TV FILMS of the week
1 MAMMA MIA! Today, ITV, 4pm
Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is poised to marry hunky fiancé Sky (Dominic
Cooper) on an idyllic Greek island, but the bride-to-be has no one to give her away because her mother Donna (Meryl Streep) has never revealed her father’s identity. Sophie snoops through Donna’s belongings and learns her dad is one of three men: architect Sam (Pierce Brosnan), travel writer Bill (Stellan Skarsgard) or banker Harry (Colin Firth). Sophie secretly invites all three to the wedding, in the hope one of them will be able to walk her down the aisle. The plot takes a backseat to the Abba songs in this crowd-pleasing musical.
2 THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD Tomorrow, BBC4, 9pm
Director Peter Jackson combines footage from the Imperial War Museum archive and interviews with servicemen who fought in the First World War, so the horrors of conflict could be caught on camera. The images have been colourised and converted to offer an unprecedented and detailed glimpse of life on the battlefields.
3 BABY DRIVER Monday GREAT! movies, 9pm
In this high-octane crime caper, Ansel Elgort, left, plays Baby, who has suffered from tinnitus since a car accident that killed his parents. To drown it out, he listens to music which lets him focus on his duties as a getaway driver. Baby kindles a romance with Debora (Lily James), but will Baby’s cut from a robbery give them a way out?
4 TOP HAT Tuesday, BBC2, 1pm
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers’ fourth film together is their best, thanks to a frothy script and iconic dance scenes. Dancer Jerry Travers (Astaire) meets model Dale Tremont (Rogers) in a London hotel. For him, it’s love at first sight, but a case of mistaken identity leads her to believe that Jerry is her best friend’s husband.
5 OPHELIA Wednesday, BBC2, 11.15pm
This drama rewrites Shakespeare’s Hamlet from the perspective of the female protagonist. Ophelia (Daisy Ridley, left) is taken under the wing of Queen Gertrude (Naomi Watts). She catches the eye of Prince Hamlet (George MacKay) but as he surrenders his sanity, strong personalities in the royal court compete for supremacy.
6 ON THE TOWN Thursday BBC4, 10.50pm
Three sailors - Gene Kelly (pictured with co-star Vera Ellen), Jules Munshin and Frank Sinatra, have 24 hours of shore leave in New York. One decides to seek out the model featured in an advertising campaign, another takes a shine to an anthropologist, while a third finds himself fighting off the attentions of a female cabbie.
7 A VIGILANTE Friday, Film4, 9pm
Provocative thriller. Sadie (Olivia Wilde) escapes her bullying husband and has rebuilt her life, improving her physical fitness with gruelling gym sessions. She sleeps with a knife under her pillow just in case the spectre of her past materialises. Now Sadie doles out brutal punishment to men who are terrorising their wives and girlfriends.