MIKE WARD’S SMALL SCREEN
BREATHE (12) HERE’S a film that puts you through the emotional wringer several times over. It tells the extraordinary true story of Robin Cavendish (Andrew Garfield), cruelly struck down and paralysed by polio in the late 50s.
Effectively written off by the medical establishment, an angry, bitter Cavendish simply wants to die.
But his wife Diana (Claire Foy) and their closest friends refuse to hear of it, insisting he should leave the stark, austere hospital, return home and… well, they’d take it from there.
The doctors warn he will be dead within weeks.
The doctors are idiots. A top-notch cast also includes Hugh Bonneville, Tom Hollander and Stephen Mangan. Oh, and be warned, you’ll cry like a baby. THE DEATH OF STALIN (15) BANNED in several countries, including Russia (now, there’s a surprise), Armando Iannucci’s superb satire ridicules those who fought to fill the power vacuum after Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin popped his clogs in 1953. Stars include Michael Palin. GOODBYE CHRISTOPHER ROBIN (PG) DOMHNALL Gleeson stars in this nostalgic treat as A.A. Milne, the author who in 1926 created the Winnie-thePooh stories, named after his son Christopher Robin’s (Will Tilston) teddy bear. Milne and his family would go on to experience both the positive and the negative side of global fame. THE PARTY (15)
THIS stylish comedy lasts a mere 71 minutes, but that’s more than enough time for ambitious politician Janet (Kristin Scott Thomas), who’s just landed a top position in the shadow cabinet, to watch her celebratory dinner party (attended by a handful of close and mostly awful friends) descend into chaos. It’s triggered by a shock announcement from husband Bill (Timothy Spall). GIRLFRIENDS (12)
KAY Mellor’s ITV six-parter stars Miranda Richardson, Zoe Wanamaker and Phyllis Logan as pals whose lives have taken very different routes. Fate now reunites them – just in time to help one another out through an assortment of personal crises.