PICK OF TV MOVIES

SATURDAY

Oppenheimer (2023)

(Sky Cinema Premiere, 11.40am & 8pm)

General Leslie Groves Jr (Matt Damon) spearheads the Manhattan Project to research and develop a devastating weapon capable of ending the Second World War. The military man appoints J Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) as scientific director despite his personal ties to Communist Party members. Oppenheimer’s biologist wife Kitty (Emily Blunt) joins other families in New Mexico to witness the dawn of a new age of self-destruction, culminating in the 1945 bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Christopher Nolan’s directorial brio sustains an ambitious but dramatically necessary three-hour running time in this epic, which deservedly won Best Picture at the recent Academy Awards. His verve is matched by Murphy’s Oscar-winning portrayal of the son of German Jewish immigrants, who feels personally compelled to act.

Free Guy (2021) (C4, 9pm)

Thirtysomething bachelor Guy (Ryan Reynolds) wakes every morning to the sound of helicopter gunfire in Free City, blissfully unaware that he is a non-player character (NPC) in a video game. One morning, Buddy glimpses Molotov Girl (Jodie Comer) and is smitten. He doesn’t know this vision of gun-toting beauty is the avatar of disgruntled programmer Millie, who hopes to unearth evidence buried in Free City that publishers Soonami stole computer code that she originated. Guy’s world spins off its axis when he realises he is an NPC and he joins forces with Molotov Girl to bring down Antwan. For the opening hour, Shawn Levy’s film is a delirious, whooping delight although the irreverent script loses its way as Guy becomes master of his own destiny rather than a slave to his programming.

Inglourious Basterds (2009) (5STAR, 9pm)

Quentin Tarantino’s unforgettable war opus is a blood-soaked fairytale set in Nazioccupied France, divided into five hefty chapters. He plays fast and loose with historical fact, and splices genres to dizzying effect across its two-and-a-half hours. Christoph Waltz provides an Oscarwinning supporting performance as a sadistic German officer and Brad Pitt (who went on to win an Academy Award himself for Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood) is a larger-than-life officer leading a platoon of Jewish Americans with only one thing on their minds – to kill the upper echelons of the Third Reich. Eli Roth, Melanie Laurent, Michael

Fassbender and Diane Kruger are also among the outstanding cast.

Ghost Stories (2017) (BBC1, 1.10am)

Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman write and direct this impressive big-screen version of their 2010 stage play that offers some genuine spooks and chills. Nyman heads the cast as Professor Philip Goodman, who has gained a reputation as a debunker of psychics and hoax ghost sightings. He has been given a file of three unsolvable cases by his hero and role model Charles Cameron, who has been missing for years. As Goodman goes to work trying to solve what Cameron could not, his perception of what is real and what is his imagination becomes increasingly blurred, until he is brought down to earth with a bump. Martin Freeman and Paul Whitehouse are among the supporting cast, while psychological illusionist Derren Brown, who regularly collaborates with Nyman on his mind-bending stage shows, is among the vocal cast.

SUNDAY

The Duchess (2008) (BBC1, 12.35am)

Meticulous production design, resplendent costumes and voluminous, cascading wigs combined with the pomp and pageantry of mid-18th century high society in all its glory, contribute to a feast for the senses. Keira Knightley stars as 17-yearold social butterfly Georgiana Spencer, who is married to the considerably older Duke of Devonshire (Ralph Fiennes) with the sole purpose of producing an heir. But the Duke’s philandering ways and complete indifference to his young wife prompt Georgiana to search for happiness in the arms of another man, rising politician Charles Grey (Dominic Cooper), leading her down a path that can only end in misery for all concerned.

MONDAY

Nowhere Special (2020) (BBC2, 11.15pm)

Award-winning Italian filmmaker Uberto Pasolini draws inspiration from true events for a life-affirming portrait of enduring love and sacrifice between father and son. Thirty-five-year-old window cleaner John (James Norton) has dedicated himself to raising his four-year-old son Michael (Daniel Lamont) in the absence of a mother, who left when the boy was born. The bond between parent and child is seemingly unbreakable, founded on simple routines that reflect the beautiful simplicity of John and Michael’s relationship. Fate deals John a cruel blow and he is given just a few months to live. Without any family to turn to, he decides to conceal the harrowing truth from Michael and to spend his final weeks searching for a new family to cherish his boy when he is gone.

Real (2019) (Film4, 11.25pm)

British writer-director Aki Omoshaybi makes an assured feature debut with an intimate drama, which charts a fledgling relationship through difficult times. Welldressed high-flyers Kyle (Aki Omoshaybi)