FILM PICKS
MONDAY
The Krays (1990) (ITV4, 9pm)
Spandau Ballet siblings Gary and Martin Kemp may have seemed unlikely casting at the time, but they are very impressive as Ronnie and Reggie, the Kray twins who ruled sixties London’s underworld with fear and violence. The result is a stark and occasionally brutal drama, which deals rather well with the complex influences – maternal power, filial devotion and homosexual tension – that shaped the gangland supremos. Billie Whitelaw gives a powerful performance as the boys’ doting but wily mother.
TUESDAY
Goodbye Christopher Robin (2017) (Film4, 6.50pm)
Simon Curtis’s handsome drama exposes the anguish and resentment that festered beneath the Hundred Acre Wood. AA Milne (Domhnall Gleeson) returns to London from the trenches, where he witnessed hundreds of his countrymen cut down in their prime. Angered by the senseless loss of life, Milne abandons the capital for a house in Ashdown Forest, where a walk with his son Christopher Robin (Will Tilston) fires his imagination. Milne develops the Winnie-the-Pooh stories, which magically bring to life his son’s menagerie of stuffed toys, but while the books become a success, Christopher Robin struggles to deal with his newfound fame.
WEDNESDAY
In The Line Of Fire (1993) (Sony Movies, 9pm)
Secret service agent Frank Horrigan (Clint Eastwood) is still haunted by his failure to save JFK. Thirty years later, a CIA-trained assassin (John Malkovich) torments Frank, telling him he’s going to kill the President, and wants the ageing agent to try to foil his plan. Everyone thinks Frank is losing the plot – until disaster looks set to strike in Dallas. Eastwood and Malkovich are at their acting best in this edge-of-your-seat, cat-and-mouse thriller from director Wolfgang Petersen. Taking a break from being behind the camera, this is certainly one of Eastwood’s most exciting projects and the man who usually plays mean and moody characters brings a rare degree of warmth to his role.
FRIDAY Philomena (2013) (BBC1, 11.35pm)
Jane Lee (Anna Maxwell Martin) discovers her mother Philomena (Judi Dench) fell pregnant as a teenager in 1952 Ireland and was forced to give up the baby to the sisters at Roscrea Abbey. Jane pitches the story to former Labour adviser-turned-BBC journalist Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan), who initially scoffs at the suggestion he should pen an article about the matriarch and her heartbreaking ordeal. After a reality check from his wife, Martin agrees to help Philomena track down her boy. The tender and unexpectedly touching relationship that forms between these two provides Stephen Frears’s uplifting film with its emotional thrust.