THE 39 STEPS

BBC Two, 1.15pm

Alfred Hitchcock’s adaptation of John Buchan’s spy story creaks a little with age but is still the best of the film versions, and fraught with noirish menace. Highlights include Robert Donat’s dash across the Scottish Highlands and a giveaway glimpse of the maimed hand of the master criminal behind the central subterfuge. Look out, too, for a fresh-faced Peggy Ashcroft as the selfsacrificing wife of a crofter.

1935, b/w