TV FILMS OF THE WEEK
ARTHUR CHRISTMAS Sunday, ITV2, 4.40pm
Beautifully animated by Aardman and with a top-notch voice cast, this seasonal treat not only explains how Santa manages to deliver so many presents on one night but also what happens when one accidentally goes astray. Step forward young Arthur Christmas – voiced by James McAvoy – and his retired grand-Santa (Bill Nighy). Delightful.
FIELD OF DREAMS Sunday, Sony Movies, 6.50pm
Kevin Costner is the Iowa farmer who hears a mysterious voice telling him ‘if you build it, he will come’. So he builds a baseball diamond, only to find it visited by the ghosts of the 1919 Chicago White Sox team. Strange but rather magical.
THE BELLES OF ST TRINIAN’S Monday, BBC2, 3pm
Princess Fatima is the new girl at St Trinian’s, whose wealthy father has a horse running in the Gold Cup. Cue all sorts of deliciously silly shenanigans involving George Cole, Joyce Grenfell and a cross-dressing Alastair Sim.
THE GREEN MILE Tuesday, Channel 5, 10.30pm
Like The Shawshank Redemption, this is based on a Stephen King novel and directed by Frank Darabont. But it’s a very different story with Tom Hanks as a prison officer recalling his Depression-era days working on death row and an inmate (Michael Clarke Duncan) with a special gift.
EMMA Wednesday, Sky Cinema Premiere, 2.20pm & 9.45PM
If you’ve just discovered Anya Taylor-Joy in The Queen’s Gambit, see how good she is in the title role of this sparkling adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic tale of misguided meddling. Bill Nighy, Johnny Flynn and Mia Goth are all fabulous in supporting roles.
BROOKLYN Thursday, BBC4, 8pm
The wonderful Saoirse Ronan (below) plays Eilis, a young Irishwoman who emigrates to New York in the 1950s, where she finds a job, a home and a boyfriend. But when fate calls her home she acquires
another admirer.
HELL OR HIGH WATER Friday, Film 4, 9pm
Chris Pine and Ben Foster are t two West Texas ranc ranchers who embark on as a series of bank r robberies. With Jeff Bridges as the ranger sent in to find out w why, this David M Mackenzie-directed pic picture is one of the grea great modern westerns.
THE HURT LOCKER Friday, BBC2, midnight
Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win the Best Director Oscar for this brilliant, emotionally exhausting film about an American bomb-disposal squad in Iraq. With Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie and Guy Pearce (inset).