Film choice

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) TCM, 6.30PM ★★★★

English actor Robert Stephens makes a louche, witty Holmes, Colin Blakely a delightful Watson while Geneviève Page adds a tingle of sex appeal as an Irene Adler-like femme fatale to whom the great consulting detective becomes dangerously attracted. Billy Wilder’s endearing film, ostensibly a parody, is seen by many as an important influence on the BBC’S Sherlock series.

The Choir (2014) FILM4, 6.55PM ★★★

Dustin Hoffman gives a wonderfully minor-key performance as a toughlove choirmaster in François Girard’s affecting drama. It’s a triumph-overadversity picture, the adversity being the disadvantaged background of a gifted 11-year-old called Stet (newcomer Garrett Wareing), whose alcoholic single mother in Odessa, Texas dies in a first-reel car crash. Eddie Izzard and Kathy Bates co-star.

Bullitt (1968) ITV4, 11.35PM ★★★

This is the film that made Steve Mcqueen a superstar and revolutionised the car chase with its 10-minute split-screen, edge-ofyour-seat race through San Francisco. Mcqueen plays hard-nosed, icy-cool cop Frank Bullitt, who is assigned to protect Mafia informant Johnny Ross (Pat Renella), until a pair of hit men scupper his plans. The final pursuit at the airport inspired a similar sequence in Michael Mann’s Heat.