FILMS OF THE WEEK

THE BIG MOVIE Minions (2015) U Saturday, 6.15pm, ITV

It looks like ITV has Saturday-night family entertainment sewn up this week with the final of The Voice Kids at 8pm and, before that, this sweet spin-off from the Despicable Me franchise. We know the Minions (above) best as the silly henchmen of the now reformed supervillain Gru, but how did they come to serve such a despicable master? This origin story takes us back to their beginnings and on through history to the 1960s, when they’re taken under the wing of the world’s first female supervillain, Scarlett Overkill, who has a dastardly plan to steal the Queen’s crown. Sandra Bullock tops a star-studded cast as Scarlett, with Jon Hamm, Steve Coogan, Jennifer Saunders and Michael Keaton in strong support. Listen out, too, for Steve Carell – he voices the young Gru at the very end.

CLASSIC FILM CHOICE Monte Walsh (1970) PG Sunday, 4.40pm, 5Spike

‘Youthquake’ was the Oxford English Dictionary’s word of 2017, but it was coined in 1965 to describe how young people were driving change in fashion, culture and society. And in the wake of the first youthquake came films about the death of the old ways, with Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch leading the lament for the Old West. A year after the release of that violent classic came this more thoughtful western, with Lee Marvin and Jack Palance as cowboys being put out to pasture and considering settling down – Monte (Marvin) with prostitute Martine (Jeanne Moreau, above, with Marvin). There’s action for genre fans, but also insight into a changing frontier, where even the world’s oldest profession has had to adapt to survive. Worth seeing for Marvin’s impressive performance as a man out of step with his times.