays off.
These oddly endearing characters are as screwed up now as they were back then, but age and regret give their stories added poignancy. GOLD (15) (Download now, DVD and Blu-ray from Monday) IN a story set in the 90s and based on real events, Matthew McConaughey stars as luckless mining engineer Kenny Wells, hooking up with a struggling geologist (Edgar Ramírez) on a desperate quest to discover gold in the Indonesian jungle.
IT WAS FIFTY YEARS AGO TODAY! THE BEATLES: SGT. PEPPER & BEYOND (12) (Download, DVD and Blu-ray
from Monday) WAY back in the days when pop music still had the potential to be genuinely ground-breaking, The Beatles raised the bar to an almost ridiculously high level with their eighth studio album, 1967’s staggeringly inventive Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
This in-depth documentary, including footage never seen before, recalls how the band turned their backs on touring, shut themselves in a studio and pushed back the boundaries. HINTERLAND: SEASON THREE (15)
DAMAGED cop Tom Mathias (Richard Harrington) has upped sticks to Aberystwyth in the third instalment of this broodily intense Welsh detective drama. Trouble awaits him in the form of a case that dates back years.
HEADSHOT (18) (Download, DVD and Blu-ray
from Monday) THIS blood-soaked action thriller stars Iko Uwais as a guy who’s been gunned down and left for dead. Emerging from a coma, he’s soon caught up in a brutal battle to piece together his past.