Film choice

Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003) AMC, 5.00PM ★★★★

 In 17th-century Delft, Scarlett Johansson goes to work as a maid but ends up posing for her boss, painter Johannes Vermeer (Colin Firth wearing a big blouse), a move that doesn’t go down terribly well with his wife. Although the dialogue and characterisation are rudimentary, every frame of Edward Serra’s cinematography resembles a Dutch Master. There’s fine support from Essie Davis and Tom Wilkinson, too.

Nicholas Nickleby (2002) SONY MOVIE CHANNEL, 6.20PM ★★★★

 This adaptation of Dickens’s classic family saga is out of the top drawer but one. It benefits from a delightfully varied cast: Anne Hathaway, Jamie Bell, Barry Humphries and Jim Broadbent all do their energetic part to keep the story ticking over. But the real star turns out to be Charlie Hunnam, playing the eponymous 19-year-old who has to rescue his family’s fortunes when his father unexpectedly passes away.

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016) FILM4, 9.00PM ★★★★

 Tom Cruise resurrects one of his most arbitrary roles, playing a former US military policeman with wrongs to right, goons of limited height to take down, and a framed army comrade (Cobie Smulders) to save. The plot is exactly as formulaic as it sounds, but fear not: some formulas are time-worn for a reason. Despite being 54, Cruise barely stops running, firing or glowering, and he’s lost none of his capacity to thrill.