TV FILMS OF THE WEEK
1 EYE IN THE SKY Tonight, Channel 4, 9pm
OPERATION Cobra has been tracking radicalised Britons linked to Somali group Al-shabaab. One target, Susan Danford (Lex King), is under surveillance at a house in Kenya. Lt Gen Frank Benson (Alan Rickman) takes control of the op from London, while Foreign Secretary James Willett (Iain Glen) watches a live video feed from a US drone piloted in Nevada. At a command base in Sussex, Col Katherine Powell (Helen Mirren) explains that the objective is “to capture not kill”. But when covert footage reveals targets in the house are wearing suicide vests, priorities change. Intelligent thriller, dedicated to the memory of Rickman.
2 THE EXPENDABLES 2 Tomorrow, Channel 5, 10.55pm
TESTOSTERONE-FUELLED sequel. Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone, pictured) and his team accept a new assignment from Mr Church (Bruce Willis). When rival Jean Vilain (Jean-claude Van Damme) murders a member of the Expendables they recruit Maggie (Yu Nan) and old-timer Trench (Arnold Schwarzenegger) to stop Vilain from selling five tonnes of plutonium to the highest bidder.
3 JULIE & JULIA Monday, Sony Movie Channel, 6.35pm
JULIA CHILD (Meryl Streep), attends Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in 1940s Paris, and goes on to become the face of a TV series which introduces authentic French cuisine to the kitchens of the US. Meanwhile, in 2002 New York, cook Julie Powell (Amy Adams, left) decides to work through all 524 recipes in Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 365 days, and pen a blog about it.
4 STAND BY ME Tuesday, Sony Movie Channel, 9pm
BASED on a short story by Stephen King, this classic drama is set in the 1950s and follows a group of four 12-year-old boys (River Phoenix, left, Wil Wheaton, Jerry O’connell and Corey Feldman) as they set out on an adventure in the Oregon wilderness. The lads are looking for the body of a missing teenager but fail to anticipate the other horrors they’ll encounter along the way.
5 ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL Wednesday, Film4, 11.20pm
MOVING drama. Socially awkward high school student Greg (Thomas Mann) visits estranged childhood friend Rachel (Olivia Cooke, left), who has been diagnosed with leukaemia. In order to impress another girl, Greg agrees to make a film for Rachel with his pal Earl (RJ Cyler). The pressure to deliver a masterpiece weighs heavily on Greg, creating unwelcome friction with Rachel.
6 JACK THE GIANT SLAYER Thursday, 5STAR, 8pm
FAST-PACED fantasy that gives a smart, Cgi-heavy makeover to the English folktale of Jack and the Beanstalk. Farm boy Jack (Nicholas Hoult, pictured) joins a search party including valiant knight Elmont (Ewan Mcgregor) when a magic beanstalk rises terrifyingly into the sky, taking with it Jack’s home and Princess Isabelle (Poldark’s Eleanor Tomlinson).
7 THE INBETWEENERS MOVIE Friday, E4, 9pm
BIG-SCREEN version of the hit TV series. Posh boy Will (Simon Bird, left) and his friends Simon (Joe Thomas), Jay (James Buckley) and Neil (Blake Harrison) are now 18 and are determined to enjoy one last hurrah before university. They head off on a holiday to Crete, where the hormonally charged young men meet Alison (Laura Haddock), Jane (Lydia Rose Bewley), Lisa (Jessica Knappett) and Lucy (Tamla Kari), sparking romance under the sun.