BEST OF 2017

The year’s best drama was Manchester By The Sea – though this tale of a dissolving marriage is such a downer I don’t recommend you watch it during the holidays. That said, Michelle Williams and Casey Affleck are so raw as the couple in crisis that the movie will stay with you until next Christmas. Not many actors get to be in two great films a year, but Amy Adams pulled it off with the terrifying post-modern thriller

Nocturnal Animals and the moving sci-fi romance

Arrival. For a gentler evening, try Six Plays by Alan Bennett, a box set of Seventies dramas starring everyone from Thora Hird to, er, Dave Allen.