TV FILMS of the week
1 X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST Tonight, Film4, 11.10pm
In a dystopian 2023, Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and his kin, including Magneto (Ian Mckellen) and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), stand on the precipice of extinction. The Sentinel programme, conceived by Dr Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage), has almost wiped out the mutant population and any human sympathisers with automatons attuned to mutant DNA. One glimmer of hope remains: if Kitty Pryde (Elliot Page) can harness their abilities and propel Wolverine’s consciousness back to 1973, they might be able to stop alluring shape-shifter Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from assassinating Trask.
2 NATIVITY! Tomorrow, BBC1, 2.20pm
Feelgood festive movie. Teacher Paul Maddens (Martin Freeman, left with co-star Ashley Jensen) takes charge of the nativity play at a Coventry primary school. He bends the truth to say that a Hollywood company is coming to see the show, which assistant Mr Poppy (Marc Wootton) then tells the kids. Soon, the city is abuzz with the news.
3 GONE BABY GONE Monday, GREAT! movies, 9pm
Two private detectives (Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan, left) are hired to investigate the kidnapping of a four-year-old girl. But the duo’s efforts to locate the missing youngster lead them into a seedy underworld of drug dealers, gang culture and paedophiles, ultimately turning into a crisis both professionally and personally.
4 GIFTED Tuesday, Film4, 6.55pm
Florida boat repairman Frank Adler (Chris Evans) home-schools his six-year-old niece Mary (Mckenna Grace, left), who inherited her passion for algebra from her late mother. Mary’s maternal grandmother Evelyn (Lindsay Duncan) appears and stakes a claim to the child in court. In the process, Mary makes clear her devotion to Frank.
5 THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH Wednesday, Film4, 4.30pm
Alfred Hitchcock directs the remake of his own 1934 thriller. American couple Ben and Jo (James Stewart and Doris Day, left), are holidaying in Morocco when they witness a murder. With his dying breath, the victim tells Ben about an assassination due to take place in London. Before they can warn anyone, their son is kidnapped.
6 VIVARIUM Thursday, Film4, 11.15pm
In this blackly humorous thriller, Tom (Jesse Eisenberg, left) and his partner Gemma (Imogen Poots) meet a real estate agent who shepherds them into a mysterious neighbourhood. The couple tries to escape the labyrinth of identikit residences until they discover a baby and stark instructions: “Raise the child and be released.”
7 GRETA Friday, BBC1, 11.55pm
New York waitress Frances Mccullen (Chloe Grace Moretz, left) finds a swanky handbag on a subway train which contains the ID Card of Greta Hideg (Isabelle Huppert). She returns the bag and the pair become friends, until Frances discovers that Greta intentionally leaves handbags on subway trains to engineer relationships with strangers...