FILMS OF THE WEEK

THE BIG MOVIE Jimi: All Is By My Side (2013) 15 Saturday, 9.45pm, BBC2

Should you make a biographical drama about a famous rock star if you can’t include any of that star’s songs (his estate wouldn’t allow it)? Here, John Ridley, who wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for 12 Years A Slave, gives it a go. His approach is experimental – a bit like Hendrix himself. Andre Benjamin, front man of funk/pop/ hip-hop band Outkast, delivers an inspired performance as the US rocker (above), visiting England in 1966 at the invitation of Linda Keith (Imogen Poots), the girlfriend of Rolling Stone Keith Richards. Indeed, without Benjamin, the film could be a drama about any struggling musician in Swinging Sixties London. Ridley’s unconventional approach feels appropriate for the film’s enigmatic subject, especially when you can’t let Hendrix’s music speak for itself.

CLASSIC FILM CHOICE Operation Daybreak (1975) 15 Sunday, 1.35pm, Ch5

This sombre Second World War film dramatises Operation Anthropoid, a mission by the Czech Resistance – trained by the British Special Operations Executive – to assassinate one of the most powerful and feared Nazi commanders, Reinhard Heydrich, an architect of the Holocaust. Timothy Bottoms, Anthony Andrews and Martin Shaw (above) star as three of the Czech and Slovak soldiers attached to the Prague mission to end Heydrich’s reign of terror. The outcome of the assassination plot is a matter of historical record (no spoilers), but the film also delves into its horrifying aftermath. Director Lewis Gilbert is better-known for Bond movies – including You Only Live Twice – and this film lacks their blockbuster gloss, but it remains a gripping, important tribute to those who defied Hitler from within occupied territories.