Film choice

The Color Purple (1985) BBC Four, 9pm ★★★★★

Steven Spielberg’s masterly adaptation of Alice Walker’s classic epistolary novel is one of the most snubbed films in Oscar history: it was nominated for 11 but won none. Perhaps this was bad luck as that year it was up against Sydney Pollack’s unstoppable Out of Africa. Whoopi Goldberg gives an exceptional performance as an abused Southern black woman. This story of love and perseverance is powerful.

Shirley Valentine (1989) 5STAR, 10pm ★★★★

Willy Russell adapts his witty onecharacter play for this delightful drama. Shirley Valentine (Pauline Collins) is a middle-aged Liverpool housewife who travels to Greece to escape midlife malaise, and to learn if there’s more to life than the kitchen. Swept off her feet by Greek bar owner Costas (Tom Conti), she sees herself in a new light. Joanna Lumley, Alison Steadman and Julia Mckenzie co-star.

Love & Mercy (2014) BBC Two, 11.15pm ★★★★

Bill Pohlad’s biopic of Brian Wilson, the mastermind behind The Beach Boys, gives us two versions of this mercurial character. Played by Paul Dano and, decades on, by John Cusack, and ping-ponging between the two time frames, it’s a probing look at a man whose adulthood was broken in half by success. It’s also excellent at testing the line between mental breakdown and creative genius.