MIKE WARD’S SMALL SCREEN
VICTORIA AND ABDUL (PG) (Download now, DVD & Blu-ray from Monday) PORTRAYED here by Judi Dench, Queen Victoria is a bit different from Jenna Coleman’s ITV version.
Not just because she’s now in her 80s but because her crankiness has reached epic proportions.
But the unlikely friendship Her Majesty strikes up with an Indian servant, Abdul Karim (played by Ali Fazal), although horrifying to some of those in her inner circle (at one point they even threaten to have her certified), is deeply touching. It gives the lonely, world-weary sovereign a new lease of life.
A charming, funny, heartwarming film with an excellent supporting cast, including Eddie Izzard.
MAZE (15) (Download now, DVD from Monday) THIS powerful film tells the true story of the mass breakout from Northern Ireland’s Maze prison of 38 IRA prisoners back in 1983.
It highlights the relationships which developed, initially just manipulative but eventually complex, between the breakout’s chief architect, Larry Marley (Tom Vaughan Lawlor), and warder Gordon Close (Barry Ward).
IT (15) (Download, DVD & Blu-ray) THE new adaptation of the Stephen King horror novel is set in the mid-80s. A terrifying clown (is there any other kind?) known as Pennywise is targeting the local kids, tapping into their deepest fears and darkest nightmares.
DRUG LORDS (15) (Netflix) THIS sobering docudrama series tells the stories of some truly ruthless individuals, such as the Colombian Pablo Escobar, ready to do whatever it took to build and sustain life-crushing empires.
Made by ITN Productions, on Netflix from today.
THE TUNNEL: VENGEANCE (15) (DVD from Monday) SKY Atlantic’s pulsating AngloFrench thriller, starring Stephen Dillane and Clémence Poésy as detectives Karl Roebuck and Elise Wassermann, returns for a final, sharply topical six-parter.