Film choice

Meet the Fockers (2004) COMEDY CENTRAL, 9.00PM ★★

 As the follow-up to Meet the Parents, this sequel again pits hapless Gaylord Focker (Ben Stiller) against his fiancée Pam’s EX-CIA agent dad (Robert De Niro), but this time adds a baby, a pregnancy, and Stiller’s hippy parents to the mix. As played by Barbra Streisand and Dustin Hoffman, the Fockers are endearing; gags about lavatories, sexually active dogs, and genitals in the fondue are less so.

Hamlet (1990) LONDON LIVE, 10.00PM ★★★★

 Mel Gibson plays the melancholy Danish prince who becomes consumed by vengeance in Franco Zeffirelli’s fastpaced adaptation of Shakespeare’s iconic tragedy. Zeffirelli chooses to emphasise action over contemplation, condensing the Bard’s text perfectly for the big screen. Helena Bonham Carter plays Hamlet’s ill-fated love interest Ophelia, while Glenn Close is Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude.

Airplane! (1980) ITV4, 11.20PM ★★★★

 This spoof disaster movie is one of the most quotable comedy films ever. It stars Robert Hays as Ted Striker, an ex-fighter pilot who is called on to fly a plane after its pilots are taken ill mid-flight. It also features a pre-naked Gun Leslie Nielsen as a deliciously deadpan doctor. “Surely there must be something you can do,” he’s asked. “I’m doing everything I can – and stop calling me Shirley,” he replies.