Goodbye Christopher Robin (2017) (Sky Cinema Premiere, 11am & 6pm)

With Disney's Christopher Robin currently in cinemas, here's a chance to see Simon Curtis's handsome drama, which 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 quaint house in Ashdown Forest, where a walk with his young 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.

Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (ITV2, 5.25pm)

The all-conquering space saga begins with farm boy Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) being thrust into the midst of an intergalactic battle between good and evil. Setting out to rescue a stubborn princess (Carrie Fisher) from the clutches of the sinister Darth Vader (voiced by James Earl Jones), Luke discovers the mysteries of the Force, and receives help from a space pilot (Harrison Ford, in a star-making role), a veteran warrior (Alec Guinness), a pair of bickering robots and an eight-foot-tall hairy warrior. While the prequel trilogy and the sequels have covered new and somewhat darker terrain, this original entry in the sci-fi franchise is basically a good old-fashioned matinee adventure, with a rousing score and - at the time - unbelievable interstellar action sequences.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) (STV, 8pm)

The second part of JRR Tolkien's Middle-earth trilogy is a cinematic rush of blood to the head that exhilarates, astounds and enchants, and leaves you hungry for more. Following the death of Boromir (Sean Bean) and the apparent demise of Gandalf (Ian McKellen) in the pit at Khazad-dum, The Fellowship divides into three groups. Hobbit friends Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) head for the Black Gates of Mordor. En route, they befriend Gollum (voiced by Andy Serkis), a mysterious creature deeply scarred by his previous encounter with The Ring. Meanwhile, Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), elf archer Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and plucky dwarf Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) make haste for the besieged Rohan kingdom, and hobbits Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd) escape from their Uruk-Hai captors and head into the mysterious Fangorn Forest.

West Is West (2010) (BBC2, 11.15pm)

Fifteen-year-old Sajid Khan (Aqib Khan) is bullied mercilessly in 1976 Salford and rebels against the dictates of his father George (Om Puri). To make Sajid proud of his heritage, George drags the lad to Pakistan to stay with first wife Basheera (Ila Arun) and their two daughters, while current wife Ella (Linda Bassett) stays home to run the family business with best friend Annie (Lesley Nicol). West Is West is the belated sequel to East Is East. Although it lacks some of the charm of Ayub Khan Din's hilarious 1999 portrait of clashing cultures, Puri, Bassett and co relax into their old roles as if they were easing into a pair of comfortable slippers, while Bradford-born newcomer Khan is a likeable hero.

Sunday 19/08/18

Patti Cake$ (2017) (Sky Cinema Premiere, 10.50am & 10.40pm) Premiere

Inspired by writer-director Geremy Jasper's efforts to break into the New York music scene, Patti Cake$ is a crowd-pleasing underdog story which wears its heart on its sleeve. This modern-day fable about shooting for the moon, when everyone is telling you to dream smaller, centres on an unlikely heroine, an overweight New Jersey twenty-something (Danielle Macdonald) with a talent for immortalising her day-to-day existence in rap. Every time life beats her down (and in one scene, head butts her and draws blood), she gets back to her feet and retaliates with a spontaneously crafted barrage of weaponised wordplay. Hopefulness bumps and grinds with emotional hard knocks, reminding us that darkness courses beneath the surface of the best fairy tales.

Swallows and Amazons (2016) (BBC1, 5.05pm)

Adapted from Arthur Ransome's beloved book, Swallows and Amazons is a charmingly old-fashioned tale of messing about on the river set in more innocent times. While her husband is away at sea on a naval destroyer, Mrs Walker (Kelly Macdonald) spirits her four children - John (Dane Hughes), Susan (Orla Hill), Tatty (Teddie-Rose Malleson-Allen) and Roger (Bobby McCulloch) - away for a summer break in the Lake District. The children persuade their mother to allow them to sail over to an island and camp under the stars, but they discover it has already been claimed by Nancy Blackett (Seren Hawkes) and her sister Peggy (Hannah Jayne Thorp), who call themselves the Amazons.

Bridge of Spies (2015) (Channel 4, 9pm)

Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) is arrested in 1950s New York and labelled a Soviet spy. Lawyer James B. Donovan (Tom Hanks) is asked to mount a credible defence for the sake of appearances, even though the odds are stacked against a fair trial. Sure enough, Abel is convicted, but then a US pilot, Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell), is shot down over the Soviet Union. Consequently, Donovan travels to Berlin to broker a covert deal to exchange Abel for Powers. Scripted by Matt Charman and the Coen brothers, Bridge of Spies is a slow-burning tale of intrigue and bluff, and director Steven Spielberg's fingerprints are evident on each assured set-piece. Hanks brings his natural warmth and likability to Donovan, but it's his Oscar-winning co-star Rylance who lingers longest in the memory.

Straight Outta Compton (2015) (Channel 5, 10pm)

In 1986, pals Dr Dre (Corey Hawkins), Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell), Ice Cube (the rapper's real-life son O'Shea Jackson Jr), MC Ren (Aldis Hodge) and DJ Yella (Neil Brown Jr) seek an outlet for their creativity and form the pioneering hip hop group NWA. With gentle persuasion, Eazy-E sets up his own label, Ruthless Records, and the group's first release Boyz-n-the-Hood piques the interest of Jerry Heller (Paul Giamatti), who sweet talks Eazy-E into becoming the band's manager. Straight Outta Compton is rags-to-musical riches biopic that fails to fully address the accusations of misogyny and homophobia levelled at the California collective. But regardless of the rosy tint to director F. Gary Gray's lens, this is a fascinating portrait of youthful exuberance, raw ambition and racial divide.

Monday 20/08/18

Whisky Galore! (1949) (BBC2, 12.25pm)

Alexander Mackendrick's delightful Ealing comedy is based on the novel of the same name by Compton MacKenzie. When a freighter runs aground in fog on the close-knit Hebridean island of Todday, the locals are delighted to learn the boat is laden with cases of whisky, supplies of which have been depleted on the island following wartime rationing. English Sergeant Odd (Bruce Seton) colludes with the islanders to conceal the booty from curious outsiders and enjoy the boozy contents. However, Captain Paul Waggett (Basil Radford) from the Home Guard is determined to recover the missing alcohol and thus begins a battle of wits between Waggett and the islanders, who must hide the bottles of whisky in ingenious places to avoid confiscation.

The White King (2016) (Sony Movie Channel, 7.05pm)

Adapted from Gyorgy Dragoman's novel of the same title, The White King is a dystopian drama about a 12-year-old boy, whose world is shattered when his father is arrested for political crimes against the state. Djata (Lorenzo Allchurch) lives in a community called The Homeland with his father Peter (Ross Partridge) and mother Hannah (Agyness Deyn), under constant surveillance by omnipresent cameras that track citizens' movements. Family life is shattered when Peter is imprisoned on suspicion of being a traitor. While Hannah is strangely reluctant to seek help from her husband's well-connected parents (Jonathan Pryce, Fiona Shaw), Djata and his three young pals embark on a seemingly foolish quest to unearth treasure they believe is buried at the foot of a statue that towers over the hillside.

Tuesday 21/08/18

Mr Popper's Penguins (2011) (Film4, 3.20pm)

Thomas Popper (Jim Carrey) is a workaholic real-estate developer for a money-grabbing business. But while he attempts to close his latest deal with the help of personal assistant Pippi (Ophelia Lovibond), he receives his unusual inheritance from his late father: six Gentoo penguins. The birds take over his life but magically help him rebuild bridges with ex-wife Amanda (Carla Gugino) and children Janie (Madeline Carroll) and Billy (Maxwell Perry Cotton). Mr Popper's Penguins is a family-oriented comedy based on the children's book by Richard and Florence Atwater, which hammers home the central message about parental responsibility. Carrey reins in his usual mugging and is completely upstaged by the real and digitally rendered birds.

Paul (2011) (ITV2, 9pm)

Best friends Graeme (Simon Pegg) and Clive (Nick Frost) attend a comic book convention in San Diego before embarking on a road trip across America, stopping at various locations associated with alien contact. En route, they encounter Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen), a potty-mouthed extra-terrestrial stranded on Earth, who is being hunted by mysterious special agent Zoil (Jason Bateman). The pals agree to help Paul return home, abducting Ruth (Kristen Wiig), the daughter of a Bible-bashing trailer park owner, along the way. Pegg and Frost's natural chemistry and sharp comic timing compels us to back Graeme and Clive as they risk life, limb and an expensive replica sword to deliver their buddy to his mother ship.

Wednesday 22/08/18

A Hard Day's Night (1964) (BBC2, 12.20pm)

It could have seemed like a cheap cash-in, but instead Richard Lester's 1964 comedy adventure, claiming to show a typical day in the life of the Beatles, is a sharp, quotable delight from start to finish. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr play versions of themselves in this madcap musical comedy, braving yet another day of personal appearances and the high-decibel screams of the thousands of fans who follow them around London. Wilfrid Brambell plays Paul's meddling and cantankerous grandfather who lands himself (and the band) in all sorts of trouble, including a brief spell in custody at the police station; Victor Spinetti is the highly stressed TV director staring unemployment in the face when his star act goes missing just minutes before a live broadcast.

Jaws (1975) (ITV4, 9pm)

It's now 44 years old, but Steven Spielberg's first blockbuster has lost none of its bite. Roy Scheider heads the cast as Brody, a police chief on New England's Amity Island whose relatively idyllic existence is turned upside down when a great white shark starts snacking on the locals. The mayor is reluctant to close the beaches in case it scares off the tourists, so with the aid of a wealthy expert (Richard Dreyfuss) and a salty hunter (Robert Shaw), Brody heads off to find and kill the beast. As a thriller, it's a masterpiece of direction, combining genuine thrills with three-dimensional characters, and although the shark itself is a bit of a let-down, by the time we get a good look at it we're having too much fun to care. John Williams' iconic score just adds to the tension.

Thursday 23/08/18

In Which We Serve (1942) (BBC2, 12pm)

David Lean cut his directorial teeth on this stunning World War Two drama (co-directed with Noel Coward), which is based on the real-life exploits of HMS Kelly, a vessel commanded by Lord Mountbatten. When a British destroyer is torpedoed during the battle of Crete, surviving crew members are left clinging to the wreckage and recall their previous adventures at sea - and the reasons why they signed up in the first place. Coward, Bernard Miles and John Mills head the excellent cast, while Richard Attenborough, Daniel Massey and an 11-week-old Juliet Mills all make their feature-length film debuts.

Ted 2 (2015) (Film4, 9pm)

Potty-mouthed stuffed bear Ted (voiced by Seth MacFarlane) is now married to brassy checkout girl Tami-Lynn (Jessica Barth) and ready to start a family. The couple approaches an adoption agency, but the application is red flagged because the state of Massachusetts recognises Ted as a piece of property not a person. So his best friend John (Mark Wahlberg) heads to court with idealistic attorney Samantha L Jackson (Amanda Seyfried) to uphold Ted's civil rights. This comedy sequel doesn't reach the heights of the original, but writer-director MacFarlane conjures some moments of magic, including new love interest Seyfried's a cappella rendition of Mean Ol' Moon and a bizarre yet hilarious cameo by Liam Neeson.

Friday 24/08/18

Spectre (2015) (ITV2, 9pm)

The latest Bond adventure sees the newly appointed M (Ralph Fiennes) battling political forces, including Max Denbigh (Andrew Scott), to protect the integrity of MI6 following a merger with MI5. A cryptic message reveals ghosts from Bond's past and 007 (Daniel Craig) follows a chain of evidence that leads to Dr Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux), daughter of fugitive Mr White (Jesper Christensen). Aided by technical wizard Q (Ben Whishaw) and plucky agent Eve Moneypenny (Naomie Harris), Bond criss-crosses the globe 10 and infiltrates a menacing organisation named SPECTRE, fronted by the enigmatic Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz). Spectre is a robust tale of espionage and dark family secrets that can't quite live up to its tour-de-force opening at a Mexican day of the dead parade.

The Inbetweeners 2 (2014) (E4, 9pm)

Despite getting a place at Bristol University, Will (Simon Bird) is still chronically uncool; hapless Simon (Joe Thomas) isn't faring much better in Sheffield, and dim-witted Neil (Blake Harrison) has somehow landed a bank job. Fed up with their lives and enticed by Jay's (James Buckley) boastful emails about his five-star lifestyle in Australia, Will, Simon and Neil decide to surprise him by heading down under for a four-week break. Predictably, Jay has been fibbing about everything, but can a roadtrip provide the lads with some real adventure? It's great to have the boys backs for this very funny sequel. Thomas recently reunited with director Iain Morris for The Festival, which is in cinemas now.