Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

[colinr0380]

Interesting about Being There. I think one of the few times it aired on the mainstream television channels was in Channel 4's Peter Sellers season that aired over the Christmas week in 1996 (EDIT: It also aired on Channel 5 in 2000 and 2002, though I don't count that as I was unable to get Channel 5 until 2008 or so in my part of the country!) - that Peter Sellers season was also notable for on New Year's Eve airing the premiere (and definitely the only television showing to date) of 1973's The Optimists of Nine Elms, which is fascinatingly wrongheaded in throwing the culture of the area away to have a sequence of Sellers and his kid companions doing a joyous musical number dancing through the empty, newly built brutalist modern tower blocks that were being put up in the place of the old fashioned terraces. The same director went on to direct the Indicator released Black Joy a few years later.

[jlnight]

The Optimists of Nine Elms premiered on Channel 4 way back in 1984. The 1996/97 screening you mention was its only other outing. Even London Live didn't manage to show it.

The Channel 5 screenings of Being There you referenced probably don't count because they were shown in the daytime so would have been cut! Why did they bother to show it in such an inappropriate timeslot? The last known screenings were apparently in 2006, late night on BBC1 and BBC2.

[colinr0380]

Ah, foiled by the RadioTimes and its misattributed "Premiere" symbol once again!

On the Being There Channel 5 screenings, I think they were just randomly throwing things at the wall to see what stuck in the early days (hence their season of Russ Meyer films that I badgered an Uncle in a different county with better reception into recording for me!), and I wonder if they just thought it was a gentle Peter Sellers film perfect for the afternoon slot! Of course from about the mid 2000s on they found their niche with the US/Canadian TV movies about murder and betrayal to fill those afternoon slots instead! Which they still seemingly have to edit a bit on occasion for content (I usually find the 'final showdown' against the crazed husband/wife/mother/stepmother/flatmate/stalker/Amish boyfriend/aunt etc can get a jarring jump cut at the climactic fight moment where the baddie gets shot or beaten up before the happy ending can occur! Which kind of makes the preceeding 100 minutes of tension literally rather anti-climactic!), or put on a late night screening of some of the edgier titles.

[colinr0380]

Two film premieres on the major channels for Easter Sunday with Disney's Luca at 3:20 p.m. on Channel 4 and the fifth(!) in the Hunger Games series with The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes on BBC1 at 10:30 p.m.

BBC4's Storyville documentary of the week is André Is An Idiot at 10 p.m. on Tuesday 7th.

jlnight has noted Film4's premiere of the week with Ben Kingsley disguised as Noam Chomsky taking in an alien in Jules at 9 p.m. on Wednesday 8th (in a Kingsley double bill followed by Sexy Beast at 10:45 p.m.) Though the key figure actor there is probably Jane Curtin, given that she has experience with aliens from Third Rock From The Sun and Coneheads.

And BBC1 has another premiere at the other end of the week with shark thriller Something In The Water at 11:25 p.m. on Friday 10th.
___
Repeat-wise, the big one as jlnight has noted is the screening of Being There on BBC2 at 11:50 p.m. on Easter Sunday. No Ibsen on BBC4 this week, presumably because it would be too depressing for Easter. Not too much notable in Film4's rotation, though the curio of the week there is the screening of the 1974 TV movie version of The Mark of Zorro with Frank Langella and Ricardo Montalban at 3:15 p.m. on Wednesday 8th. Given that Film4 regularly shows the 1940 version this could just be a misprint, but it would be interesting to see if it actually is the 1974 version!

"Legend Xtra"-wise, the cowards are dodging away from showing the truly terrible (but wonderfully so) The Concorde: Airport '79 ( ), and given all of the focus on space in recent days they should perhaps have looked into scheduling the Airport series-adjacent space themed TV movie Starflight One. However they are showing the 1996 The Arrival at 9 p.m. on Saturday 4th. The most interesting film of the week is Oscar Isaac in Mojave at 1:25 a.m. in the early hours of Easter Sunday (which weirdly looks like a kind of remake of Richard Stanley's Dust Devil(?) mixed with a TV movie stalker thriller?). Extremely generic looking horror film The Final Wish is at 1:25 a.m. in the early hours of Easter Monday (though it looks like it would make an amusing Lin Shaye double bill with The Midnight Man! And who keeps a plugged in radio on a shelf directly above their bathtub? Only someone who exists in a world created by one of the producers of Final Destination, that's who!); Sean Bean stars in The Lost Future at 2 p.m. on Tuesday 7th (from the director of that Morgan Freeman and Christian Slater Hard Rain film from the late 90s, and the 2004 mini-series of Salem's Lot); and the Antonio Banderas starring Michael Critchton adaptation The 13th Warrior is at 9 p.m. on Friday 10th.

[colinr0380]

Catching The Lost Continent on the Legend Xtra channel this afternoon, I think I can guess what influenced the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot now! Not so much the sea monsters and the deadly seaweed but the ancient mariners turning into a kind of multi-generational cult doing sacrifices when they cannot easily leave the area.

I do wonder if Hammer may do a Dennis Wheatley adaptations set at some point, since whilst The Lost Continent feels a bit of an outlier from the two other explicitly Satanic productions, The Devil Rides Out and To The Devil A Daughter, in its cult section it contains some similar ideas within it!

[jlnight]

Our Man in Havana (1960), Sat 11th Apr, Talking Pictures.
No Hard Feelings (2023), Sat 11th Apr, Channel 4. Or...
X, Y and Zee (Zee and Co), Sat 11th Apr, Talking Pictures.
Bruce Lee: Enter the Dragon (2025), late Sat 11th Apr, Talking Pictures.

The End of the Affair (1955), Sun 12th Apr, Talking Pictures.
Mobsters (1991), Sun 12th Apr, Legend. Or...
Frustrated Wives (Sex Farm), Sun 12th Apr, Together TV.

Links of Justice (1958), Mon 13th Apr, Talking Pictures.
The Flipside of Dominick Hyde (BBC Play for Today), Mon 13th Apr, Talking Pictures.

La Fin du Jour (1939), Tue 14th Apr, Talking Pictures.
John Huston: Adventures of a Free Soul (2021), Tue 14th Apr, Talking Pictures.

A Foreign Affair (1948), Wed 15th Apr, Film4.

The Royal Hotel (2023), Fri 17th Apr, BBC1. Or...
Secrets of Sex (1970), Fri 17th Apr, Rewind TV.

[colinr0380]

Quite a lot next week. Channel 4 has two premieres on Saturday 11th with the seventh(!) Transformers film, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts at 5:25 p.m. and No Hard Feelings at 10 p.m. BBC2 is showing the Arena documentary McCartney: The Hunt For The Lost Bass at 8:45 p.m.

On Sunday 12th Channel 4 has another Disney film with Soul at 4:15 p.m.

BBC4's Storyville documentary of the week is the first two hours of Speechless at 10 p.m. on Tuesday 12th, with presumably the second two hours showing next Tuesday.

And as jlnight has mentioned, BBC1 is showing The Royal Hotel at 11:25 p.m. on Friday 17th, which is directed by Kitty Green who did that Weinstein alluding film The Assistant back in 2019.
___

Repeat-wise, instead of Ibsen BBC4 is showing a repeat of the 2007 production of Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape at 9 p.m. followed by Searching for Sam: Adrian Dunbar on Samuel Beckett at 9:55 p.m.

The BBC has nicked The Good, The Bad and the Ugly from ITV4 and is showing it on BBC2 at 10 p.m. on Sunday 12th, and repeating on BBC4 at 9 p.m. on Thursday 16th, which screening is followed by the 1977 Clint Eastwood: The Man With No Name documentary at 11:50 p.m.

"Legend Xtra"-wise there are a lot of interesting films, with the big one being the Charles Bronson, Alain Delon and Toshiro Mifune (plus Ursula Andress and Capucine) western Red Sun at 11 p.m. on Tuesday 14th. It is a western week all round as Sam Raimi's The Quick and the Dead is showing at 9 p.m. on Saturday 11th, which recently got a glowing appraisal in Red Letter Media's ranking of Raimi's films (though not being big Italian horror fans they do not note the origin of the image of seeing one person through the giant gunshot hole through another person's body is probably lifted from Giovanni Lombardi Radice's death scene from Cannibal Apocalypse! They also do not note that rather than being a 'rarity for a western to have a female lead' that this was near the end of quite a wave of female-centric westerns with the same year's Bad Girls, from Jonathan Kaplan of The Accused, and the cross dressing The Ballad of Little Jo. Which were probably the films that were more for the female empowerment types than the grand guignol Raimi shoot 'em up was!). The Quick and the Dead is followed by 2015's Norman invasion film Sword of Vengeance at 11:15 p.m. The Mel Gibson and Kevin Dillon(!) film Hot Seat is at 11:10 p.m. on Monday 13th; London Heist (aka Gunned Down) is at 9 p.m. on Wednesday 15th; and Ringo Lam's Jean-Claude Van Damme film Maximum Risk is at 9 p.m. on Friday 17th (that's the one in which Chabrol star Stéphane Audran turns up in a small role playing Van Damme's mum! And Jean-Hugues Anglade of Betty Blue and many of Luc Besson's films also appears!)

[jlnight]

Junior Bonner, Sun 19th Apr, Great Action. (ex-Moviedrome)
The Avengers (1998), Sun 19th Apr, ITV4. Or...
The Presidio (1988), Sun 19th Apr, Legend. Or...
Not Now Darling (1973), Sun 19th Apr, Rewind TV.

Jodie Foster: Hollywood Under the Skin (2021), Tue 21st Apr, Talking Pictures.

Woman to Woman (1947), Wed 22nd Apr, Talking Pictures. Or...
The Bridges at Toko-Ri, Wed 22nd Apr, Legend.
Lost Command (1966), Wed 22nd Apr, Talking Pictures.

The Heiress (1949), Thu 23rd Apr, Film4.

The Reckless Moment, Fri 24th Apr, Talking Pictures. (ex-Moviedrome) Or...
The Ups and Downs of a Handyman, Fri 24th Apr, Rewind TV.
The Omega Factor + A Saint, A Woman, A Devil, Fri 24th Apr, Talking Pictures. (Cellar Club?)

[colinr0380]

Only one premiere next week, of the Daisy Ridley and Tom Holland film Chaos Walking on BBC1 at 11:25 p.m. on Friday 24th. The second half of the Speechless documentary is scheduled on BBC4 for 10 p.m. on Tuesday 21st, but it is following live coverage of Snooker from the Crucible in Sheffield which always overruns, so bet on it being pushed hours later in the schedule or dropped altogether.
___
Its a Mads Mikkelsen week since in addition to Chaos Walking, BBC4 is repeating the 2023 film The Promised Land, at 11:30 p.m. on Saturday 18th, in which Mikkelsen stars. The other subtitled repeat of the week is of 2022 French film Other People's Children (featuring the late Frederick Wiseman playing a Gynaecologist!) on Film4 at 1 a.m. in the early hours of Thursday 23rd.

jlnight has noted the big classic film with The Heiress showing on FIlm4 at 11 a.m. on Thursday 23rd. The 1963 Cleopatra is also comin' atcha with two showings on Film4 next week, at 1:20 p.m. (finishing at 6 p.m.) on Sunday 19th; and 4:15 p.m. (finishing at 9 p.m.) on Friday 24th, so that takes up giant chunks of Film4's schedule. Also notable is a screening of Peter Mullan's 2010 film Neds at 1:25 a.m. in the early hours of Monday 20th.

And there is a surprisingly rare screening (especially in the wake of all of the reboot Rise Of... films sort of erasing it from memory) of the 2001 Tim Burton Planet of the Apes film on BBC1 at Midnight on Saturday 18th, which is probably most notable for its excellent title sequence beyond anything else (well, OK, also Tim Roth and Michael Clarke Duncan acquit themselves well). I think BBC1 going all in on the sci-fi films is the hangover of them having devoted themselves to all things Hunger Games for the last few months, so they are probably casting around looking for similar fare that is both 'young adult' but not too scarily dystopian beyond the implications of its twist ending.

ITV for its part is going sci-fi on Saturday 18th as well, when Minority Report on ITV2 clashes against Universal Soldier on ITV4. Of course the "Legend Xtra" channel has the best sci-fi offering of that evening with a screening of The Lawnmower Man at 11:55 p.m!

Other than that even "Legend Xtra" has a relatively quiet week with my only picks from the schedules there being Steven Soderbergh's Out of Sight showing at 11 p.m. on Tuesday 21st and the 1995 Christopher Lambert film The Hunted, from the director of Troma film Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death! So that's the most interesting film of the whole week!

[jlnight]

Living (2022), Sat 25th Apr, Channel 4. Or...
Honest, Decent and True (BBC Screen Two), Sat 25th Apr, Talking Pictures.
Borsalino and Co (1974), late Sat 25th Apr, Talking Pictures. (also on Sunday)

The Woodlanders (1997), Mon 27th Apr, Film4.
The Young Land (1959), Mon 27th Apr, Talking Pictures.
Holy Cow (2024), Mon 27th Apr, Film4.

Brad Pitt: More Than a Pretty Face (2022), Tue 28th Apr, Talking Pictures.

Edna, the Inebriate Woman (1971 Play for Today), Wed 29th Apr, BBC4.

Pete Murray Takes You to Coventry (Baim short), Thu 30th Apr, Talking Pictures.
Flic Story (1975), Thu 30th Apr, Talking Pictures.

Road to the Isles (1946 Baim short), Fri 1st May, Talking Pictures.

[colinr0380]

jlnight has noted the two premieres of the week with the Bill Nighy starring remake of Kurosawa's Ikiru, Living on Channel 4 at 9 p.m. on Saturday 25th; and French film Holy Cow (aka Vingt Deux, or 22, in its original French title) on Film4 at 11:40 p.m. on Monday 27th.

BBC4's Storyville documentary season continues with Dogs of War at 10 p.m. on Tuesday 28th.
___
The most notable repeat of the week is, as jlnight has noted, BBC4 showing the 1971 Play For Today, Edna, the Inebriate Woman, directed by the late Ted Kotcheff, which GaryC noted was made just after Kotcheff directed Wake In Fright in Australia, and a while before he helmed Rambo: First Blood. That's at 10 p.m. on Wednesday 29th.

Repeat-wise, jlnight has noted the rarest screening of the week with a showing of 1997's Thomas Hardy adaptation The Woodlanders on Film4 at 11 a.m. on Monday 27th, the sole feature film directed by Phil Agland, who is better known for his documentaries.

"Legend Xtra"-wise the curio of the week is Robin Hood: The Rebellion at 1:30 a.m. in the early hours of Sunday 26th, which seems entirely there to allow Brian Blessed to fulfil his inevitable destiny of playing Friar Tuck!

The film that I am most interested in of the week is one of those late period Bruce Willis films that is showing under the title of Anti-Life at 11:30 p.m. on Sunday 26th, but is probably better known under is original US title of Breach, because it turns up in that Red Letter Media video (spoilers) that highlighted the deluge of Willis-sploitation titles. In those terms, and since it has turned up on television, I'll give it a watch!

The other notable film on Legend Xtra is the 1991 film The Power of One at 10:55 p.m. on Tuesday 28th, by John G. Avildsen, director of Rocky and Karate Kids films, so inevitably it is sport-themed.

[jlnight]

Ski Troop Attack, Sat 2nd May, Talking Pictures.
Le Poulet (1965 short), Sat 2nd May, Talking Pictures.
The Last Film Show (2017 short), Sat 2nd May, Talking Pictures.
From Here to Eternity (1953), Sat 2nd May, Talking Pictures.
Leeds - United! (1974 Play for Today), Sat 2nd May, Talking Pictures. Or...
Dazed and Confused, Sat 2nd May, Film4. (ex-Moviedrome)

Coogan's Bluff, Mon 4th May, ITV4. (on before, ex-Moviedrome)

Sharon Stone: Survival Instinct (2024), Tue 5th May, Talking Pictures.

Caught on a Train (1980 BBC TVM), Wed 6th May, BBC4.

How to Have Sex (2023), Thu 7th May, Film4. Or...
Deux Hommes dans la Ville (Two Men in Town), Thu 7th May, Talking Pictures. (last on ITV in 1995)

[colinr0380]

Rather quiet next week with the only premiere being of How To Have Sex on Film4 at 9 p.m. on Thursday 7th. Though BBC4's Storyville documentary slot is showing the first part of the ESPN "30 For 30" documentary about Silvio Berlusconi's running of AC Milan Berlusconi: Condemned To Win at 10 p.m. on Tuesday 5th.
__
Repeat-wise, jlnight has noted the big one with a rare showing of Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused on FIlm4 at 10:55 p.m. on Saturday 2nd (when it was premiered on UK TV in that Moviedrome season back in 1997 it was the first half of a 'retrospective adolescence'-themed double bill followed by Jan Bucquoy's The Sexual Life of the Belgians 1950-1978!

BBC4 has a few interesting archive television items: on Sunday 3rd they have a 2024 introduction by Darcey Bussell at 10 p.m. to the 1979 series presented by Margot Fonteyn, The Magic of Dance, followed by the first episode at 10:10 p.m.

And then on Wednesday 6th at 10 p.m. there is a new introduction by Stephen Poliakoff to his 1980 written drama Caught On A Train. That got released on DVD in that big BBC Poliakoff set of the mid-2000s along with Shooting The Past, The Lost Prince, Perfect Strangers, Friends and Crocodiles and Gideon's Daughter.

Film4-wise, the only notable classic film showing next week is the John Wayne and Rock Hudson western The Undefeated at 3:40 p.m. on Friday 8th.

"Legend Xtra"-wise, the notable screenings of that week are of Donnie Brasco at 9 p.m. on Saturday 2nd, Sidney Lumet's Family Business at 10:55 p.m. on Monday 4th; and the film I am most interested in of the week on Thursday 7th, Under Suspicion with Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Thomas Jane and Monica Bellucci, which is a remake of Claude Miller's 1981 film Garde à vue.

[colinr0380]

I forgot to mention perhaps the biggest news of the week, that BBC4's 'world television' strand is showing the four part mini-series version of the latest version of The Count of Monte Cristo, with episodes 1 and 2 from 9 p.m. on Saturday 2nd.

And seemingly to tie in with that BBC2 is showing a repeat of the Pierre Niney starring Black Box at Midnight on Saturday 2nd/Sunday 3rd.

[domino harvey]

I forgot to mention perhaps the biggest news of the week, that BBC4's 'world television' strand is showing the four part mini-series version of the latest version of The Count of Monte Cristo, with episodes 1 and 2 from 9 p.m. on Saturday 2nd.

Interesting, esp since I thought the film cut of it still seemed very much like watching a few episodes of a TV series. Guess it was envisioned like that to start with

[colinr0380]

The version of The Count of Monte Cristo that I am most familiar with is the 1997 Depardieu starring version directed by Josée Dayan. Interestingly looking on imdb that appears to have been originally a mini-series of four 90 minute parts, but when the BBC showed it nightly over the period between Christmas and New Year of 2000 they transformed it into seven episodes!

[The Curious Sofa]

Now there are two 2024 The Count of Monte Christo mini-series, there also was an English language one directed by Bille August. starring Sam Claflin. The 2024 French movie was better, but not by much. Both make a lot of unnecessary changes to the plot and characters. Of the adaptations I've seen, I thought to 2002 movie by Kevin Reynolds was the best.

[jlnight]

Kim (1960 Shirley Temple's Storybook ep), Sat 9th May, Talking Pictures.
Pete Murray Takes You To Hastings (Baim short), Sat 9th May, Talking Pictures.
All That Glitters (short), Sat 9th May, Talking Pictures.
The Miracle Club (2023), Sat 9th May, BBC2.

Two Mules for Sister Sara, Sun 10th May, 5Action. (on before)
Oldboy (2013), Sun 10th May, Legend. Or...
The Iron Claw (2023), Sun 10th May, BBC2.

Miracle on 34th Street (1959 TVM), Mon 11th May, Talking Pictures.

Anthony Perkins: The Actor Behind the Door, Tue 12th May, Talking Pictures.

Imitation of Life (1959), Thu 14th May, Film4.
Three Days of the Condor, Thu 14th May, Legend. Or...
Trois Hommes a Abattre (Three Men to Kill), Thu 14th May, Talking Pictures. (last on ITV in 1990)
Track 29, late Thu 14th May, Film4.

Whispering Smith Hits London (1952), Fri 15th May, Talking Pictures.
Triangle of Sadness, Fri 15th May, BBC2. (on before)
Nothing Personal (1995), late Fri 15th May, Film4.


The Last Film Show was a no-show.

[colinr0380]

That's great about Track 29, which has not been on UK TV since its Channel 4 showing on 6th June 1996 (although of course it became less desperate urgent to get a television screening once Indicator released their Blu-ray edition a few years back. I wonder if the other theatrical Dennis Potter adaptation, Secret Friends might get a screening too at some point - that hasn't been shown on UK television since 1994). Nothing Personal may be even rarer, one of the run of 1990s Northern Ireland Trouble films that got its first television screening on Channel 4 back in November 1998 and has not been shown since.

[jlnight]

I had to check on this - apparently Track 29 was last on Film4 in 2012, and was last on Channel 4 in 2007. I may even have an off-air copy taped from that 2007 screening. I'd seen it before in the early 2000s from a friend's off-air copy. And of course I bought the Indicator blu-ray in one of their sales!

The real obscure Roeg film might be Two Deaths. Didn't that have a VHS release from Tartan or some similar label?

[GaryC]

I had to check on this - apparently Track 29 was last on Film4 in 2012, and was last on Channel 4 in 2007. I may even have an off-air copy taped from that 2007 screening. I'd seen it before in the early 2000s from a friend's off-air copy. And of course I bought the Indicator blu-ray in one of their sales!

The real obscure Roeg film might be Two Deaths. Didn't that have a VHS release from Tartan or some similar label?

It did, though I saw it in the cinema at a press showing. I saw Track 29 in the cinema on its first release.

[colinr0380]

Sorry, I must have missed that 2010s screening of Track 29 jlnight!

Lots of things next week. Most interesting is the premiere of The Miracle Club on BBC2 at 7:20 p.m. on Saturday 9th May, which is Maggie Smith's last film role and is directed by Thaddeus O'Sullivan - the same Thaddeus O'Sullivan who directed that Nothing Personal film that Film4 is repeating at 1:40 a.m. in the early hours of Saturday 16th! So I wonder if that is just a serendipitous coincidence, or if Film4 knew that the BBC were premiering that film and pulled Nothing Personal out of the archives to tie in with it?

Episodes 3 & 4 of the 2024 French Count of Monte Cristo series are showing on BBC4 from 9 p.m. on Saturday 9th.

Wrestling drama The Iron Claw is on BBC2 at 10 p.m. on Sunday 10th. And Finnish film Sisu is on Film4 at 9:30 p.m. on Monday 11th.
___

Repeat-wise, it looks as if BBC4's Ibsen season has finished and we are now into a 'dance' season with the 1979 Magic of Dance series continuing at 10 p.m. on Sunday 10th followed by a 1995 Omnibus episode on Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire at 11 p.m. and 1999's "Puttin' on the Ritz: The Genius of Fred Astaire" 15 minute clip compilation at 11:50 p.m., which I think was put together for that year's Christmas schedule Fred Astaire season.

BBC4 repeats The Miracle Club at 9 p.m. on Thursday 14th, followed by a showing of a 1970 interview with Smith at 10:25 p.m, and Franco Zeffirelli's Tea With Mussolini at 10:55 p.m.

"Legend Xtra"-wise, the original and best 1986 The Hitcher is showing at 9 p.m. on Saturday 9th, followed by Rutger Hauer again in Wanted: Dead or Alive at 11 p.m.

The film I am most curious about is A Violent Man with Craig Fairbrass at 11:10 p.m. on Wednesday 13th, mostly because it is coming a few years after Fairbrass's (literal!) hard man role in 2019's Muscle.

And the other curio on Legend Xtra of the week is the Samuel L. Jackson film Unthinkable at 11:30 p.m. on Friday 13th, from the Australian director behind the 2003 Heath Ledger starring Ned Kelly film and (pertinent for the week in which the US talks about withdrawing troops from bases in Germany) that Joaquin Phoenix Buffalo Soldiers film from 2001.

[jlnight]

The Teachers' Lounge (2023), Sat 16th May, BBC4.
The Right Hand of the Devil (1963), late Sat 16th May, Talking Pictures.

The Love Merchant (1966), Sun 17th May, Talking Pictures. Or...
Brother (2022), Sun 17th May, BBC2.

Citizen Bruce: The American Pal (2024), Tue 19th May, Talking Pictures.
The Neon Bible, late Tue 19th May, Film4. (on before)

The Mountain (1956), Wed 20th May, Legend.

Three Days of the Condor, Thu 21st May, Sky Arts. (also on Legend)

[colinr0380]

Interesting stuff next week. BBC4 is showing German film The Teacher's Lounge at 9 p.m. on Saturday 16th (here's its Mark Kermode review from its theatrical release), and BBC2 is showing Brother at 10:50 p.m. on Sunday 17th.
___
Most exciting repeat of the week comes in BBC4's 'dance season' evening on Sunday 17th with the 1966 Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn ballet version of Romeo and Juliet showing at 8:15 p.m. Somewhat overshadowed by the Zeffirelli version from a couple of years later, that is the last film directed by Paul Czinner, who co-drected with Alexander Korda the Douglas Fairbanks/Elisabeth Bergner 1934 The Rise of Catherine the Great (which is in the Alexander Korda's Private Lives Eclipse set) and the 1936 Olivier/Bergner starring version of As You Like It. That is followed by the third episode of The Magic of Dance at 10:15 p.m., then a 1991 tribute to Margot Fonteyn at 11:15 p.m., then a 2003 documentary about Nureyev at 12:15 a.m.

BBC4 has a Marilyn Monroe/Jane Russell night on Thursday 21st, with the most notable screening there being the 1987 Eve and Marilyn documentary at 8 p.m., followed by Gentlemen Prefer Blondes at 8:30 p.m; the 1999 Scene by Scene episode with Russell at 10 p.m.; and How to Marry a Millionaire at 10:45 p.m.

As jlnight has noted, Terence Davies The Neon Bible at on Film4 at 2:10 a.m. in the early hours of Wednesday 20th. The notable classic film screenings on Film4 of the week are The 300 Spartans at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday 19th; John Ford's Drums Along The Mohawk at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday 21st; and the 1952 The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men at 4:45 p.m. on Friday 22nd.

"Legend Xtra"-wise, there is the Karl Urban/Andy Garcia film Beyond Suspicion (originally known as Bent) at 11:20 p.m. on Saturday 16th; Hal Ashby's 8 Million Ways To Die gets another showing at 11 p.m. on Wednesday 20th; the John Travolta starring Speed Kills is at 9 p.m. on Thursday 21st, followed by the 2007 Richard Gere and Claire Danes film The Flock at 11 p.m. which is directed by Wai Keung Lau, aka Andy Lau, who directed the original Infernal Affairs trilogy!

Legend Xtra are doing classic films in their 9 p.m. Sunday slot and on the 17th it is the most interesting oddity of the week The Southern Star starring George Segal, Ursula Andress, Orson Welles (who at least according to imdb co-directed its 'opening scenes'), Harry Andrews (from Ice Cold In Alex, The Hill, the John Huston version of Moby Dick), Ian Hendry (Room At The Top, Repulsion, The Hill) and Johnny Sekka (Sekka is particularly interesting as he was in one of the early race relation films, 1961's Flame In The Streets, and after The Southern Cross is the lead in 1970s Incense For The Damned, and is in Moustapha Akkad's 1976 take on the life of Mohammed, The Message)

[jlnight]

The Men of Sherwood Forest, Sat 23rd May, Talking Pictures. (on before)
Inside Out (1975), Sat 23rd May, Together TV. Or...
Pete Murray Takes You to Nottingham (Baim short), Sat 23rd May, Talking Pictures.
My Favourite Cake (2024), Sat 23rd May, BBC4.
Sleep (2023), Sat 23rd May, Film4.

Once Upon a Time in America, Sun 24th May, Legend.

Robot Dreams (2023), Mon 25th May, Film4.
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, Mon 25th May, BBC2.

Celine Dion: A Star Is Born (2024), Tue 26th May, Talking Pictures.

Mulholland Drive, Thu 28th May, Sky Arts. (been on other channels)



Rewind TV at the third time of trying finally showed Massage Parlor Murders with the ending!