TV FILMS OF THE WEEK

ROBIN AND MARIAN Sunday, Film4, 4pm

Sean Connery may have left us but his cinematic legacy lives on, not least in this thoughtful revamp of the legend of Robin Hood, with Connery playing the ageing former outlaw, who returns to England from the Crusades to woo Maid Marian one final time. Audrey Hepburn co-stars.

GLADIATOR

Sunday, 5 Star, 9pm

Russell Crowe gives a careercrowning performance as Maximus Decimus Meridius, imperial general turned enslaved gladiator. The action scenes are superb, the re-creations of ancient Rome convincing, and Joaquin Phoenix is tremendous as the scheming Commodus.

WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND Monday, Talking Pictures, 6.30pm

Bryan Forbes’s first film as a director sees Alan Bates as an escaped and injured murderer who hides away in a rural barn, only to be found by three children, including Hayley Mills (below), who believe him to be Jesus Christ.

THE POST Wednesday, Film4,9pm

A Trump era of attacks on press freedom and allegations of ‘fake news’ brought fresh resonance to the story of the top-secret documents about the Vietnam War leaked to the American press in the early 1970s. Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep co-star; Steven Spielberg directs.

EASTER PARADE Thursday, BBC4, 8pm

After their success in For Me And My Gal, this was originally envisaged as another vehicle for Judy Garland and Gene Kelly. But then Kelly broke his ankle, Fred Astaire stepped in, and the rest is a gloriously nostalgic piece of American musical history.

THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY Thursday, 5 Star, 9pm

Matt Damon plays Tom Ripley – liar, fantasist and con man – dispatched to Italy to retrieve Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law), a hedonistic playboy he claims to know but doesn’t. It looks wonderful, Anthony Minghella adapts and directs from Patricia Highsmith’s novel, and Gwyneth Paltrow and Cate Blanchett add classy support.