Film choice

Zoo (2017) Channel 4, 1pm ★★★★

In this family drama set among the ravages of the Belfast Blitz during the Second World War, a 12-year-old boy and his misfit friends enlist a lonely, older widow in their fight to save Buster, the local zoo’s baby elephant, from the air raids of 1941. Colin McIvor wrote and directed; Penelope Wilton, Art Parkinson and Toby Jones star. It’s wiser and more complex than it sounds.

Ivanhoe (1952) BBC Two, 1.50pm ★★★★

Loyal British knight Wilfred of Ivanhoe (Robert Taylor) sets out on a mission to free the kidnapped King of England, Richard the Lionheart (Norman Wooland), in this rousing and romantic adventure tale. Ivanhoe has a busy time of it, defeating the evil Prince John (Guy Rolfe) and juggling the affections of ladies Rowena and Rebecca (played by Joan Fontaine and Elizabeth Taylor).

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008) BBC One, 3.15pm ★★★

A slightly superior sequel to DreamWorks’s animated animal adventure, with the same four characters returning. Alex the lion, Marty the zebra, Gloria the hippo and Melman the giraffe (voiced by Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett Smith and David Schwimmer) have been shipwrecked on the eponymous African island and need to find a way to return home to their zoo in New York.