TV FILMS OF THE WEEK
1THE
SHAPE OF WATER Tonight, Channel 4, 9.30pm
SET in 1962 Baltimore, The Shape of Water is an Oscar-winning reimagining of the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale between a “princess without a voice” and a carnivorous merman. Mute Elisa (Sally Hawkins) is a cleaner at a top-secret US government site. One day, a large metal container is brought into one of the laboratories. Inside is a beguiling aquatic creature (Doug Jones). Elisa slowly becomes emotionally attached to the otherworldly arrival, using sign language and music to communicate with him. She hatches a hare-brained plan to liberate her web-footed paramour. Directed by Guillermo del Toro.
2SHREK
Tomorrow, ITV, 3.10pm
SHREK (voiced by Mike Myers) is a swampdwelling grumpy green ogre who agrees to rescue spirited Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz). He embarks on the quest of his life with motor-mouth Donkey (Eddie Murphy, who steals the whole movie) amid colourful visuals and uproarious humour.
3THE
LADY IN THE VAN Monday, BBC4, 9pm
DAME MAGGIE SMITH, left, shines in the title role of this true story, playing an eccentric homeless woman who befriended the writer Alan Bennett, and ended up living in a parked van on his driveway for 15 years. The Lady in the Van is an entertaining screen adaptation of Bennett’s award-winning 1999 stage work.
4ABOUT
TIME Tuesday, 5STAR, 9pm
AT the age of 21, Tim Domhnall Gleeson) learns from his father (Bill Nighy) that he can travel in time and change what happens and has happened in his own life. His decision to make his world a better place by getting a girlfriend (Rachel McAdams, pictured with Gleeson) turns out not to be as easy as you might think.
5THE
KING’S SPEECH Wednesday, BBC2, 9pm
BERTIE (Colin Firth, left), the younger son of King George V, suffers from a stammer that makes public speaking an ordeal. His wife Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) enlists speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) to help, but their sessions take on a new urgency when Edward VIII abdicates.
6AN
EDUCATION Thursday, BBC2, 12.30am
CAREY MULLIGAN plays a bright schoolgirl whose future is thrown into disarray by a charming suitor twice her age (Peter Sarsgaard, pictured with Mulligan). Based on journalist Lynn Barber’s memoir, An Education is a rites-of-passage story blessed with a touching script from Nick Hornby.
7IT’S
A WONDERFUL LIFE Friday, Film4 4, 3.15pm
IT just wouldn’t be Christmas without Frank Capra’s life-affirming fable. James Stewart, left, stars as suicidal family man George Bailey, who is poised to jump off a bridge when he is rescued by guardian angel Clarence (Henry Travers). Clarence shows George how life would have turned out if he had never existed.