TV FILMS OF THE WEEK

BUMBLEBEE Sunday, Channel 4, 4.30pm

Surprisingly decent spin-off from the otherwise interminable Transformers franchise and essentially an origins story for the small yellow ‘Autobot’, who fled the planet Cybertron and camouflaged himself on Earth as a rusting VW Beetle. A game Hailee Steinfeld is the mechanically minded teenager who finds him.

JULIE & JULIA Monday, Sony Movies, 4.50pm

Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of the eccentric American cookery writer Julia Child – Meryl Streep’s barnstorming comic performance ensures that certainly won’t matter for long in a film that co-stars Amy Adams as a modern-day food blogger and was directed by the late, great Nora Ephron.

THE NICE GUYS Monday, Film 4, 9pm

Comedy thriller with Ryan Gosling as a private detective in 1970s Los Angeles hired to investigate the death of a porn star and to search for a mysterious missing girl, Amelia. But Amelia doesn’t want to be found, which is where Russell Crowe – playing a distinctly more muscular type of PI – comes in.

MOONLIGHT Tuesday, Film 4, 11.15pm

Barry Jenkins’s powerful drama traces the formative years of Chiron, a young black boy growing up on the rougher streets of Miami. His father is long gone, his mother – a brilliant Naomie Harris – is a crack addict and, as he grows older, he discovers he’s gay. Chiron’s only ally is the local drug dealer, Juan, played by Oscar-winning Mahershala Ali.

BREATHE Wednesday, BBC2, 9pm

Like Covid-19, polio was transmitted by an airborne virus and there’s no doubt the global pandemic adds a fresh resonance to the story of Robin Cavendish, who contracted the crippling illness when he was only 28. But don’t expect misery and despair; this is a wonderfully uplifting tale of resilience, resourcefulness and love among the English upper middle classes.

QUARTET Thursday, BBC4, 9pm

Dustin Hoffman has only officially directed one feature film in his entire career and, rather wonderfully, it’s this thoroughly British tale of late life at a gloriously inviting retirement home for retired opera singers and musicians. Maggie Smith and Tom Courtenay lead a tunefully top-notch cast.

FOOTLOOSE Friday, Film 4, 6.40pm

A young Kevin Bacon plays Ren, a spirited Chicago teenager whose family relocate to a small mid-Western town where rock music is banned. Which, with senior prom approaching and the lovely Ariel – Fame alumna Lori Singer – already having a boyfriend, seems like an awful lot of bad news.

SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE Friday, BBC1, 11.35pm

Joseph Fiennes is a young William Shakespeare who has already sold his next play to two different theatre owners but barely has an idea in his head. What he needs is a muse. Enter Gwyneth Paltrow (left), wi winner of one of the film’s s seven richly deserved Oscars, as the stage-struck, crossdressing Viola. Joyous. Matthew Bond