Four to watch this week
Argylle (UK 12/ROI 12, 139 mins, streaming from April 12 exclusively on
Apple TV+)
Reclusive novelist Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard) has just completed the manuscript for her fifth Argylle book.
She is obsessed with her work and often daydreams about her globe-trotting lead character (Henry Cavill).
Elly elicits feedback on the next book from her mother Ruth (Catherine O’Hara), who bluntly suggests an in-person brainstorming session to remedy a problematic final chapter.
During a cross-country train journey home with pet cat Alfie, fiction bleeds into Elly’s reality.
Scruffy spy Aidan (Sam Rockwell) rescues her from knifewielding assassins, who have been ordered to kill the writer because her bestsellers predict real-life global espionage perpetrated by the diabolical Division.
To stay alive, Elly places her trust in Aidan and former CIA deputy director Alfred Solomon (Samuel L Jackson).
Argylle is an action-packed spy caper set in a rumbustious universe of daredevil secret agents who will eventually rub shoulders with director Matthew Vaughn’s debonair Kingsman.
It’s unclear how two worlds might collide but a post-credits tease lays the narrative groundwork.
Vaughn delivers trademark slam-bang thrills with gusto, evidenced by an outlandish opening sequence replete with Dua Lipa’s acting debut and a discofied dance sequence.
Jason Fuchs’ script twists and turns furiously like a cornered rattlesnake, allowing Howard and Rockwell to catalyse an adorable on-screen partnership.
Our Living World (4 episodes, streaming from April 18 exclusively on Netflix)
The Emmy Award-winning team responsible for the natural history series Our Great National Parks, narrated by Barack Obama, return with a four-part study of ecosystems that sustain our planet.
Academy Award-winner Cate Blanchett provides the voiceover for four episodes that travel from Angola to New Zealand to witness the day-to-day lives of creatures, many under serious threat because of human activity.
An array of film-makers, wildlife photographers and researchers combine their expertise to showcase nature’s interconnected wonders, including reindeer in the Arctic and hippos in Botswana.
Jimmy Carr: Natural Born Killer (UK 18/ROI 18, 59 mins, streaming from April 16 exclusively on Netflix)
Jimmy Carr has gleefully adopted the role of agent provocateur with three previous comedy specials for Netflix. This fourth outing, filmed last year on the stage of Aylesbury Waterside Theatre in front of a live audience, promises more near-the-knuckle humour.