1 TV FILMS OF THE WEEK
ITV
ATOMIC BLONDE Tonight, Channel 4, 9.10pm
IN 1989 Berlin, KGB agent Yuri Bakhtin (Johannes Johannesson) shoots dead MI6 agent James Gascoigne (Sam Hargrave) on the snow-laden streets and steals a microfilm containing the names and locations of active field agents. MI6 chief Eric Gray (Toby Jones) and his gruff CIA counterpart Emmett Kurzfeld (John Goodman) pressgang elite British spy Lorraine Broughton (Charlize Theron) to locate Bakhtin and retrieve the microfilm. Her contact in Berlin is renegade station chief David Percival (James McAvoy). Atomic Blonde is an action-packed spy caper from director John Leitch, which is hard-wired with 1980s nostalgia.
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THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD Tomorrow, BBC2, 10.45pm
DIRECTOR Peter Jackson combines footage from the Imperial War Museums’ archive and interviews with servicemen who fought in the First World War, so the horrors of conflict could be caught on camera. The images have been colourised and converted using the latest production techniques to offer modern audiences an unprecedented and detailed glimpse of life on the battlefields.
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INCEPTION Monday, ITV4, 9pm
BRILLIANT thief Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio, pictured) and his team infiltrate the minds of powerful people and plunder their subconscious of priceless secrets. Businessman Saito (Ken Watanabe) wants to plant a single idea in the mind of rival Robert Fischer Jr (Cillian Murphy). Dom accepts the mission, however, the projection of his late wife (Marion Cotillard) risks everything.
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EYE IN THE SKY Tuesday, Film4, 7pm
INTELLIGENT thriller. Operation Cobra has been tracking radicalised Britons linked to Somali group Al-Shabaab. One target, Susan Danford (Lex King), is under surveillance at a house in Kenya. At a command base in Sussex, Col Katherine Powell (Helen Mirren, pictured) explains that the objective is “to capture not kill”. But when footage reveals targets are wearing suicide vests, priorities change.
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THE COMMUTER Wednesday, Channel 5, 10.45pm
FORMER NYPD detective Michael McCauley (Liam Neeson, pictured) heads home on New York City’s Metro-North Railroad. A woman (Vera Farmiga) slinks into the opposite seat and intimates there is $25k hidden in one of the toilets and Michael can earn a further $75k if he agrees to find a passenger called Prynne. Michael takes the cash but hesitates when he consults his rusty moral compass.
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ON THE TOWN Thursday, BBC4, 8pm
THREE sailors (Gene Kelly – pictured, Jules Munshin and Frank Sinatra) have 24 hours of shore leave in New York and are determined to make the most of it. One decides to seek out the model featured in an advertising campaign, another takes a shine to an anthropologist, while a third finds himself fighting off the attentions of a female cabbie. This exuberant musical is brimming with energy.
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A SIMPLE FAVOUR Friday, BBC1, 10.45pm
SINGLE mum and food blogger Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick, pictured) strikes up a friendship with PR director Emily Nelson (a charismatic Blake Lively). When Emily calls one afternoon and asks Stephanie to pick up her son from school while she deals with an emergency, Stephanie gladly obliges. The publicist never returns and Stephanie turns amateur sleuth to unravel the mystery.
LEANNE and Steve head to court, determined to fight for Oliver’s future, despite the fact that Wendy is now siding with Dr Howarth. The medical expert explains why she feels it would be a kindness to turn off the lad’s life support machine, leaving Leanne distraught.
Afterwards, she hits the bottle and makes a pass at Steve – who turns her down.
During the second day of the hearing, Leanne and Steve plead for their son’s life before the judge delivers her verdict.
Paul is horrified to learn that Todd has landed a job at the factory and, during a teambuilding exercise, ends up a little worse for wear. He makes a show of himself in front of the bishop – who has just offered Billy the archdeacon’s post. Elsewhere, Adam sets his sights on Alina, to Sarah’s disgust.