Film choice
Willow (1988) 5STAR, 8.00PM ★★★
Director Ron Howard followed his Eighties hits Splash and Cocoon with this Oscar-nominated fantasy written by Star Wars supremo George Lucas. A dwarf named Willow (Warwick Davis) tries to protect a princess baby from an evil sorceress-queen (Jean Marsh, in a role very different from Upstairs Downstairs’s Rose). There’s spells, adventure, sword fights, and a moody Val Kilmer with long hair.
Man Up (2015) BBC TWO, 9.00PM ★★★
Ben Palmer’s likeable, and perfectly British, romcom (that isn’t really very romantic) stars a sizzling Simon Pegg and Lake Bell. Nancy (Bell) plays a Bridget Jones-type character. On the way to her parents’ 40th wedding anniversary, however, she is mistakenly identified as the blind date whom Jack (Pegg) has been waiting for at Waterloo station. Nancy goes along with it and they wind up having a ball.
White House Down (2013) ITV2, 9.00PM ★★★
Channing Tatum is the one White House security guard left standing when the President (Jamie Foxx) comes under attack in this action thriller that’s tinged with comedy. To make the day even more stressful, he must also protect his young daughter (Joey King). If you enjoyed Antoine Fuqua’s Olympus Has Fallen, released the same year, you’ll probably enjoy this film. Mostly because the plot is virtually identical.