TV FILMS of the week
1 ALIEN: COVENANT Tonight, Channel 4, 10pm
Set approximately 10 years after the 2012 prequel Prometheus, Alien: Covenant joins the dots to the original trilogy. The Weyland-yutani Corporation vessel Covenant is bound for a remote planet with 15 crew and 2,000 colonists in cryogenic stasis. Synthetic android Walter (Michael Fassbender in a dual role) keeps watch until a neutrino burst from a star causes a “destructive event” that prematurely wakes the crew. They stumble upon a distress signal from a nearby planet that sensors reveal would make an idyllic new home, and set out to investigate. But they are not alone on this world...
2 LA LA LAND Tomorrow, BBC1, 11.05pm
Aspiring actress Mia (Emma Stone) works as a barista between auditions. She crosses paths with talented pianist Sebastian (Ryan Gosling, left, with Stone) and they share hopes for the future beneath the stars of the Californian night sky. Can they follow their dreams and keep their artistic integrity without sacrificing their relationship?
3 SPOTLIGHT Monday, BBC2, 11.40pm
In late-90s Massachusetts the Boston Globe’s investigations team, Spotlight, looks into barelyreported child abuse committed by a local priest. As the journalists, played by Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton (pictured together) and Rachel Mcadams, start digging, they learn the case may be merely the tip of the iceberg in this fact-based drama.
4 A MONSTER CALLS Tuesday, BBC2, 11.15pm
Fantasy drama. Schoolboy Conor O’malley (Lewis Macdougall, left) is in denial about his mother’s terminal illness and seeks refuge in his drawings. As darkness falls, a nearby yew tree morphs into a gnarled creature (voiced by Liam Neeson) which promises to share three parables, demanding one thing in return: “Tell me your nightmare.”
5 BRASSED OFF Wednesday, Film4, 11.20pm
Pete Postlethwaite plays Danny, the ailing leader of a South Yorkshire colliery brass band who is determined to compete in a prestigious music competition. He fails to understand why most of his musicians – including son Phil (Stephen Tompkinson pictured with Postlethwaite) – are more concerned with news the pit is closing.
6 THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING Thursday, Film4, 3.10pm
John Huston’s adventure, based on the Rudyard Kipling story, chronicles the dealings of two former British soldiers (Sean Connery, left, and Michael Caine) in 19th-century India, who travel to an unexplored land. One of them fools the locals into believing he is a god, but his delusions of grandeur put him at loggerheads with his comrade-in-arms.
7 THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST Friday, BBC3, 9pm
Teenager Cameron Post (Chloe Grace Moretz, left) is discovered in a passionate embrace with a female friend, which forces her deeply religious guardian, her aunt Ruth (Kerry Butler), to pursue a radical course of action. Ruth sends Cameron away to a gay conversion centre, overseen by therapist Dr Lydia March (Jennifer Ehle).