Film choice
BBC TWO, 12.10PM ★★★★
Based on Nicholas Monsarrat’s bestselling novel, this drama about life on an Atlantic corvette during the Second World War succeeds because it plays down the heroics, and instead dwells on the inner lives of the sailors. It’s emotionally smart, in a robust, mid-20th-century way, and its depiction of each rank is skilfully delineated. A top-drawer cast includes Jack Hawkins, Donald Sinden and Denholm Elliott. SKY ARTS, 6.10PM ★★★★★
Vertiginous energy and heaps of heart make this one of the greatest musicals of all time and an American classic which is radically told through dance. Jerome Robbins’s choreography needs the biggest screen it can get; when the movie’s firing on all cylinders of music, lyrics and motion there’s little to touch it. Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer play star-crossed lovers from opposite sides of the tracks. ITV, 8.30PM ★★
The cast of this remake of the iconic BBC sitcom, which ran from 1968 to 1977, includes Bill Nighy as Wilson, Tom Courtenay as Jones and Daniel Mays as Walker. The actors are well-chosen, but are given little to do other than bumble on cue. However, Toby Jones crafts a new version of Mainwaring – a character so recognisable and snowed under with pathos that it’s fit to stand alongside Arthur Lowe’s.