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I found Sweet As You Are to be a generally worthwhile watch, although with a few caveats. This is a drama about a university lecturer Martin who had an affair with a pupil (though the ethical dilemma surrounding that aspect is barely touched upon aside from the character confirming the encounters happened on multiple occasions) and finding out later that he is HIV positive. The focus of the story is on him revealing the affair to his wife Julia and their discussions/arguments/all out physical fights over her having to go and get tested, and the wait for the results which let her play on her fears over what the test may say.

The main thing that kept coming to mind throughout this is that it felt very much like a structural and thematic remake of the 1960s Gerry O’Hara STD transmission drama That Kind Of Girl (which I very much prefer), although I guess there are only so many ways to approach this subject of an affair having both short term emergency consequences (the need for the innocent party to themselves have to get tested) and longer term relationship ones. Sweet As You Are has two great performances from Miranda Richardson (albeit rather overwrought, though I wonder if that is intentionally so, in order to push her otherwise entirely blameless character more towards the unsympathetic side?) and Liam Neeson (whose character is mostly guiltily subdued throughout) so it is definitely worthwhile seeing on that basis, though the part that makes it stand apart from That Kind Of Girl is also its most problematic section, when it tries to place a somewhat irrelevant layer of polemical feminist gender politics on top of what should be a much more specific to that couple interpersonal drama. But that may have shown how much more complicated (curdled?) interpersonal interactions had become over the decades between the two films.

The ‘problematic’ part comes in the mid-section where, in the midst of her crisis about the NHS being able to do the test but it taking two weeks for the results to come back causing Julia to instead go to a shady private clinic (who can get the results back in ‘just’ two days but it will also cost £65 for the blood test), she spends her time fretting about the betrayal by cutting out headlines about sex attackers and rapists from the newspapers and leaves them lying around on the kitchen table in a kind of pointed collage for Martin to find. This then leads to the couple’s worst fight in which Julia says that its never women who instigate these situations but always “men on men; or men on women” and in the worst act of the entire film from out of nowhere in a fit of pique tells Martin to stay away from their pre-pubescent daughter Katie, implying that he could infect their daughter if he does the same to her as he has done to Julia. When that statement understandably enrages Martin, Julia compounds it with physical violence by throwing objects at him, until one particularly violent hit on Martin draws (contaminated) blood, which stops them both in their tracks.

That gets followed up a couple of scenes later by a more subdued reconciliation scene in which Martin talks of the way that all men would take the opportunity he did if it was presented to him, and it is just societal boundaries that stop them. Which if I trusted this film more I would like to have taken as an example of Martin throwing his entire gender under the bus in order to try and escape being held personally responsible for his own specific actions. However when the film also includes a supporting character of one of Martin’s lecherous lecturer colleagues spying on the female students through binoculars to start the whole film off, and then has a later scene in which the same colleague drags Martin out of class to observe a couple of girls in a classroom and do a Dazed and Confused-anticipating comment about how the best part of the job is that “the girls all stay 18 and get refreshed every year. Once they hit 19 they’re too jaded”, that kind of makes it appear as if the film is implying that there is this institutional culture of male predation (or at least one that makes Martin think that he can take the actions he did) rather than just one specific couple’s situation. So that makes Martin saying that its not just him but ‘all Men’ seem like it is a statement that the film itself believes to be the case as well.

This aspect is also compounded by how we never really get an insight into what the couple’s relationship was like pre-HIV diagnosis aside from the opening pan over the idealised family photograph over the opening credits, which perhaps (intentionally? / unintentionally?) raises notions of a kind of brittle female mental instability aspect that was always there under the surface and ready to break through, and maybe would have at some point even without such an intense moment of crisis. Or maybe we are just meant to see this as a woman being mentally destroyed by this specific situation? That this gives so much food for thought in wondering what the specific intentions were behind the somewhat muddied motivations (seeing the introduction by the writer William Nicholson beforehand may perhaps help to shed some light on this complication, since there is the suggestion that he wrote a lot of this story from his ‘Male’ perspective and then it got amended by both female producers and the female director to add elements, along with the actors doing things with their performances, which could suggest the big fight scene was a bit improvised?) and speculation as to what exactly the motivations of the filmmakers in this piece could be is both the aspect that I find particularly troubling, but also makes Sweet As You Are so interesting to mull over as well.

Interestingly in this focus on the relationship between Martin and Julia above all, that marginalises the daughter Katie considerably, but the various moments in which Katie appears actually works well to emphasise the child who is being overlooked and somewhat neglected throughout all of this drama. She is the one who has to endure the blazing rows taking place in the hallway outside of the living room between her parents, and because Julia does not want to tell anyone else in the family about Martin’s HIV diagnosis because of fears of prejudice towards their daughter in particular from their peers (it is quite important to place Sweet As You Are into context of being made in 1988 years before even the famous Eastenders Mark Fowler HIV+ storyline took place in 1991), that leads to Julia and Martin’s fights over a specific situation just seeming like a generally disintegrating marriage between two people who have simply just come to hate each other. There is that moment when Julia is screaming at Martin downstairs about not wanting Katie to be treated differently because of Martin’s behaviour when we get the cut upstairs to Katie in bed wide awake and listening to the muffled row downstairs, which might be the most upsetting moment in the whole drama.

That situation of Julia having to find out about the nature of HIV, and wanting to not let anyone else know about their family situation, perhaps also plays into her mental instability. There is that late scene with Julia’s mother taking her out to dinner in which the mother, probably strongly suspecting an affair, but no more than that, believes that it is just a tiff that all marriages have and that the best thing to do is to double down and have another baby to cement the relationship together better (which kind of horribly implies that Katie was a bit of a dud and isn’t doing the job of that already!), but which also seems to be included in order to lead into the ending:

Spoiler

Where Julia goes back to the private clinic and finds out that her blood is “as pure as Lady Di’s”, but then having the tension of being HIV+ herself lifted from her makes Julia break down as suddenly all of the other questions well up and she has a (deus ex machina) chat with the doctor to air all of her concerns about what happens now and if the other couples he sees in similar situations to hers stay together or not. What about Martin and will he get sick? And what about having those ‘extra’ children her mother suggested, or is that now something that is completely off the table given that Martin is HIV+?

The best part of this film is that for some of the somewhat forced dramatics that has come before, it knows the exactly right moment to end at, as Julia returns home late from the clinic to look in on Katie asleep in her bed (the one true innocent character who will be affected by this situation, whatever happens) and then finds Martin still awake and lying clothed on the bed waiting for her. Martin tells her that he still loves her, and we end on that hung moment of ambivalence of Julia still standing in her coat in the doorway of the bedroom, where things could go either way.

So I liked this, albeit with a few caveats, however I still think for a more fully rounded experience it would be best to watch this together with That Kind Of Girl, which is the more straightforward companion piece to this very similar moral dilemma relationship drama.

The Menu (2022), Sat 18th Oct, Channel 4. Or...
The Strange Case of Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle (2005 TVM), Sat 18th Oct, Talking Pictures.
Indecent Desires (1968) + I Eat Your Skin, late Sat 18th Oct, Talking Pictures.

Carrie's War (2004 TVM), Sun 19th Oct, Talking Pictures.
The World is Full of Married Men, Sun 19th Oct, Together TV.

Serves You Right! (short), Mon 20th Oct, Talking Pictures.
Obsession (1949), Mon 20th Oct, Talking Pictures.
Pooja, Sir, late Mon 20th Oct, Channel 4.

Design for Loving (1962), Tue 21st Oct, Talking Pictures.
Mr & Mrs '55, late Tue 21st Oct, Channel 4. (+ intro)

We're All Going To The World's Fair, Wed 22nd Oct, Film4.

Halloween (1978), Fri 24th Oct, BBC2. (ex-Moviedrome)

Great news about the Guru Dutt film Mr and Mrs '55. That has not aired on UK television since its previous Channel 4 showing on 29th June 1999! Although it is available in full on YouTube as well!

Apparently it is to mark Guru Dutt's centenary.

When was the last time a Doris Wishman film screened on UK telly?

Lots of horror-themed things next week. Although Channel 5 have not got the message with three more Christmas TV movie premieres over the weekend of 18th and 19th October!

Channel 4 is showing another in the 'angry chef' genre with a Knives Out-meets-Coriolanus twist The Menu at 9 p.m. on Saturday 18th.

Surprisingly ITV1 are showing the first two episodes of the first series of Star Trek: Brave New Worlds from 10:20 p.m. on Sunday 19th, which is the first new Star Trek to hit Freeview UK television since Channel 4 did about half of the episodes of the first series of Star Trek: Discovery around seven years ago and then promptly gave up on the show entirely. Lets see if ITV do any better! (EDIT: It turns out all they are showing is the first two episodes in this double bill, with the rest on their streaming platform)

Channel 4's South Asian film season continues with the premiere of Pooja, Sir at 2:40 a.m. in the early hours of Tuesday 21st. BBC4's Storyville documentary series continues with Ukrainian film Sanatorium at 10 p.m. on Tuesday 21st.

The big film of the week is Jane Schoenbrun's pre-I Saw A TV Glow internet drama film We're All Going To The World's Fair showing on Film4 at 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday 22nd
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In terms of repeats, BBC4's repeats of the 1987 Great Philosopher's series continues from 11 p.m. om Monday 20th with episode 4 on Descartes; and episode 5 on Spinoza and Leibniz. BBC4 is also doing a tribute to the late Patricia Routledge on Tuesday 21st from 7:30 p.m. with Routledge introducing episodes of Keeping Up Appearances, Miss Pym's Day Out and of course the A Lady of Letters episode of the Talking Heads series.

As jlnight has noted above, the South Asian film season on Channel 4 is showing Guru Dutt's 1955 film Mr & Mrs '55 at 3:25 a.m. in the early hours of Wednesday 22nd. This was just before Dutt's more famous last two films Pyaasa (Thirst) and Kagaaz Ke Phool (Paper Flowers), one of the great films about filmmaking, both of which Dutt starred with Waheeda Rehman. In Mr & Mrs '55 instead Dutt stars with actress Madhubala. It appears that Channel 4 is airing a newly made introduction to the film just prior to the screening at 3:10 a.m., but I did look out and digitise the 1999 introduction to the film by Thomas Abraham from when it previously aired on Channel 4 in a "Hindi Screen Icons" season.

A couple of items of interest are tucked away very late at night on Film4 with Miranda July's The Future showing at 1:40 a.m. in the early hours of Monday 20th; and Alan Rickman's The Winter Guest at 12:55 a.m. in the early hours of Tuesday 21st.

In terms of the Legend Xtra channel, which I can now access and record from reliably, the most interesting item of the week is Gary Busey, Yaphet Kotto and Seymour Cassel starring in the revenge thriller Eye of the Tiger at 11 p.m. on Tuesday 21st (from Richard C. Sarafian, director of the 1971 Vanishing Point! And the Indicator released Fragment of Fear). Plus the bizarre oddity dystopian London set (in the far future of 2008, when the Thames barrier has failed to stop the city from flooding) psychic serial killer/monster/Satanism horror film meets buddy cop actioner with Rutger Hauer Split Second at 11 p.m. on Wednesday 22nd (which got a great Blu-ray edition by 101 Films a couple of years back), and Stephen Dorff in Brake at 11 p.m. on Thursday 23rd (which seems to be in the tradition of that Ryan Reynolds Buried film)

Lots of horror films across the week on the run up to Halloween including Manhunter on BBC2 at 11 p.m. on Monday 20th; The Haunting on BBC2 at 12:10 a.m. in the early hours of Thursday 23rd; Saint Maud on Film4 at 1:15 a.m. in the early hours of Friday 24th; the 1978 Halloween on BBC2 at 11 p.m. on Friday 24th; a double bill of X and the 1961 The Innocents on Film4 from 11:20 p.m. on Friday 24th; and most terrifying of all, Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach at the witching hour of Midnight on Friday 24th.

jlnight wrote: Tue Oct 14, 2025 3:29 pm When was the last time a Doris Wishman film screened on UK telly?

The only one that comes to mind is Nude on the Moon that tied in with the first episode of Channel 4's Exploitica series on 18th December 1998, repeated again on 18th August 1999.

Promising Young Woman + Gunpowder Milkshake, Sat 25th Oct, Sky Mix. Or...
Maxwell (2007 BBC TVM), Sat 25th Oct, Talking Pictures. Or...
The Crime Is Mine, Sat 25th Oct, BBC4.
A Saint, A Woman, A Devil + Moon of the Wolf (1972), late Sat 25th Oct, Talking Pictures.

So Evil, So Young, Sun 26th Oct, Talking Pictures. Or...
Last Night in Soho, Sun 26th Oct, Channel 4.
The House of Mirth, late Sun 26th Oct, Film4. (on before)

Late Night with the Devil, Wed 29th Oct, Film4.

Bloodbath at the House of Death, Fri 31st Oct, Rewind TV. (been on other channels)

Lots of things showing next week. Channel 5 has another three Christmas TV movies over the weekend of 25th and 26th October!! (Notably A Royal Christmas Ballet showing at 11 a.m. on Sunday 26th, from horror maestro Fred Olen Ray). But they are still confined to the weekends at the moment and the crime thriller TV movies are still showing during weekday afternoons.

BBC4 is showing Francois Ozon's The Crime Is Mine at 9 p.m. on Saturday 25th, which coincidentally shows immediately before another tale of glamorous decadent true crime in a period setting with the second in Ti West's "X" trilogy, Pearl showing on Film4 at 11:10 p.m. (dark 'n' moody remix of classic song ahoy!)

BBC4's Storyville documentary of the week is Welded Together at 10 p.m. on Tuesday 28th. Another period-set horror on Film4 with Late Night With The Devil on Film4 at 9 p.m. on Wednesday 29th. (Nervy A24-style strings ahoy!)
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In terms of repeats BBC2 is doing a quick tribute to Diane Keaton with Book Club showing at 9 p.m. on Friday 31st.

BBC1's horror films for the week are screenings of the first three Scream films on Sunday 26th, Monday 27th and Tuesday 28th. The Others is on BBC2 at 11 p.m. on Monday 27th. On Halloween itself BBC1 has the Daniel Racliffe The Woman In Black; BBC2 is showing Don't Look Now; and throughout the day Film4 are showing the 1945 Dead of Night, The Pope's Exorcist, the 1989 Warlock and The Masque of the Red Death.

BBC4's 'archive television' strand continues with a showing of the 1995 adaptation of David Hare's The Absence of War at 10:15 p.m. on Wednesday 29th, preceeded by a new 15 minute interview with David Hare at 10 p.m. That is somewhat incongruously followed by a 1992 Arena episode about the wrestler Kendo Nagasaki at 11:45 p.m., Master of the Canvas! That was the same year he appeared in a challenge in Gamesmater!

The 1987 "The Great Philosophers" series continues on BBC4 with episode 6 (Locke and Berkeley) and 7 (Hume) from 11 p.m. on Monday 27th. Although this does appear to have been handily uploaded to YouTube so I have been watching ahead (and the same uploader has put up the earlier Contemporary Philosophy series from 1978 as well!). Sometimes all you need for a compelling television series is to film two people in discussion!

Also I missed noting it last week but on Sundays BBC4 is also repeating the 1977 The Age of Uncertainty series. Episodes 3 and 4 are showing from 10:30 p.m.

Legend Xtra-wise, there are a few things as well. I am most excited to get to see the 1989 Rutger Hauer-starring Blind Fury at 11:20 p.m. on Saturday 25th, which was the US take on Zatoichi; Robert Aldrich's Ulzana's Raid is showing at 9 p.m. on Sunday 26th; the horror film in which werewolves take second place to the nightmare of terrible rail service Howl is showing at 11:10 p.m. on Tuesday 28th in a double bill with World War One zombie film Death Trench at 1 a.m. (although the videogame Amnesia: The Bunker currently has the World War One setting for a horror tale covered!). Plus two Hammer horrors are screening with Dracula - Prince of Darkness at 1 a.m. in the early hours of Thursday 30th and The Curse of the Werewolf at 5 p.m. on Friday 31st.

Just noticed the real oddity of next week's schedules: did you know that Agnieszka Holland did a 2014 mini-series remake of Rosemary's Baby starring Zoe Saldaña for NBC? I didn't! But its showing as one 2 hour and 40 minute film on Channel 5 at 10 p.m. on Sunday 26th.

Blarney, Sat 1st Nov, Talking Pictures.
Mrs Mike, Sat 1st Nov, Talking Pictures.
Count Dracula (1977 BBC TVM p1), Sat 1st Nov, Talking Pictures.
Nick Cave: This Much I Know to Be True, late Sat 1st Nov, Sky Arts. Or...
One Million AC/DC + Satan's Slave (1976), late Sat 1st Nov, Talking Pictures.
Strange Experiences: Old Silas (short), late Sat 1st Nov, Talking Pictures.

Count Dracula (1977 BBC TVM p2), Sun 2nd Nov, Talking Pictures. Or...
Fanny Hill (1983), Sun 2nd Nov, Together TV.

Time Well Spent (1975 short), Mon 3rd Nov, Talking Pictures.
I, The Jury (1953), Mon 3rd Nov, Talking Pictures.

Bob Trevino Likes It, Wed 5th Nov, Film4.

The Public Image Is Rotten, Thu 6th Nov, Sky Arts.

Benediction, Fri 7th Nov, BBC2. (on before) Or...
Eskimo Nell (1975), Fri 7th Nov, Rewind TV.

Quite a few eclectic things next week. The big premiere of the week is Solo: A Star Wars Story, shyly tucked away on the ITV2 channel at 5:20 p.m. on Sunday 2nd. The Star Wars films have always been associated with ITV since they premiered the original trilogy in the 1980s, and ITV appears to have kept the rights to the original trilogy and the prequels, and premiered The Force Awakens in 2018 and Rogue One back in 2019 (on their main ITV1 channel during the respective Christmas periods), but for some inexplicable reason ( ) decided to pass on The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, letting Channel 4 premiere them (along with repeating The Force Awakens) in 2022. And now years later ITV have belatedly premiered the last remaining Star Wars film on UK television with Solo. So it seems there has been quite a neat segregation (quarantine?) off between the Sequel series and the rest of Star Wars, at least in UK TV terms!

Two films by female directors during the week with Film4's one premiere of the week, as jlnight has noted, being Bob Trevino Likes It at 10:50 p.m. on Wednesday 5th; and BBC3 showing Cat Person at 10:10 p.m. on Thursday 6th.
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Repeat-wise, BBC4's archive television screening is a repeat of the 1995 Screen Two drama Blue Boy, starring Emma Thompson and Adrian Dunbar. That is showing at 10:20 p.m. on Wednesday 5th, preceded by a new introduction by Emma Thompson and writer Paul Murton at 10 p.m.

That is followed straight afterwards at 11:25 p.m. by another Screen Two drama, The Picnic, from 1989 starring Billie Whitelaw

BBC4 is also showing a repeat of the 1985 Edge of Darkness series from 9:15 p.m. on Saturday 1st, the first double bill of episodes preceded by a new 15 minute interview with actor Ian McNeice at 9 p.m.

Channel 5's Christmas TV movies have spread from their weekend timeslots into the afternoons next week, which is still too early to be thinking of Christmas since it is the week between Halloween and Bonfire Night. But Channel 5 are showing repeats of older Christmas TV movies at this early stage rather than the premieres that are going to be occupying the slots over the next two months.

I am most interested in catching up on the films that I had been missing on the "Legend Xtra" channel - next week includes the curio of the week in the John Cusack, Adrien Brody and Jackie Chan team up Dragon Blade (I still need to explore more deeply that 2010s period where Hollywood was trying to cozy up to China, because I have a horrible feeling that might get memory-holed at some point now that it did not entirely work out); the James Coburn, Bud Spencer and Telly Savalas team up spaghetti Western A Time To Live, A Time To Die at 11 p.m. on Thursday 6th (with a Riz Ortolani score!); at 8 a.m. the same day there is the more classic Bud Spencer and Terence Hill team up in Boot Hill; and the Kim Basinger thriller While She Was Out is on at 11:15 p.m. on Friday 7th (although amusingly I think that trailer just spoiled the entire film!)

Gulliver's Travels (1939), Sat 8th Nov, Talking Pictures.
The Day Time Ended, Sat 8th Nov, Talking Pictures.
Quiz Show, Sat 8th Nov, Great TV. Or...
Murder By Decree, Sat 8th Nov, Talking Pictures. (been on Freeview) Or...
The Kenny Everett New Naughty Video, Sat 8th Nov, Rewind TV. (last on London Live)
Slave of the Cannibal God (1978) + Moon of the Wolf, late Sat 8th Nov, Talking Pictures.

London in the Raw, Sun 9th Nov, Rewind TV. (last on London Live)

Damn the Defiant! (HMS Defiant), Wed 12th Nov, Legend.

The Hitcher (1986), Fri 14th Nov, Legend. Or...
Sex and the Other Woman, Fri 14th Nov, Rewind TV. (been on Freeview)

Only one premiere next week although it is an interesting one, a rare film showing on BBC1 in primetime, Mr Burton at 8 p.m. on Monday 10th, about the young Richard Burton's mentor, which is getting a very early television showing to coincide with the 10th being the 100th anniversary of Richard Burton's birth. In addition BBC2 is showing a double bill of Burton films from 1953 with The Robe at 1:30 p.m. and The Desert Rats at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday 8th. These are also repeated in a "Richard Burton night" on BBC4 from 8 p.m. on Thursday 13th.

The only other new thing of note is that Channel 5 have seemingly appropriated the old 1970s "Play For Today" moniker and are starting a series of four made for TV productions, with the first being Never Too Late, showing at 9 p.m. on Thursday 13th.
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Repeat-wise, well I spoke too soon about ITV not caring about the sequel Star Wars series, since The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi (for the first time on ITV) both turn up in a double bill on ITV2 on Sunday from 2:20 p.m.! So even Channel 4 did not want to keep hold of the sequel series and retuned it to the channel that shows all the other entries in the series! Though ITV is still relegating those to the ITV2 sub-channel whilst showing A New Hope on ITV1 at 4 p.m. on Saturday 8th, and again at 11:20 p.m. on Thursday 13th.

BBC4 are showing two Belfast-set Screen Two dramas on the evening of Wednesday 12th with The Precious Blood from 1996 showing at 10:15 p.m., preceeded by a new interview with writer Graham Reid at 10 p.m.; and Life After Life from 1995 at 11:40 p.m., which also starts with a new 10 minute interview with Reid at 11:30 p.m.

Continuing to catch up on the "Legend Xtra" channel's films, the most interesting are repeats of 1986 Richard Gere and Kim Basinger film No Mercy at 9 p.m. on Tuesday 11th; and The Family aka Violent City at 10:50 p.m. on Wednesday 12th, which has Charles Brosnan and Jill Ireland in a film from The Big Gundown director Sergio Solima; and a weird Philippine-shot Cannon film starring David Carradine, P.O.W.: The Escape at 1:10 a.m. in the early hours of Saturday 15th. Plus the 1962 Day of the Triffids film is showing at 5 p.m. on Friday 14th.

The Man Who Stayed Alive (short), Sat 15th Nov, Talking Pictures.
The Kenny Everett Naughty Joke Box, Sat 15th Nov, Rewind TV. Or...
Infinity Pool, Sat 15th Nov, Film4. Or...
Steppin' Out (short), Sat 15th Nov, Talking Pictures.
Warm Nights and Hot Pleasures (1964) + Snowbeast (1977 TVM), late Sat 15th Nov, Talking Pictures.

Ace High (1968), Sun 16th Nov, 5Action.
The Quick and the Dead (1995), Sun 16th Nov, Legend. (been on Freeview) Or...
Mary Millington's True Blue Confessions (short), Sun 16th Nov, Rewind TV. (last on London Live)

A Thousand And One (2023), Mon 17th Nov, BBC2.

Hilary and Jackie, late Tue 18th Nov, Film4.

High Flight (1957), Wed 19th Nov, Legend. (last on TPTV)

Sex with the Stars, Fri 21st Nov, Rewind TV. (been on Together TV) Or...
Secrets of a Door to Door Salesman (Naughty Wives), Fri 21st Nov, Together TV.

A head to head next week as the two big premieres clash up against each other on the evening of Saturday 15th, with Fast X showing at 10:15 p.m. on ITV1 up against Brandon Cronenberg's Infinity Pool on Film4 at 11:35 p.m (A24-nervy strings ahoy!).

BBC2 is showing the New York set A Thousand and One at 11 p.m. on Monday 17th. BBC4 is showing the first two (of four total) of the Danish documentary series The Black Swan from 9 p.m. on Tuesday 18th.
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Repeat-wise jlnight has already noted that Hilary and Jackie is getting a very rare showing on Film4 at 1:15 a.m., in the early hours of Wednesday 19th, suspiciously close to its BFI Blu-ray release. The BBC is going Bridget Jones wild over the upcoming weekend, with 2001's Diary, 2004's The Edge of Reason and 2016's Baby (which has only aired on Channel 5 up to this point) screening. So I would not be too surprised if these all get repeated again in a big block along with that latest Bridget Jones film from this year in the upcoming Christmas schedules, although it may potentially be a bit too soon for that to occur.

BBC4's 'archive television' presentation on Wednesday 19th is the entire four part 2006 series of Jane Eyre showing in one block from 10:20 p.m., preceded by a new introduction from actors Ruth Wilson and Toby Stephens from 10 p.m., although the most interesting thing of that night is a tucked away showing of "The Brontë Business" from 1977 at 2:15 a.m. in the early hours of Thursday 20th.

In terms of the "Legend Xtra" channel, Highlander III: The Sorceror is showing at 9 p.m. on Saturday 15th; and the great Christopher McQuarrie fim The Way of the Gun is showing at 9 p.m. on Tuesday 18th. But the film that I am most interested in of the week is the chance to see Kelsey Grammer as a foul-mouthed baddie in the Red Letter Media-approved Money Plane at 11:30 p.m. on Sunday 16th. (I have a suspicion that "Legend Xtra" are big fans of Red Letter Media, since both Aquaslash and a few of those terrible Bruce Willis-sploitation films - American Siege and Fortress - have turned up on the channel in recent weeks too)

Wagon Master + She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Sat 22nd Nov, BBC2.
All Your Faces (2023), Sat 22nd Nov, BBC4. Or...
Nights of Cabiria, Sat 22nd Nov, Talking Pictures.
My Brother's Wife (1966) + Brides of Blood (1968), late Sat 22nd Nov, Talking Pictures.

The Barefoot Contessa, Sun 23rd Nov, Sky Arts.
100 Rifles, Sun 23rd Nov, Great Action.

Fanny Hill (1964), Fri 28th Nov, Rewind TV.

Rather quiet next week. Aside from a couple of Christmas TV movie premieres on Channel 5 jlnight has noted the other premiere of French film All Your Faces on BBC4 at 9:30 p.m. on Saturday 22nd; and Anne Hathaway film The Idea of You on BBC1 at 10:40 p.m. on Tuesday 25th.
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Repeat-wise, BBC4's 'archive television' strand shows the entire five part 1978 adaptation of Wuthering Heights from 10:15 p.m. on Wednesday 26th, preceded by a new 15 minute introduction by actress Kay Adshead at 10 p.m. (Heathcliffe being played by Ken Hutchison, more familiar as one of the Hedden gang in Straw Dogs), and followed at 2:35 a.m.(!) by Vinette Robinson doing an abridged read of the novel. I have never seen the 1978 Wuthering Heights series but the edition of the book that my mum bought, presumably at that time, is one with a cover still from this series on it (similarly she must also have bought War & Peace around the time of the late 70s Anthony Hopkins starring adaptation, since he features on the cover of the edition in our home library!)

Jafar Panahi's No Bears is getting an un-DOG-tagged screening on BBC2 at 1:35 a.m. in the early hours of Sunday 23rd.

In terms of the "Legend Xtra" channel, items of interest there include the Nicolas Cage film The Trust at 1:10 a.m. on Sunday 23rd; The Internicine Project at 11:20 p.m. on Sunday 23rd; Curse of the Crimson Altar is showing at 1:15 a.m. in the early hours of Tuesday 25th.

The most exciting film of the week is Kenneth More in The Fabulous Journey To The Centre of the Earth (aka Where Time Began) showing at 5 p.m. on Tuesday 25th and directed by Spanish filmmaker Juan Piquer Simón before he went on to slasher film Pieces, horror film Slugs and the even more infamous Extra Terrestrial Visitors (which turned up on MST3K in its "Pod People" re-edited version!); Demon Eye at 1 a.m. in the early hours of Wednesday 26th; plus Horror Hospital at 1 a.m. in the early hours of Thursday 27th, which was the director Anthony Balch's collaboration with producer Richard Gordon - they previously made the anthology film Bizarre (aka Secrets of Sex) together and were apparently tentatively working on an early adaptation of William Burroughs' Naked Lunch in the mid 1970s that unfortunately never came to pass (Balch is perhaps most famous for his two short films made with Burroughs The Cut Ups and Towers Open Fire). Another one of those 'what could have been' talents similar to Michael Reeves.

We have an early contender for representative wacked out Christmas TV movie bizarrity of the year - Ghosts of Christmas Past, which aired on Channel 5 today, involves a lady who designs characters for videogames and is a serial 'ghoster' of potential online boyfriends at Christmas who is cursed Christmas Carol-style to have to track down and apologise to all of those she wronged. Which all leads to the ultimate 'ghost' of a guy she only met on a videogame forum with a username of Blinky, the ghost from the Pac-Man game!

Its like A Christmas Carol meets The Shop Around The Corner-but-in-a-video-game studio!

colinr0380 wrote: Fri Nov 21, 2025 10:08 pm We have an early contender for representative wacked out Christmas TV movie bizarrity of the year - Ghosts of Christmas Past, which aired on Channel 5 today, involves a lady who designs characters for videogames and is a serial 'ghoster' of potential online boyfriends at Christmas who is cursed Christmas Carol-style to have to track down and apologise all of those she wronged. Which all leads to the ultimate 'ghost' of a guy she only met on a videogame forum with a username of Blinky, the ghost from the Pac-Man game!

Its like A Christmas Carol meets The Shop Around The Corner-but-in-a-video-game studio!

Colin, I admire your commitment to scouring the schedules for potentially bizzaro-Xmas TV-movie crap, like this. I suspect that a good proportion of these are more entertaining as a humerous-synopsis than they are to actually sit-through, although I was forced against my will this week by my partner to sit through a corker of a TVM on one of the streaming-services. It was called (I think?) Hot Frosty, about a lonely widow who is sold a magical scarf, only to drape it around a hilariously buff snowman. Naturally, he comes to life, and they fall in love, but only after he's proven himself in the kitchen, as a handyman and as an all-round real boy! Sadly, this being a family-friendly piece of tat, it is never implied if the widow also placed a generously-sized carrot somewhere about the snowman's person, but then I was raised on Viz magazine, so that's probably just where my mind automatically goes!

Its not too much of a strenuous commitment, though these films are the kind of things that I have on whilst prevaricating about (and then not watching) any of my pile of films! Your mention of Hot Frosty rang a bell and it turns out that inevitably Brad Jones aka The Cinema Snob did a video on it! I have been following his rants for coming up to fifteen years now (back when he was doing his Pierre Kirby/Godfrey Ho arc) and whilst he started out talking about exploitation and horror films, he has branched out a lot into porn parodies (he even put up a few uncensored Snob videos on, ahem, one of the more adult sites!), Christian Evangelical films (the likes of God's Not Dead, the Left Behind series and Christian Mingle: The Movie), and a few forays into the world of TV movies too! Another recommendation for someone who is much more focused on the TV movie side of things is the very amusing Jay Harangue channel.

Breathless (A bout de Souffle), Sat 29th Nov, Talking Pictures. Or...
Queen of the Blues, Sat 29th Nov, Rewind TV. (last on London Live)
Detour, Sat 29th Nov, Talking Pictures. (on before, ex-Moviedrome)
Adam and 6 Eves (1962) + Hideout in the Sun (1960), late Sat 29th Nov, Talking Pictures.

The Great Gatsby (1974), Sun 30th Nov, Sky Arts. Or...
The Return of Frank James, Sun 30th Nov, Great Action.
Primitive London, Sun 30th Nov, Rewind TV. (last on London Live)
Captive (1980), late Sun 30th Nov, Talking Pictures.

Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady (1991 TVM, part 1), Tue 2nd Dec, Together TV.
A Private Function, late Tue 2nd Dec, Film4.

The Southern Star (1969), Wed 3rd Dec, Legend. (last on TPTV)
Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady (1991 TVM, part 2), Wed 3rd Dec, Together TV.
House of Whipcord, Wed 3rd Dec, Together TV. (last on London Live)

Enter the Lone Ranger (1949), Thu 4th Dec, Talking Pictures.
Sherlock Holmes: Incident at Victoria Falls (1992 TVM, part 1), Thu 4th Dec, Together TV.

Sherlock Holmes: Incident at Victoria Falls (1992 TVM, part 2), Fri 5th Dec, Together TV. Or...
The Omega Factor: The Undiscovered Country + Carry on Screaming, Fri 5th Dec, Talking Pictures. (Cellar Club)


EDIT: Rewind TV have retooled their schedules and have now dropped Russ Meyer's Fanny Hill, replaced Primitive London with Naked As Nature Intended, and actually showed Queen of the Blues last Sunday, plus they've added Horror Hospital to Friday's 'After Hours' film slot.

Rather quiet next week. The big film of the week is Violent Night on Film4 at 9 p.m. on Monday 1st (they've finally unironically made the ultraviolent opening sequence of Scrooged into a full film! And mixed it with Krampus, Taken and White House Down for good measure) Cheekily Film4 are playing it together will the first three Home Alone films.

BBC1 has a weirdly titled animation Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken at 2 p.m. on Sunday 30th. Is this what they based those Wicked films on?

Otherwise it is mostly down to the Channel 5 TV movies to hold down the fort, including the painful sounding Operation Nutcracker and Mrs Miracle Returns (aka part of the rebooted Doris Roberts-less Mrs Miracle series and originally known as "Debbie Macober's Joyful Mrs. Miracle" in the US).
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Repeat-wise, the most notable repeat is on the "Legend Xtra" channel with the 1966 Hammer film The Witches showing at 1 a.m. in the early hours of Tuesday 2nd.

BBC4's 'archive television' strand shows the three part 1996 adaptation of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall from 10 p.m. on Wednesday 3rd (very much a post-The Piano style production!).

Bad Lieutenant turns up on the "Legend Xtra" channel at 10:50 p.m. on Wednesday 3rd, and the Tsui Hark directed Jean-Claude Van Damme starring Double Team is showing at 9 p.m. on Friday 5th (followed by another of those worrying Bruce Willis-sploitation films Hard Kill at 10:50 p.m.)

The Case of Marcel Duchamp (1984), Sat 6th Dec, Talking Pictures.
The Swap and How They Make It (1966) + Track of the Vampire (Blood Bath), late Sat 6th Dec, Talking Pictures.

The Bells Go Down, Sun 7th Dec, Talking Pictures.
My Fair Lady, Sun 7th Dec, Sky Arts.
A Clock Work Blue (1972), Sun 7th Dec, Rewind TV.

Psycho (1960), Mon 8th Dec, BBC2.
The Missionary, late Mon 8th Dec, Film4.

Carefree (1938), Tue 9th Dec, BBC2.

Pulp Fiction, Fri 12th Dec, Great Action. Or...
Inseminoid, Fri 12th Dec, Rewind TV. Or...
Escort Girls, Fri 12th Dec, Together TV. (last on London Live) Or...
The Omega Factor: Visitations + Castle of the Living Dead (1964), Fri 12th Dec, Talking Pictures. (Cellar Club) Or...
Get Carter (1971), Fri 12th Dec, BBC2. (on before, ex-Moviedrome)

A very quiet pre-Christmas week although that means that I received the 6th to 12th December RadioTimes days early, so I presume that we are not too far off of the Christmas fortnight magazine dropping soon.

Not really too much of note of new things, although BBC1 are showing the 2022 Oscar nominated Aardman short Robin Robin (it lost to The Windshield Wiper) at 6:20 p.m. on Saturday 6th. Which is something that I would have thought would have been saved as a big animation for Christmas Day, but maybe the BBC have something else planned instead.

In the Christmas TV movie sphere, after Three Wise Men and a Baby from 2022 I had not realised they made a sequel, Three Wiser Men and a Boy last year! They're both showing in a double bill on Channel 5 from 11:55 a.m. on Sunday 7th.
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That's really it for interesting new things. jlnight has noted the best repeat of the week with the 1938 Astaire-Rogers musical Carefree on BBC2 at 1:45 p.m. on Tuesday 9th, which is fast becoming the most aired Astaire-Rogers film, presumably because its the only one without any contentious material in it for modern audiences!

Other than that Paul Schrader's The Card Counter shows on Channel 4 at 1 a.m. in the early hours of Monday 8th. After A Private Function, Film4 does the other Michael Palin starring Handmade Film, The Missionary at 1:50 a.m. in the early hours of Tuesday 9th. Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Memoria turns up for a repeat showing on Channel 4 at 2 a.m. in the early hours of Thursday 11th (unfortunately it has not aired on the un-DOG-tagged Film4 as yet). The documentary The Real Charlie Chaplin shows at the same time as Memoria over on Film4 at 1:25 a.m. And a relatively rare showing of Steve McQueen's Shame is on Channel 4 at 12:40 a.m. in the early hours of Friday 12th, which is apparently going to be in a sign language version (I have to admit to being morbidly curious as to what the sign language symbol for rampant bonking is! The gesture I am thinking of may be unbroadcastable!)

BBC4's 'archive television' strand is showing another Brontë-related programme, with 2016's To Walk Invisible at 10:15 p.m. on Wednesday 10th, preceded by a new 15 minute interview with director Sally Wainwright.

In terms of the "Legend Xtra" channel after talking about WWI horror film Death Trench in October, it was amusing to see one of the few (only?) other First World War horror films appearing next week, with Deathwatch at 11 p.m. on Sunday 7th, which was notable at the time for being Jamie Bell's first film following his starring role in Billy Elliot. Deathwatch was also the first film directed by Michael J. Bassett who went on to the ill fated (and similarly murky) Silent Hill: Revelation film from 2012, transitioned into a woman and most recently helmed the Red Sonja remake.

Most exciting though is that the Legend Xtra are showing the Edgar Wallace story based, Harry Allen Towers produced Five Golden Dragons showing at 9 p.m. on Sunday 7th (directed by the same director just after The Vengeance of Fu Manchu entry in the Christopher Lee series, which probably explains why both Lee and Maria Rohm re-appear here!); the Hammer-Shaw Brothers collaboration The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires is showing at 1 a.m. in the early hours of Tuesday 9th; and at 10:55 p.m. on Tuesday 9th is the Peter Collinson directed British-Italian-Spanish co-production spaghetti western The Man Called Noon.

Here's something I caught on the "Legend Xtra" channel today: the first part of the two-part sci-fi A.I. paranoia mini-series from 2013 Delete, which is directed by Steve Bannon (of the live action first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film and, ahem, Coneheads), and produced by Nicolas Roeg's son Statten Roeg! With notable names in the cast of Matt Frewer and Theresa Russell! It looks as if the second part is airing tomorrow, though both are currently up in full on YouTube (love the knock off grandiose theme tune in the tradition of Howard Shore's The Fly for the opening titles!)

Also I forgot to mention Channel 5 doing a true crime documentary programme on Monday 8th at 10 p.m., which is nothing particularly out of the ordinary for the channel, but this one is about bizarre case of Ursula and Sabina Eriksson, who recently turned up on a segment of Nick Crowley's excellent (though best taken in small doses because the subject matter is often highly disturbing) YouTube channel tackling real life shocking incidents.