Film choice

Layer Cake (2004) 5STAR, 9.00PM ★★★★

 The directorial debut of Matthew Vaughn (Kick-ass), Layer Cake is an intelligent British gangster movie with shades of The Long Good Friday. Daniel Craig plays an anonymous and suave London cocaine dealer whose attempts to quit the trade are scuppered when the sinister Kenneth Cranham asks him to do “one last job”. Sienna Miller and Tom Hardy also star, and the soundtrack is a wonderful riot of colourful pop and rhythm. Elizabeth (1998) FILM4, 11.05PM ★★★★

 Australian Cate Blanchett excels in the film that made her a star. She plays the energetic young Elizabeth I, already blessed with a heart of gold and a backbone of the very coldest steel. The script plays fast and loose with history, but it’s still immensely enjoyable and sumptuously produced. Able British support comes from John Gielgud, Richard Attenborough and Joseph Fiennes, while Eric Cantona plays a French diplomat. Britannia Hospital (1982) LONDON LIVE, MIDNIGHT ★★★

 After the success they had with 1968’s if . . . . , Lindsay Anderson and Malcolm Mcdowell had the freedom to take their third surreal film together in any direction they liked. Britannia Hospital, alas, shows it all too well. This acerbically black farce, set in a hospital due to be visited by the Queen Mother, throws social commentary, sadistic violence and creepy horror into one frenetic mix. It’s very uneven, but worth a look.