TV FILMS OF THE WEEK
THE TOWERING INFERNO Sunday, ITV4, 3.30pm
This triple Oscar-winner helped set the style for the disaster movies that would sweep cinema in the 1970s, and nd it still has a grim topicality. A party is being held on the upper floors of a new but shoddily built skyscraper when fire breaks out below. Steve McQueen (below) and Paul Newman lead the rescue efforts.
IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT Sunday, Sony Movies Classic, 9pm
Sidney Poitier is magnificent as Virgil Tibbs, the black Philadelphia homicide detective who makes the mistake of changing trains at a small town in the stillracist Deep South. He’s arrested and then released, only to be asked for his help by the local police chief – Rod Steiger – in investigating a murder.
MISS JUNETEENTH Monday, Sky Cinema Premiere, 10pm
June 19 – or Juneteenth – marks the day when Texas’s slaves were belatedly freed, and in one impoverished black community it’s now marked by a pageant: part beauty contest, part talent show. But why is past winner Turquoise Jones – beautifully played by Nicole Beharie – so keen for her rebellious 15-year-old daughter to win?
THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING Tuesday, Film 4, 4.20pm
Michael Caine and Sean Connery (above) together – in the 1970s this was British film casting at its best. And it pays off in this energetic adaptation of a Rudyard Kipling story about two former British Army officers who decide to become kings of Kafiristan. Director John Huston expertly blends comedy, parody and adventure.
MRS BROWN Wednesday, BBC4, 9pm
Long before The Crown there was the crowd-pleasing Mrs Brown, which sees the widowed Queen Victoria – almost inevitably played by Judi Dench – falling for the charms of her faithful Highland servant, John Brown, played by Billy Connolly. Scandal ensues.
GHOST IN THE SHELL Thursday, E4, 9pm
A remake of the 1995 Japanese animated cult classic, this live-action, effects-heavy remake sees Scarlett Johansson star as The Major, whose brain is implanted in a synthetic body after a terrible accident. Now she works for Section 9 and has to track down a feared cyber-terrorist.
THE WOMAN IN BLACK Friday, 5 Star, 10.50pm
Daniel Radcliffe’s first film after Harry Potter, and a brilliant one. Based on Susan Hill’s acclaimed ghost story, it sees Radcliffe as a young solicitor dispatched to the watery isolation of Eel Marsh House, where he must sort through the papers of its recently deceased owner. But something much nastier awaits. Terrifying.