Film choice

Empire of Light (2023) Disney+ ★★★

Many 2023 movies have existed as director’s love letters to cinema: Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, Damien Chazelle’s Babylon and, here, Sam Mendes’s offering. Its cast – lead by Olivia Colman, Colin Firth and

Top Boy’s Micheal Ward – are cinema employees each grappling with their own woes: Colman with a relationship with Firth’s Mr Ellis, her married boss, and Ward with rampant racism.

The Iron Lady (2011) Film4, 6.55pm ★★★

Whatever your political leanings, best to put them on hold for Phyllida Lloyd’s fuzzy biopic of Margaret Thatcher, starring Meryl Streep. Those on the left will think Abi Morgan’s screenplay ignores her socially divisive free-market policies that decimated mining towns, while fans are unlikely to appreciate a framing device that paints her as an old biddy rather than a strong wartime leader.

The Godfather (1972) Film4, 9pm ★★★★★

Endlessly quoted, the first of Francis Ford Coppola’s epic trilogy is considered an all-time high of cinema. Marlon Brando and Al Pacino play American-italian mafia boss Don Vito and his son and reluctant heir, Michael Corleone, caught up in the struggle for power. Part II is on Thursday; Part III is on Friday; the trilogy, including Coda – the 2020 recut version of III

– is on Paramount+ from today.