TV FILMS of the week

1 MAN ON FIRE Tonight, Channel 4, 11.45pm

Former CIA counter-terrorist operative John Creasy (Denzel

Washington) moves to Mexico City where he reluctantly takes a job as a private bodyguard for precocious nineyear-old Pita (Dakota Fanning), whose family’s wealth makes her a target for kidnappers. Creasy surprises himself by striking up a tender friendship with Pita, so when the nightmare happens and the little girl is abducted and then killed, he makes it his life’s work to track down the men responsible. Based on AJ Quinnell’s novel of the same name.

2 BABE Tomorrow, ITV, 12.45pm

Based on Dick King Smith’s book The Sheep Pig, this utterly charming family comedy proved to be a huge hit with audiences and critics alike. James Cromwell stars as the kindly farmer who wins a cute piglet at a county fair. The porker, known as Babe and voiced by Christine Cavanaugh, shows a remarkable talent for herding sheep.

3 ROCKY Monday, ITV4, 10pm

Rocky is a surprisingly sweet, low-key underdog story. Sylvester Stallone wrote himself his best role as Rocky Balboa, a struggling boxer from Philadelphia. His luck changes when heavyweight champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) decides to celebrate America’s bicentennial by giving an unknown a shot at the title.

4 CITY SLICKERS Tuesday, Film4, 6.45pm

Friends Mitch (Billy Crystal, left), Phil (Daniel Stern) and Ed (Bruno Kirby) are facing their midlife crises, and decide that the best way to handle them is with an adventure holiday. The trip proves more difficult than expected as they are whipped into shape by a tough veteran cowboy (a scene-stealing, Oscar-winning Jack Palance).

5 THE WOLF OF WALL STREET Wednesday, ITV4, 11.10pm

In the aftermath of Black Monday, Jordan Belfort (a brilliant Leonardo Dicaprio, left) loses his job on Wall Street and is forced to sell penny stocks at a fly-by-night operation in Long Island. Blessed with the gift of the gab, Jordan excels and opens his own firm and amasses a vast fortune, but the FBI are on his tail.

6 MRS BROWN Thursday, BBC4, 9pm

It’s been more than two years since Prince Albert died, but Queen Victoria (Judi Dench) is still in the depths of depression. In the hope that a breath of fresh air may dispel her gloom, John Brown (Billy Connolly) is summoned from Balmoral with the Queen’s nag. What follows is the last thing staid Private Secretary (Geoffrey Palmer) had in mind.

7 THE FOOTBALL FACTORY Friday, Channel 5, 11.05pm

Tommy Johnson (Danny Dyer) is a directionless twentysomething whose sole pleasures in life are drugs and booze with the lads, casual sex, and a punch-up with his fellow Chelsea football fans. An FA Cup showdown with Millwall sets in motion a chain of events that will change Tommy’s life forever. Based on the novel by John King.