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THIS WEEK’S BEST FILMS
MONDAY
Bringing Up Baby (1938) (BBC2, 1pm)
Palaeontologist Dr David Huxley’s (Cary Grant) ordered life is thrown into confusion when he meets madcap heiress Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn) and her pet leopard, Baby. Before he knows what’s happening, David finds himself escorting the dangerous duo to the country home of
Susan’s wealthy aunt, which is a bit inconvenient, as he’s supposed to be getting married to his severe assistant – and impressing a museum donor. Despite flopping at the box office on release (what were the audiences of 1938 thinking?) Bringing Up Baby is now rightly regarded as one of the finest screwball comedies ever made. Grant and Hepburn are simply superb, renowned director Howard Hawks handles the comedy beautifully, and the supporting cast is crammed with terrific character actors.
Red Sparrow (2018) (Film4, 9pm)
Dominika Egorova (Jennifer Lawrence) is a prima ballerina at the Bolshoi Theatre who pirouettes to finance the medical care of her mother (Joely Richardson). The dancer suffers a horrendous injury on stage and three months later receives an unwelcome visit from her uncle Vanya, deputy director of the Russian Intelligence Service. He press-gangs his niece into the top-secret Sparrow project, which moulds attractive recruits into weaponised assets to strike at the heart of Western governments.
Red Sparrow is a high-stakes game of post-Cold War cats and mice, torn from the pages of Jason Matthews’s award-winning novel, which revels in the tantalising disconnect between actions and words. The film soars on
known as Goliath. The legend goes that he was a serving police officer who vanished without trace 20 years ago – and among his original victims was Tom’s wife, Emma.
Finding Alice (STV, 9pm)
Although this likeable comedy drama won’t go down as Keeley Hawes’ finest work (her recent turn in C4’s It’s a Sin was certainly up there), it has provided us with some entertainment during Sunday nights in lockdown. The six-part series concludes tonight and sees Alice basking in her newfound confidence. She is determined to develop Harry’s land before trying for his baby, but has to solve her growing list of problems first. When her parents’ marriage falls to pieces, Roger becomes Alice’s latest uninvited lodger, and with the house more crowded than ever, the tension between Alice and her 16-year-old daughter Charlotte reaches breaking point. Will a family celebration do the trick and bring everyone back together?
MONDAY
Love Your Garden (STV, 8pm)
Alan Titchmarsh makes over a garden in Newark, Nottinghamshire, for a doubleamputee veteran Nathan Cumberland and his young family. Through his work with the Defence Medical Welfare Service charity, Nathan has devoted his life outside the armed forces to supporting older and elderly veterans who are often less likely to seek help for themselves than their younger counterparts. With tips on how to create a beautiful woodland themed outdoor space, Alan, Katie Rushworth, Frances Tophill and David Domoney take on Nathan’s inaccessible plot and transform it into a show-stopping family garden.
Jamie: Keep Cooking Family Favourites (C4, 8.30pm)
For anyone who feels they’ve exhausted their cooking repertoire over the past year, help is at hand – Jamie Oliver is back with a new series. He’s taking some familiar ingredients and finding new ways to use them, and he’ll also be offering us a glimpse into life in the Oliver household. The chef begins by reinventing the roast chicken by combining it with the flavours of another family favourite – the margherita pizza. He does this cooking it over a juicy bed of ripe tomatoes, sprinkling it with basil, and serving with giant mozzarella-stuffed gnocchi for a summery dish. There’s also a recipe for turning the Oliver clan’s takeaway favourite prawn toast into a toastie that’s perfect for sharing, served with sweet chilli sauce and a quick cucumber pickle.
Into the Storm: Surfing to Survive Storyville (BBC4, 9pm)
Shot and directed by Adam Brown over five years, this award-winning documentary charts the journey of a troubled Peruvian teenager Jhonny Guerrero. It follows him from the age of 14 in a crime-ridden barrio in Peru, as he battles demons and the lures and dangers of the ghetto to achieve the impossible – become a professional surfer and raise his family out of poverty. Eventually, he earns a spot at former World Champion Sofia Mulanovich’s surfing school, but he is haunted by the guilt of leaving his old life behind.
Unforgotten (STV, 9pm)
Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar return for a fourth series of the acclaimed crime drama, which begins when a dismembered body is found in a North London scrapyard. Thanks to a distinctive tattoo, the team, led by Sunny, identify the victim as Matthew Walsh, who went missing 30 years earlier. They also discover that the body had been frozen and was transported to the scrapyard in a freezer purchased by the recently deceased Robert Fogerty, who has a drink-driving conviction from March 30, 1990 – the night Matthew disappeared. There were also four other passengers in the car and we are introduced to a quartet of people who could be connected to the case... Meanwhile, Cassie is forced to put her retirement plans on hold, just as her father’s early dementia appears to be getting worse.
DIY SOS: The Big Build (BBC1, 9pm)
The team are heading to Bangor in Northern Ireland – which is also the childhood hometown of build manager Mark Miller – to come to the aid of the McCreight family. Mandy McCreight suffers from a variety of medical issues which have left her bed-bound 80 per cent of the time, so she often stays upstairs for days on end as the stairs are too difficult to negotiate. She’s not the only member of the family with mobility issues, but the house is not wheelchair friendly, so the DIY SOS gang are aiming to reconfigure their home, allowing the McCreights to spend more time together.
TUESDAY
Million Pound Pawn (STV, 8pm)
As we deal with an economic crisis, more people could be considering pawning a valuable item. So, this new series, which explores the world of pawnbroking from both the perspective of those in the business and the members of the public looking to part with their prized possessions, feels very timely. In the first episode, pawnbroker Ray meets a business owner who wants a big-money return on his exclusive Lamborghini, but will Ray be able to meet the client’s expectations and make a profit? In Sheffield, pawnbroker Dan meets divorcee Fran, who is looking to sell a watch she inherited. If it’s genuine, it could raise a life-changing amount, but the market in fakes is booming, and Dan needs expert advice to ensure it’s the real deal.
Blitz Spirit with Lucy Worsley (BBC1, 8.30pm)
Britain likes to pride itself on its ‘Blitz spirit’ – to use another Second World War-era phrase, our ability to ‘keep calm and carry on’ in a crisis. In this documentary, historian Lucy Worsley is finding out what it was really like to experience that terrifying period of history, using accounts from six people who lived, worked and volunteered during the Blitz, which lasted from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941. During those eight months, German planes dropped 32,000 tonnes of bombs on British cities, claiming the lives of 44,652 people. Drawing on archive footage and biographies and oral history collections, Mass Observation records and private, unpublished diaries, Lucy
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in their roles, making the growing friendship completely believable. The result is a smart, funny and very touching comedy drama.
The Good Shepherd (2006) (Sony Movies, 9pm)
Spy drama, exploring the secret history of the CIA, spanning from the Second World War to the
Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, in which a team of US-funded Cuban exiles unsuccessfully tried to overthrow Fidel Castro. It focuses on the personal and professional struggles of Edward Wilson (Matt
time fronting such a show – he’s usually to be found yelling in kitchens or punching disappointing salmon – so this will be a new experience for him and us. However, his affinity with high-pressure environments will certainly be useful here, as we’re promised a high-risk high-reward format where contestants can build up a fortune or watch it come crashing down in an instant.
Extraordinary Escapes with Sandi Toksvig (C4, 9pm)
For most comedians, Scotland is like a second home thanks to the Edinburgh Festival. Sandi Toksvig is certainly no stranger to Auld Reekie, but has never actually ventured outside the
Damon), who lands a job with the government’s intelligence agency. Edward’s role in the secret service leaves little time for a family life and soon he is forced to make a choice between national security and his loved ones’ safety. By concentrating on paperwork, files and folders, Robert De Niro’s ambitious second directorial outing strips the spy movie of its glamour and focuses on one man’s personal tragedy as he becomes an automaton for the American government’s intelligence service.
capital. Here she’s joined by friend and fellow comedian Sindhu Vee to have a look around some of the best destinations that the nation has to offer, beginning at a private island off the coast of Skye, before checking into a luxury shooting lodge in the Highlands. An unexpected side-effect of the pandemic has been the ‘staycation travelogue’ – a new genre which gives us a fresh appreciation of our home turf. And we do have some hidden gems, not least of which is tonight’s final destination: a unique elliptical home overlooking the Sound of Mull.
Murder in a Small Town (C5, 9pm)
In 2003, Luke Mitchell was accused of brutally
FRIDAY
Upgrade (2018) (Film4, 9pm)
Leigh Whannell, who penned the script of the original Saw, writes and directs a dystopian, futuristic thriller about a wronged man. Car mechanic Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green) and his beautiful wife Asha (Melanie Vallejo) are attacked by four men on their way home from delivering a car to technology entrepreneur Eron Keen. Asha is murdered and Grey’s spine is severed. When he regains consciousness, Grey is a quadriplegic and the hunt for the killers goes cold. Plunged into despair, Grey cannot see any point to life until Keen offers him a trial of a new artificial intelligence micro-chip called STEM, which can be implanted into his spinal cord and take control of his broken body. Back on his feet in record time, Grey vows to track down the killers and dole out rough justice.
Empire of the Sun (1987) (BBC2, 11.20pm)
This lavish adaptation of JG Ballard’s autobiographical novel is one of Steven Spielberg’s most underrated films. Long before anybody thought he’d make a suitable Batman, a 13-year-old Christian Bale took the role of Jim, a young English boy in war-torn Shanghai. His life is turned upside down when the Japanese take over and he becomes separated from his parents. He’s eventually captured and forced to survive the terrors of internment alone. The previously spoilt young lad learns a few harsh life lessons, but displays a remarkable determination to survive which rubs off on those around him. The top-drawer cast includes John Malkovich, Nigel Havers, Miranda Richardson, Leslie Phillips and Burt Kwouk.
murdering 14-year-old schoolgirl Jodi Jones. He maintains his innocence to this day and now, after 17 years, two former detectives who now work as private investigators work together to re-examine the police and prosecution’s case against Mitchell. In this new two-parter, they uncover information which could possibly cast doubt on the verdict, including new evidence which emerged from a witness who was living in the area at the time, and details of another male’s DNA found at the scene.
Trump Takes On the World (BBC2, 9pm)
The three-part series draws to a close with perhaps the most shocking edition yet –