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Best films to watch on TV today, tonight and this week
Whatever your taste, there's a movie on for everyone.
If you find that you’re becoming a little too familiar with the film selections on big-name streamers, you’re not alone.
While many automatically head to Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, streaming isn’t the only way to watch movies in the comfort of your own home.
And even though the country is opening up again post-lockdown, the range of great films on terrestrial TV is as reliable as ever – including old favourites from yesteryear, an array of modern classics and everything else in between.
From NOW TV and Disney+, to terrestrial TV offerings – there’s so much to choose from across all different genres so no matter what mood you’re in, you can find something to watch.
With so many amazing films airing on TV this week, we’ve compiled a list of the best flicks for you to choose from.
Friday 23rd April
Young and Innocent – 1:20pm, Talking Pictures TV
A police constable’s naive daughter goes on the run with her innocent murder suspect boyfriend, racing against time to find evidence to convict the real killer as the authorities close in. Read our full review
Ema – 1:35pm, Channel 4
An estranged couple struggle with the aftermath of giving up their adopted son, despite the violent acts he committed. Read our full review
The Girl in the Spider’s Web – 9pm, Film4
Swedish hacker Lisbeth Salander is hired by computer genius Frans Balder to retrieve Firefall, a programme capable of accessing the world’s nuclear codes that he developed for the National Security Agency. Though Salander manages to find Firefall, it’s not long before she’s fighting for her life against mercenaries. Read our full review
Philomena – 11:35pm, BBC One
A teenager in 1950s Ireland becomes pregnant, and is sent to a home for `fallen women’, while her baby is forcibly taken from her and sent to America to be adopted. Fifty years later, she meets a disillusioned political journalist who attempts to reunite her with her son. Read our full review
Saturday 24th April
High Society – 12:40pm, TCM
Romantic complications arise when a playboy composer sets out to win back his ex-wife. However, she is about to marry another man – and the situation becomes even more difficult when a cynical reporter enters the fray. Read our full review
Addams Family Values – 4:25pm, 5 Star
Spooky couple Gomez and Morticia hire a nanny to look after their new baby son – and stop him suffering an early death at the hands of his jealous elder siblings. Romance soon blossoms between the new childminder and Uncle Fester, but he does not realise she is planning to kill him once she has got hold of the family fortune. Read our full review
Julia – 6:50pm, Talking Pictures TV
Oscar-winning fact-based drama set in the 1930s, chronicling the relationship between writer Lillian Hellman and her enigmatic friend Julia, focusing on the devastating effect the Nazis’ rise to power has on their lives. Read our full review
War for the Planet of the Apes – 9pm, Channel 4
When a rogue army of humans kills Caesar’s wife and son, he sets out to exact revenge. But his quest for retribution reveals his darker instincts even as he makes a startling discovery. Read our full review
War of the Worlds – 11:55pm, BBC One
Science fiction remake of the 1953 adaptation of HG Wells’s classic novel about a dock worker’s fight to get his children to safety when merciless aliens attack Earth. As the family race through the streets of New York, they find themselves being chased by giant tripods while alien vessels open fire on the retreating crowd, incinerating everything that gets in the way. Read our full review
Sunday 25th April
The History of Mr Polly – 11:45am, Talking Pictures TV
A daydreaming Victorian clerk comes into a large inheritance, which he invests in setting himself up as a gentlemen’s outfitter. However, his lacklustre business and hasty marriage to a crabby harridan only bring unhappiness, so he begins to make desperate plans to escape. Read our full review
Babe – 1:45pm, ITV
A kindly farmer wins a cute piglet, which some greedy humans and jealous animals hope will end up as the Christmas roast. Undaunted, the young pig proves himself useful on the farm and enlists the aid of the resident dog in learning how to herd sheep. Read our full review
The Girl Can’t Help It – 3:30pm, Talking Pictures TV
A hard-up theatrical agent is hired to turn a gangster’s talentless girlfriend into a singing star – but their professional relationship gradually blossoms into romance. Read our full review
Chicken Run – 5:30pm, ITV2
A headstrong chicken and her fellow fowls ponder how to escape from a grim Yorkshire farm before the evil farmer’s wife can turn them into pies. Luckily, help arrives in the form of a heroic American rooster who promises to show them how to fly. Read our full review
Dangerous Liaisons – 11:55pm, BBC Two
A philandering aristocrat in 18th-century France schemes with his manipulative former lover to seduce a virtuous young woman. As their conspiracy becomes ever more tangled, events take an unexpected turn. Read our full review
Monday 26th April
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad – 1pm, Horror Channel
The heroic sailor pits his wits against an evil magician who has shrunk a princess to the size of a doll – but to break the spell, he must journey to a mysterious island inhabited by hideous monsters and find a magic lamp. Read our full review
It Should Happen to You – 5:20pm, Sony Movies Classic
A publicity-seeking actress with an urge to be famous comes up with a plan to make a name for herself. She rents a billboard in New York with her name and picture on it, and soon becomes an overnight sensation – despite not actually being famous for anything. Meanwhile, a wealthy playboy becomes infatuated with her, to the consternation of her film-maker boyfriend. Read our full review
Ray & Liz – 11:20pm, Film4
A couple living near Birmingham raise their two sons while living on the fringes of society, breaking social taboos as they deal with issues beyond their control. Read our full review
Tuesday 27th April
Cover Girl – 3pm, Sony Movies Classic
Dancer Rusty Parker works in a small New York club with her choreographer boyfriend Danny McGuire, but gets a taste of fame when she wins a competition to appear on the cover of a prestigious magazine. This in turn leads to her starring in a hit musical, though her success has a dramatic effect on her relationship with Danny. Read our full review
City Slickers – 6:45pm, Film4
Three middle-aged men take a break from the rat race and their mid-life crises to join a two-week cattle drive from New Mexico to Colorado. Together with a bunch of fellow urbanites, they find the going much tougher than expected, and it is down to a real-life cowboy to whip them into shape. Read our full review
Born Free – 7:05pm, Sony Movies Classic
After Elsa, one of the three lion cubs tamed by George, creates a ruckus, he is forced by his bosses to send her back to the wild. A year later, George is happy that Elsa hasn’t forgotten him. Read our full review
Wednesday 28th April
Dial M for Murder – 3:25pm, TCM
A former tennis champion suspects his wife is having an affair, so he hatches a plan to have her killed and inherit her fortune. He succeeds in blackmailing a disgraced former soldier into murdering her and making it look like a burglary. However, the plan backfires when the intended victim kills the would-be assassin. Read our full review
The Fugitive – 9pm, ITV4
A doctor is convicted of his wife’s murder and forced to go on the run to prove his innocence – but his efforts to find the mysterious one-armed man he believes is the real killer are hampered by a tenacious US marshal. Read our full review
The Crying Game – 11:10pm, Film4
An IRA member holds a British soldier hostage. The pair form an unlikely bond – so when the situation ends in tragedy, the guilt-ridden terrorist sets out to find his former prisoner’s lover. But romance is soon on the cards, with devastating results. Read our full review
Thursday 29th April
The Assassination Bureau – 9pm, Talking Pictures TV
Tenacious journalist Diana Rigg sets out to track down a society of hired killers operating at the beginning of the 20th century. However, she’s taken aback by the smooth sophistication of the organisation’s leader Oliver Reed. She comes up with a singularly appropriate challenge for him – but events are complicated by a conniving nobleman. Read our full review
The Spy Who Loved Me – 9pm, ITV4
After the Royal Navy Polaris submarine carrying sixteen nuclear warheads mysteriously disappears, James Bond teams up with Major Anya Amasova, whose lover he had killed in Austria. Read our full review
Get Shorty – 9pm, Sony Movies
A film-loving Miami loan shark visits Hollywood to squeeze a debt from a B-movie director. He ends up using his impressive knowledge of all things cinematic to become a movie producer and help recruit an Oscar-winning star to the film-maker’s new project. Read our full review
Friday 30th April
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner – 2:35pm, Sony Movies Classic
A white couple who pride themselves on their liberal attitudes come to realise they are not quite as open-minded as they thought when their daughter announces she is marrying a black man. While the bride-to-be does not care what others think of her, her fiance is determined to win the approval of both her family and his. Read our full review
Sink the Bismarck! – 5:10pm, Sony Movies
Fact-based Second World War drama, charting the mission to track down and eliminate the pride of the German fleet, a fearsome battleship devastating British vessels in the North Atlantic, orchestrated by a British naval officer recovering from his wife’s death in an air raid. Read our full review
Total Recall – 9pm, Film4
A man living in a bleak future years after a nuclear war has fake memories of being a secret agent implanted into his brain. However, the procedure uncovers the fact that he really is a spy with his memory erased, and he is forced to become a fugitive from the totalitarian government. Read our full review
The Blair Witch Project – 11:35pm, BBC One
Three film students head into the American backwoods to make a documentary about the fabled Blair Witch. There proves to be more to the urban legend than meets the eye, and as night falls they find themselves in very real danger. Read our full review
What’s on NOW TV this week?
If you’ve not found anything on the regular TV schedules that tickles your fancy, NOW TV is regularly adding some new films to their collection – which you can access with a Sky Cinema pass.
Here are this week’s highlights:
The Secret Garden – now available
The film tells the well-loved story of a young girl who is sent to live with her uncle, where she discovers a beautiful garden and a local boy who helps her understand the garden’s hidden secrets
A Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood – now available
In 1998, magazine journalist Lloyd Vogel is sent to interview beloved TV entertainer Fred Rogers, an assignment he feels is beneath him. However, a friendship soon forms between the two men. Starring Tom Hanks, Matthew Rhys and Chris Cooper. Read our full review.
Le Mans ’66 – now available
Matt Damon stars as Carroll Shelby, the visionary American driver and car designer who was enlisted by Ford to assemble a car – the Ford GT40 – to beat out Enzo Ferrari’s vehicles and their dominance over the race. Shelby recruits rogue driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale), and together they battle corporate interference, the laws of physics, and their own personal demons to build a revolutionary race car.
Abominable – now available
After discovering a magical creature they believe to be a Yeti, teenager Yi and her two friends embark on an epic adventure. They try to reunite the creature with his family, whilst evading a wealthy financier and a determined zoologist who want to capture the creature for their own needs. Read our full review.
Looking for more? Take a look at our best movies on NOW TV guide – Get 12 months of Sky Cinema for just £11.99 £9.99 / month.
If you have Netflix we have rounded up the best movies on Netflix, the best series on Netflix to watch now and Disney+ viewers check out our best movies on Disney Plus guide. Amazon? We have the best movies on Amazon Prime. Wondering what to watch on TV? Visit our TV Guide.
