Film choice

Dreamgirls (2006) SKY CINEMA GREATS, 8.00PM ★★★

 A musical about a Sixties girl group from which one singer emerges as a star, in a manner strongly reminiscent of Diana Ross and The Supremes. The songs are performed at a charmless fortissimo, with the exception of Jennifer Hudson’s rendition of And I Am Telling You, which helps her outshine co-star Beyoncé. You’d have to go back to Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl to find a singing-and-acting debut this ferocious.

Coming to America (1988) UNIVERSAL CHANNEL, 9.00PM ★★★

 A relic from the era when Eddie Murphy made good movies, Coming to America was criticised as broad slapstick, but was a massive commercial success and has become arguably Murphy’s most-loved film. He plays crown prince Akeem Joffer (from a fictional African nation called Zamunda), who arrives in the United States with the intention of finding a bride. Murphy is reportedly writing a sequel.

Away (2016) SKY CINEMA PREMIERE, 10.10PM ★★★

 A sombre British film starring Timothy Spall and Juno Temple as two battered souls who forge an unlikely friendship in the seaside town of Blackpool. Spall plays a lonely, suicidal widower, while Juno’s character is a young woman trying to escape an abusive ex-boyfriend. Both leads are mesmerising and despite the film’s desolate subject matter, it serves as a moving tale of hope.