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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 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
Saturday 1st May
Local Hero – 1:30pm, Film4
An American oil company representative is sent to buy a Scottish coastal village so it can be demolished to make way for a new refinery. He gradually takes a shine to the place, while the locals are more interested in the money they can get for parting with it. Read our full review
Citizen Kane – 2:30pm, BBC Two
After the death of an influential newspaper magnate, an inquisitive reporter begins piecing together the details of his life, discovering an epic tale of ambition and conflict – all the while trying to discover the meaning behind the millionaire’s enigmatic last word. Read our full review
Nanny McPhee & The Big Bang – 5pm, ITV2
A woman is left running the family farm alone while her husband is fighting in the Second World War. The wart-faced magical nanny is on hand to help her cope with her unruly children, their even more mischievous evacuated cousins, and her scheming brother-in-law, who wants the farm for himself. Read our full review
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel – 6:30pm, 5 Star
Seven English pensioners looking for a fresh start are drawn to an advert for a hotel in the Indian city of Jaipur, and plan to spend their retirement there. They arrive to find the building dilapidated but are won over by the enthusiastic young manager, and each embarks on their own adventures in the city. Read our full review
Flying Blind – 11:55pm, BBC One
An aerospace engineer designing military drones begins a passionate affair with a younger Muslim student. The relationship leads to her being questioned by the security services, who claim he is involved in terrorism, forcing her to question how much she knows about her lover and where her loyalties lie. Read our full review
Sunday 2nd May
Rise of the Guardians – 2:05pm, E4
Magical beings from folklore, including Santa Claus, Jack Frost and the Easter Bunny, join forces to defeat the plans of an evil spirit, who intends to steal the dreams of children and use the power they grant him to dominate the world. Read our full review
Where Eagles Dare – 5:55pm, ITV4
An American general is held captive by the Nazis in a heavily defended fortress in the Alps. A crack team of British soldiers and an American lieutenant are dispatched to free him, but they soon realise there is a traitor in their ranks. Read our full review
Liar Liar – 7:15pm, ITV2
A lawyer whose underhand ploys to win cases leave him little time to see his son discovers he is incapable of lying after the boy’s birthday wish makes his dad tell only the truth. However, this causes a host of problems as the attorney tries to muddle his way through a high-profile divorce settlement. Read our full review
Skyfall – 8pm, ITV
James Bond pursues a mysterious criminal mastermind who has orchestrated a terrorist attack on MI6 headquarters and exposed the identities of undercover agents around the world. The trail leads to a rogue former operative who has a personal vendetta against the intelligence organisation’s leader. Read our full review
Pet Sematary – 10pm, Channel 4
Massachusetts doctor Louis Creed moves to a small Maine town with his wife Rachel, their kids, Ellie and Gage, and Church, the cat. While exploring the local woods, Ellie stumbles across a funeral procession of children taking a dead dog to a cemetery. Neighbour Jud Crandall warns the Creeds that the woods are dangerous, as they soon discover for themselves via the dark power of the local burial ground. Read our full review
Monday 3rd May
The Secret Life of Pets – 1:50pm, ITV
When rivalry leaves them cast adrift on the streets of New York, two bickering hounds must put their differences aside and pull together. Read our full review
Robin Hood – 6:50pm, Sony Movies
The adventures of the legendary outlaw and Sherwood Forest’s band of heroes as they rob the rich to feed the poor, while evil Prince John hatches a cunning plan to exact revenge and finish off the brigands. Read our full review
Sully: Miracle on the Hudson – 8:30pm, BBC One
Clint Eastwood’s fact-based drama, starring Tom Hanks as pilot Chesley `Sully’ Sullenberger, who rose to fame in January 2009 when he safely landed US Airways Flight 1549 in New York’s Hudson River after the plane lost all engine power shortly after take-off – an event that captured the imagination of the world. Read our full review
Tuesday 4th May
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape – 6:45pm, Sony Movies
Small-town delivery boy Gilbert is forced to act as head of his unusual household which includes his obese mother and a younger brother with learning difficulties. However, the arrival of an attractive caravan traveller leads him to consider putting his own happiness first for a change. Read our full review
And Then There Were None – 9pm, Talking Pictures TV
Ten strangers with dark histories are mysteriously summoned to a remote desert hotel in Iran, where an unseen host exacts revenge for their past misdeeds. Read our full review
Black Death – 9pm, Horror Channel
As the bubonic plague sweeps across medieval Britain, one isolated community seems to be completely unaffected. A naive monk is sent to accompany a band of mercenaries to the village to determine if they have used witchcraft to ward off the disease. Read our full review
Wednesday 5th May
Hacksaw Ridge – 9pm, Paramount Network
During the Second World War, US Army Medic Desmond Doss refuses to kill people, and becomes the first man in American history to receive the Medal of Honour without firing a shot. Read our full review
Total Recall – 9pm, ITV4
A construction worker pays to have fake memories of a dream holiday implanted into his brain, but discovers his mind has already been tampered with – apparently to erase his true identity as a secret agent from a colony on Mars. He journeys to the planet in search of the truth, but is drawn into a conflict between the tyrannical ruler and a rebel faction. Read our full review
Mission Impossible – Rogue Nation – 9pm, Film4
The team of secret agents faces being shut down when the head of the CIA convinces the US Senate that it is too dangerous. The operatives of the Impossible Mission Force become fugitives when they defy orders and plot to bring down a shadowy society of assassins. Read our full review
Thursday 6th May
The Bells of St Mary’s – 3:40pm, Film4
Priest Chuck O’Malley comes to the aid of a nun running a parochial school in financial difficulty. While the pair rarely see eye to eye, they pool their resources to improve conditions for the pupils. Read our full review
Reds – 9pm, Talking Pictures TV
Oscar-winning fact-based drama, based on the life of American journalist and activist John Reed, famous for his first-hand account of the 1917 Russian Revolution. The film focuses on his relationship with writer Louise Bryant, whom he first encounters at a meeting for radical thinkers. Leaving her husband, she joins Reed on his journey to Russia as the Bolshevik uprising gets under way. Read our full review
Up in the Air – 11:30pm, BBC Two
A corporate downsizing expert loves his life, detached from everyday existence and striving to achieve a personal goal of 10 million accumulated air miles. However, his lifestyle comes under threat by an up-and-coming executive with a revolutionary approach that would make his role all but obsolete. Read our full review
Friday 7th May
The Tin Star – 1:05pm, Film4
A world-weary bounty hunter, formerly a sheriff, arrives in a small town where a newly-appointed lawman is struggling to keep the peace. When he learns of the mercenary’s past, the inexperienced lawman seeks his help in learning the tricks of the trade so he can bring an outlaw gang to justice. Read our full review
For Your Eyes Only – 8pm, ITV4
James Bond goes in search of a British weapons system aboard a sunken vessel before it falls into the hands of enemies who will use it to deactivate all Western submarines. Unfortunately, his mission is hindered by a crossbow-toting woman out to avenge her father’s murder. Read our full review
When Harry Met Sally… – 10:50pm, BBC One
A man and a woman with different attitudes to life meet by chance and develop a close and long-lasting friendship. But over time, a mutual sexual attraction begins to develop and threatens to ruin their relationship – raising the question whether men and women can ever really be just friends. Read our full review
End of Watch – 11:20pm, BBC Two
Shot documentary-style, this film follows the daily grind of two young police officers in LA who are partners and friends, and what happens when they meet criminal forces greater than themselves.
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.
