Film choice

Dr Seuss’ The Lorax (2012) FILM4, 2.55PM ★★★

This colourful animated adaptation of Dr Seuss’s quirky story follows a young boy (voiced by Zac Efron) who goes in search of a tree to impress a nature-loving girl (Taylor Swift). But he stumbles on the Once-ler (Ed Helms), the man responsible for harvesting all of the world’s plant life. Children will enjoy it, even if the film does sacrifice a measure of its literary magic to the god of cinematic entertainment.

Wild (2014) FILM4, 9.00PM ★★★★

The Pacific Crest Trail, which runs up the entire western spine of the United States, is a challenge of fabled arduousness and rugged beauty. In 1995, at the age of 26, Cheryl Strayed (played here by a superb Reese Witherspoon) walked it, to get clearance in her head after a decade of loss and personal meltdown. Wild powerfully reveals Strayed’s terrors and pleasures as she forges ahead on the journey.

Wilde (1996) BBC FOUR, 10.00PM ★★★

Many feel that Stephen Fry was born to play the part of the tragic and devastatingly brilliant Oscar Wilde. He’s terrific, but is only one of several superb players in a film which is held together by its performances. There’s Tom Wilkinson as the odious bully Queensberry and Jude Law on wonderfully petulant form as Bosie, the cause of Wilde’s downfall. Wilde’s story The Selfish Giant is woven throughout the film.