The strongest schedules always offer variety rather than simply quantity, and that’s certainly true here. Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind remains one of cinema’s greatest expressions of hope and curiosity, while the final chapters of the documentaries on Evonne Goolagong and Nelson Mandela remind us that real lives can be every bit as inspiring as fiction. Alongside them sit musicals, comedy, documentaries, horror, social drama and some outstanding archive television.
This is also an exceptional week for music lovers. Glastonbury dominates the weekend, Sky Arts delivers an evening devoted to Pauline Black and later celebrates the enduring power of Les Misérables, while Friday rounds things off with American singer-songwriters and a welcome return to The Old Grey Whistle Test. Whether you’re looking for classic cinema, intelligent documentaries or simply something that makes you think, this week’s schedules have plenty to reward the curious viewer. Selections and writing is by Pat Harrington.
🌟Highlights of the Week
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Saturday)
- Free Nelson Mandela – The Whole World Is Watching (Sunday)
- Past Lives (Wednesday)
Saturday 27 June
Frankie — 12.30pm, Rewind TV
Rewind TV digs back into the attic again and pulls out Frankie, a sitcom from the era before studio audiences were trained to roar at every punchline. What you get instead is character — gently drawn, slightly daft, and all the better for it.
There’s a warmth to these lunchtime repeats that modern comedy rarely attempts. No frantic pacing, no self‑conscious cleverness. Just a reminder that television once trusted charm to do the heavy lifting.
The Railway Children (1970) — 1.15pm, BBC Two
Some films slip into the national bloodstream and stay there. The Railway Children is one of them. Lionel Jeffries directs with a lightness that avoids nostalgia’s usual traps, letting the story’s kindness speak for itself.
Bernard Cribbins is a quiet marvel, and Jenny Agutter radiates sincerity in every scene. The film’s famous final moment — you know the one — still lands with astonishing force. It’s earned, every second of it. A classic that doesn’t need defending.
🌟 Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) — 4.00pm, BBC Two
Spielberg’s great hymn to curiosity remains a wonder, not because of its special effects — though they still dazzle — but because of the spirit behind them. This is a film built on the idea that the universe might be reaching out to us not with malice, but with possibility. Richard Dreyfuss plays an ordinary man whose life is nudged off its axis by something he can’t explain, and Spielberg treats that disruption not as a threat but as an invitation. The mystery doesn’t close in on him; it opens out.
What’s striking, even now, is how gentle the film is. There’s awe, yes, and fear in the way any encounter with the unknown carries fear, but the dominant emotion is wonder. Spielberg shoots headlights, clouds, kitchen appliances — the mundane — with the same reverence he gives to the mothership. It’s as if the extraordinary has been hiding in plain sight all along, waiting for someone to notice.
John Williams’ five‑note motif has become part of cinema’s shared language, instantly recognisable and strangely comforting. Douglas Trumbull’s effects, meanwhile, still shimmer with imagination; they feel handcrafted, touched by human ingenuity rather than digital perfection. Half a century on, the film’s optimism feels almost radical. In an age where the unknown is so often framed as danger, Close Encounters insists that curiosity is not only natural but necessary.
The film’s final act — luminous, wordless, almost symphonic — remains one of the most beautiful sequences Spielberg has ever created. It’s a reminder that the universe is vast, mysterious, and perhaps kinder than we expect. Sometimes the unknown isn’t something to fear. Sometimes it’s simply waiting for us to look up.
Alexander Armstrong Across America — 6.00pm, Channel 5 (Episode 1: Pennsylvania)
Armstrong begins his American ramble in Pennsylvania, and the tone is exactly what you’d expect: genial, curious, and quietly amused by the quirks of the places he visits. He doesn’t rush. He lets people talk.
It’s a gentle start, but a promising one — the kind of travelogue that values conversation over spectacle.
Cats — 7.00pm, Sky Arts
Love it, loathe it, or simply marvel at its audacity, Cats remains a phenomenon. Sky Arts’ broadcast gives you the full sweep of the staging: the neon alleys, the prowling choreography, the sheer commitment of performers who must embody cats without ever tipping into parody.
It’s a strange, shimmering piece of theatre — and undeniably one of the twentieth century’s most successful.
Grease (1978) — 7.00pm, Sky One
Nearly fifty years on, Grease still fizzes. Travolta and Newton‑John glide through the film with a chemistry that feels effortless, and the soundtrack is a jukebox of songs that refuse to age.
It’s one of those rare films that families return to without negotiation. Everyone has a favourite number. Everyone knows the words.
Goolagong — 9.00pm, BBC Four (Final Episode)
The final chapter brings Evonne Goolagong back to Wimbledon, older, wiser, and carrying the weight of personal loss. Her victory as a mother is presented not as a fairy tale but as the culmination of resilience, talent and quiet defiance.
Across the series, the filmmakers have treated her story with intelligence and care, placing her achievements within the broader fight for Indigenous recognition. This closing hour is both moving and deserved — one of the standout sports documentaries of the year.
Les Misérables: The Staged Concert — 9.00pm, Sky Arts
The concert format strips away spectacle and leaves the music exposed — and what music it is. Les Misérables has endured because its themes are elemental: justice, mercy, hope, the cost of compassion.
When Bring Him Home rises into its final notes, or I Dreamed a Dream breaks open, the emotional power is undimmed. A reminder of why this show refuses to fade.
Hustlers (2019) — 9.55pm, Channel 4
Hustlers could easily have been a glossy caper, but Lorene Scafaria steers it somewhere richer. Jennifer Lopez gives a performance with real steel — charismatic, calculating, and unexpectedly tender.
The film’s moral terrain is messy, and that’s the point. It’s a story about survival in a world that rewards greed, told with more nuance than its premise suggests.
Glastonbury Gems — 10.00pm, BBC Two
Another dip into the BBC’s ever‑expanding Glastonbury vault. These compilations have become a kind of unofficial history of British music, charting shifts in taste, fashion and attitude simply by letting the performances speak.
Whether you’ve been to Worthy Farm or only ever watched from the sofa, there’s always something here to rediscover.
Pauline Black: A 2‑Tone Story — 11.55pm, Sky Arts
Pauline Black looks back on her life in The Selecter and the wider 2‑Tone movement, and the result is both personal and political. Her reflections on race, identity and the energy of late‑70s Britain give the documentary real heft.
It’s a portrait of an artist who helped reshape British music while challenging the country to look at itself more honestly.
Diego Maradona (2019) — Midnight, Channel 4
Asif Kapadia’s archive‑driven portrait of Maradona is riveting from the first frame. He captures the brilliance, the chaos, the contradictions — the man who could bend a match to his will yet struggled to control his own life.
You don’t need to care about football to be drawn in. The story is universal: genius meeting pressure, and the cost that follows.
Sunday 28 June
Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical (2022) — 4.15pm, BBC One
Tim Minchin’s songs make the leap from stage to screen with real flair. They’re sharp, funny, and threaded with that slightly anarchic spirit Dahl always prized. The film never forgets that Matilda’s rebellion is rooted in imagination rather than spectacle, and that gives it a warmth many modern musicals lack.
Emma Thompson, meanwhile, goes gloriously big as Miss Trunchbull — a performance pitched somewhere between pantomime villainy and genuine menace, and all the better for its theatrical excess.
Clever, spirited and unexpectedly moving, it honours both the book and the stage show without feeling beholden to either.
The Mosquito Coast (1986) — 7.35pm, Talking Pictures TV
Harrison Ford’s decision to step away from heroic roles pays off handsomely here. As Allie Fox, he’s brilliant and maddening in equal measure — a man convinced he can outthink the world, even as the world quietly proves otherwise.
Peter Weir directs with his usual intelligence, letting the story drift from adventure into something far more unsettling. The jungle becomes a mirror, reflecting back the consequences of obsession and idealism pushed to breaking point.
It remains one of Ford’s most daring and underrated performances.
🌟 Free Nelson Mandela – The Whole World Is Watching — 9.00pm, Channel 4 (Final Episode)
The final instalment brings the global anti‑apartheid movement into sharp focus. Rather than retelling the familiar headlines, it shows how countless campaigners — students, trade unionists, church groups, artists, diplomats — built a pressure that could no longer be ignored.
What emerges is a portrait of collective action at its most determined. The programme makes clear that Mandela’s release was not inevitable; it was fought for, argued for, sung for, demanded.
An inspiring reminder that entrenched systems can shift when enough people refuse to look away.
Shaun of the Dead (2004) — 9.00pm, ITV
Still one of the great modern British comedies. Edgar Wright’s precision — the whip‑smart edits, the visual gags tucked into the corners of the frame — rewards every rewatch.
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, of course, are the beating heart of it all: two men muddling through apocalypse with pints, loyalty and a surprising amount of emotional honesty.
It’s affectionate, clever and endlessly quotable.
Challengers (2024) — 9.00pm, BBC Three
Luca Guadagnino takes a love triangle and turns it into a taut psychological contest played out across tennis courts, hotel rooms and years of unresolved desire. Zendaya is magnetic — sharp, unreadable, and entirely in command of the film’s shifting power dynamics.
The score thrums like a heartbeat, pushing the tension forward until the final moments. Stylish, bold and alive with energy, it’s one of the standout films of the past few years.
Copycat (1995) — 9.00pm, Legend
A thriller that trusts atmosphere over gore. Sigourney Weaver and Holly Hunter make a formidable pairing, grounding the film in character rather than cliché.
Its restraint is its strength: the dread creeps in slowly, built from psychology rather than shock tactics. A reminder that the 1990s produced more than its fair share of smart, grown‑up thrillers.
Back to Black (2024) — 10.00pm, BBC Two
Marisa Abela approaches Amy Winehouse with care and nuance, capturing not just the tragedy but the talent — the wit, the musical intelligence, the vulnerability that shaped her songs.
The film avoids the worst pitfalls of biopics by keeping its focus tight. It doesn’t try to explain everything; it simply tries to understand her. More thoughtful than many early reviews suggested, and anchored by a performance that feels lived‑in rather than imitated.
Monos (2019) — 1.55am, Film4
A film that feels like it’s been carved out of the mountains themselves. Monos follows a group of teenage guerrilla fighters whose isolation warps into something dreamlike and terrifying.
The imagery is astonishing — mist, mud, sudden bursts of colour — and the mood shifts between war story, survival tale and political fable without ever settling into one shape.
It’s unsettling, hypnotic and fiercely original. One of the most distinctive international films of the last decade.
Monday 29 June
Terror on the Space Station — 8.55pm, PBS America
Space documentaries often lean towards triumphalism — the moon landings, the shuttle launches, the great leaps forward. This one looks instead at the moments when everything nearly went wrong.
Drawing on archive footage and calm, clear-eyed testimony from astronauts and engineers, it pieces together the incidents that pushed crews to the edge of disaster. The tension comes not from melodrama but from the simple fact that human beings were improvising solutions hundreds of miles above the Earth with no margin for error.
A gripping reminder that space exploration has always been as much about survival as discovery.
Hot Fuzz (2007) — 9.00pm, ITV4
Edgar Wright’s second outing with Pegg and Frost remains a joy. It’s both a parody and a love letter to action cinema, stitched together with the kind of meticulous writing that rewards you for paying attention.
Every throwaway line returns later with a flourish; every background detail becomes a punchline. Pegg’s earnestness and Frost’s shambling charm make the perfect double act, and the film’s final act — a full-throttle, village‑wide shootout — is still one of the funniest sequences in modern British comedy.
It grows richer with each revisit.
David Hockney Night — From 9.00pm, BBC Four
BBC Four dedicates the evening to David Hockney, which feels entirely right. Few British artists have shaped the national imagination quite as profoundly, and fewer still have done so with such restless curiosity.
It’s the sort of programming the channel excels at: thoughtful, unhurried, and genuinely interested in the creative mind rather than the mythology around it.
Hockney — 9.00pm, BBC Four
This acclaimed documentary traces Hockney’s journey from Bradford to California and beyond, but it’s less a biography than a study of a mind that refuses to settle.
The film lingers on his experiments — photography, digital drawing, new ways of seeing — and shows how each shift in medium reflects a shift in thinking. It’s affectionate without being reverential, and it captures the mixture of discipline and playfulness that defines his work.
House of the Dragon — 9.00pm, Sky Atlantic
(Also available from 2.00am and on NOW)
The battle for the Iron Throne tightens as loyalties fray and old grudges resurface. While the series can’t escape comparisons with Game of Thrones, it has carved out its own identity by focusing on political manoeuvring rather than sheer spectacle.
The dragons may dominate the posters, but it’s the human ambition — petty, ruthless, occasionally noble — that keeps the drama compelling.
David Hockney: A Life in Art — 10.45pm, BBC Four
A quieter, more intimate portrait. Hockney speaks with the clarity and generosity that have become hallmarks of his interviews, reflecting on creativity, ageing, and the pleasure of simply looking.
It’s a companion piece to the earlier documentary, but with a more conversational warmth.
Hockney: Double Portrait — 11.10pm, BBC Four
This short film delves into one of Hockney’s recurring artistic fascinations: the double portrait. What looks effortless on the canvas reveals itself to be a complex interplay of psychology, composition and emotional truth.
A thoughtful, precise examination of how Hockney sees people — and how he paints relationships as much as faces.
Face to Face with David Hockney — Midnight, BBC Four
The evening ends with a classic interview that captures Hockney’s irrepressible curiosity. Even after decades of acclaim, he remains open, funny and unwilling to repeat himself.
A reminder that some artists stay interesting simply by continuing to look closely at the world.
The Asphyx (1972) — 1.35am, Legend Xtra
British horror has always had a taste for the eccentric, and The Asphyx is a prime example. Its premise — that death can be photographed, trapped and controlled — is wonderfully bizarre, yet the film treats it with surprising seriousness.
Atmospheric, inventive and oddly philosophical, it stands apart from the era’s more familiar gothic fare. A late‑night curiosity worth catching.
Tuesday 30 June
Torture Garden (1967) — 3.00pm, Legend
Amicus were the great craftsmen of the British anthology horror film, and Torture Garden shows them at full tilt. Four macabre stories, each with its own twist of the knife, are threaded together by Burgess Meredith’s deliciously sinister carnival showman — a performance pitched somewhere between charm and threat.
The tales themselves range from the eerie to the gleefully bizarre, but what binds them is imagination: that particular British blend of gothic unease and sly humour. It’s one of the studio’s most entertaining portmanteaus, and still a pleasure for anyone who enjoys horror with a theatrical wink.
Cromwell (1970) — 3.40pm, Talking Pictures TV
A proper, old‑fashioned historical epic — the kind that fills the screen with banners, cavalry charges and political fury. Richard Harris brings volcanic intensity to Cromwell, while Alec Guinness offers a beautifully measured Charles I, all wounded dignity and quiet calculation.
Historians have long argued over the film’s liberties, but dramatically it works: the English Civil War becomes a clash of personalities as much as ideologies. The scale is impressive, the performances commanding, and the ambition unmistakable.
The Rise and Fall of the Rust Belt — 6.40pm, PBS America
The story of America’s industrial heartlands is, in many ways, the story of the country’s modern political identity. This documentary approaches that history without melodrama or sentimentality, choosing instead a clear, steady gaze. It walks through the factories that once defined entire regions, the steel towns built around a single employer, and the communities left exposed when those industries collapsed almost overnight.
What gives the film its weight is the attention it pays to the people who lived through the decline. Workers who once expected a lifetime of secure employment describe the moment the gates closed for good; families talk about the pride that came with industrial work, and the disorientation that followed its disappearance. The documentary understands that economic change is never just economic — it reshapes culture, confidence, and the stories people tell about themselves.
It also draws a direct line between the Rust Belt’s collapse and the political fractures that now dominate American life. The anger, the nostalgia, the sense of abandonment: all of it has roots in the decades‑long unravelling of these industrial communities. Without ever lecturing, the film shows how the vacuum left behind by lost industry became fertile ground for new political movements and resentments.
Timely, thoughtful and quietly moving, it’s the kind of documentary that helps make sense of the present by listening carefully to the past.
Dave Allen Night — 9.00pm & 10.00pm, BBC Four
BBC Four devotes the evening to Dave Allen, a comedian whose bar‑stool monologues remain astonishingly fresh. With a whisky in hand and a raised eyebrow, he dismantled religion, politics and social convention not with rage but with wit — a far rarer commodity.
His comedy feels modern precisely because it wasn’t built on shock tactics. It was built on intelligence, timing and a deep understanding of human absurdity. A welcome celebration of a singular talent.
Rick Mayall: Sketches – Rare and Unseen — 9.00pm, Sky Arts
Rick Mayall didn’t just perform comedy — he detonated it. This collection of previously unseen sketches offers a glimpse of the raw, unfiltered energy that made him such a force in The Young Ones, The Comic Strip, Blackadder and beyond.
There’s joy in simply watching him try things, push ideas, and occasionally topple over the edge of sanity. A reminder of how much he gave British comedy, and how irreplaceable he remains.
The Day of the Triffids (1962) — 10.10pm, Talking Pictures TV
John Wyndham’s novel has cast a long shadow over British science fiction, and this early adaptation still carries a surprising chill. The killer plants themselves may look quaint to modern eyes, but the film’s real power lies in its vision of a society collapsing almost overnight — streets abandoned, institutions crumbling, people suddenly alone.
Atmospheric, eerie and more unsettling than you might expect.
Brimstone and Treacle (1982) — 11.35pm, Rewind TV
Dennis Potter’s drama caused uproar on its original release, and it hasn’t lost its ability to disturb. Sting delivers a performance of unnerving charm as a stranger insinuating himself into a troubled household, and Potter uses the setup to probe questions of evil, guilt and moral blindness.
It’s uncomfortable, provocative and brilliantly written — the kind of television that lingers long after the credits. Challenging viewing, but unforgettable.
Wednesday 1 July
All the King’s Men (1949) 11.00am, Film4
Politics has always provided fertile ground for cinema, and this Oscar-winning classic remains one of the sharpest examinations of ambition and corruption ever made. Inspired by the career of Louisiana governor Huey Long, it explores how idealism can gradually give way to the seductions of power.
More than seventy years after its release, its warnings about populism and political compromise remain remarkably relevant.
History’s Greatest Warriors 9.00pm, Sky History
Military history often concentrates on battles, but this series looks instead at the individuals who shaped them. By examining the leadership, personalities and strategies of history’s most influential commanders, it reminds us that warfare is ultimately driven by human decision-making as much as weaponry.
Our Friends in the North 10.00pm & 11.30pm, BBC Four
(Catch up via iPlayer)
There are great television dramas, and then there is Our Friends in the North. Peter Flannery’s masterpiece follows four friends across three turbulent decades, weaving together personal lives with Britain’s political, economic and social transformation.
Christopher Eccleston, Daniel Craig, Gina McKee and Mark Strong all announced themselves as major talents, while the script remains one of the finest ever written for British television. If you’ve never seen it, don’t miss the opportunity. If you have, it’s every bit as rewarding a second time around.
A Cock and Bull Story (2005) 9.00pm, BBC Three
Michael Winterbottom somehow achieved the impossible by adapting Laurence Sterne’s famously “unfilmable” Tristram Shandy. Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon bounce effortlessly off one another in a comedy that is as much about filmmaking as literature.
Inventive, playful and gloriously self-aware.
🌟Past Lives (2023) 12.35am, BBC Two
Celine Song’s extraordinary debut explores love, memory and the roads we choose not to take. Following two childhood friends separated by emigration and reunited years later, it captures the emotional complexity of adult relationships with remarkable subtlety.
Rather than relying on melodrama, it trusts silence, conversation and lingering glances. Few recent films have said so much while speaking so quietly. One of the defining films of the decade.
Thursday 2 July
Senna (2010) 6.00pm, Sky Documentaries
Asif Kapadia’s portrait of Ayrton Senna remains one of the greatest sporting documentaries ever made. Constructed almost entirely from archive footage, it captures both the brilliance of the Brazilian driver and the intensity that drove him to greatness.
Even viewers with little interest in Formula One will find themselves absorbed by its humanity and emotional power.
Tilda Swinton: The Wild Cards 9.00pm, Sky Arts
Tilda Swinton has never behaved like a conventional film star, largely because she has never been interested in becoming one. Her career reads less like a résumé and more like a series of artistic experiments — collaborations with Derek Jarman, excursions into avant‑garde performance, unexpected detours into Hollywood fantasy, and the occasional role that seems designed purely to test the elasticity of cinema itself.
What this profile captures so well is the through‑line: curiosity. Swinton approaches each project as if it were a question rather than an opportunity, and the result is a body of work that refuses to settle into a single shape. One moment she’s gliding through the icy elegance of Orlando, the next she’s buried beneath latex in Suspiria, or playing a corporate demon in Michael Clayton, or inhabiting the strange, tender melancholy of Only Lovers Left Alive. Few actors move so freely between registers without losing their centre.
The documentary treats her not as an enigma but as an artist who has built a career on instinct and intelligence. Directors speak of her fearlessness; collaborators talk about her generosity; the archive footage shows someone who has always been slightly out of step with the mainstream, and all the more compelling for it.
What emerges is a portrait of a performer who has made unpredictability her signature. Swinton’s choices often seem wild on paper, yet on screen they make perfect sense — as though she’s glimpsed a version of the film no one else has quite imagined yet.
A thoughtful, absorbing look at an actor who has spent decades proving that cinema is at its most alive when it refuses to play safe.
Blink Twice (2024) 10.40pm, BBC One
Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut begins like an elegant psychological thriller before revealing itself to be a disturbing examination of wealth, manipulation and abuse of power.
Stylish and unsettling in equal measure, it marks Kravitz as an exciting filmmaker to watch.
The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021) 1.15am, Film4
Jessica Chastain deservedly won the Academy Award for her compassionate portrayal of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker. Rather than mocking its subject, the film finds warmth and humanity beneath the headlines.
Shiva Baby (2020) 2.25am, Channel 4
Emma Seligman’s debut is a masterclass in controlled panic. What begins as a simple family gathering — a shiva, with all the expected small talk, pastries and politely suppressed resentments — quickly mutates into ninety minutes of escalating social dread. The setting is domestic, familiar, even cosy, yet the atmosphere tightens like a thriller. Every room Danielle enters seems to shrink by an inch.
Rachel Sennott is superb as the drifting, slightly chaotic student who finds herself trapped in a house full of people who know too much about her, or worse, think they do. Her performance is all micro‑expressions: the forced smile, the darting eyes, the brittle attempts at confidence that crumble the moment someone asks a seemingly innocent question. It’s painfully recognisable — the kind of social anxiety that doesn’t require zombies, aliens or serial killers to feel apocalyptic.
Seligman directs with a precision that borders on mischievous. The camera hovers just close enough to make you complicit in Danielle’s discomfort, while the score — all nervous strings and quickening pulses — turns the most mundane interactions into moments of pure tension. A dropped remark becomes a bomb. A glance across the room becomes a threat. A plate of kugel might as well be a ticking device.
What makes the film so sharp is its understanding of how families operate: the pride, the judgement, the unspoken hierarchies, the way older relatives can dismantle your sense of self with a single well‑meaning comment. Seligman captures it all with humour and affection, but never lets you forget how suffocating it can feel when you’re the one under scrutiny.
At barely 80 minutes, Shiva Baby wastes nothing. It’s funny, excruciating, and brilliantly observed — a debut that announces a filmmaker with a rare ability to turn everyday awkwardness into something cinematic. By the end, you feel as though you’ve survived the shiva alongside Danielle, heart rate elevated, dignity slightly dented, but oddly exhilarated.
Friday 3 July
Joanna Lumley’s Danube 7.45pm, ITV1
Joanna Lumley’s journey reaches Romania, continuing one of television’s most civilised travel series. Her warmth and curiosity remain the programme’s greatest strengths, allowing history, geography and personal encounters to blend naturally together.
Agatha Christie’s England 7.50pm, PBS America
This charming documentary explores the landscapes and communities that inspired Britain’s Queen of Crime. It becomes not only a literary journey but also a portrait of an England that still echoes through Christie’s novels.
D-Day: The Unseen Footage 9.00pm, Channel 5
(Catch up via 5 Streaming)
Using restored archive film, this documentary revisits the Normandy landings from fresh perspectives. As the generation that fought the Second World War continues to pass into history, preserving and re-examining these remarkable images becomes increasingly important.
American Music Night BBC Four
9.00pm (or 10.00pm if football is shown on BBC One)
BBC Four devotes an evening to some of America’s finest singer-songwriters, exploring not only the performances themselves but the stories behind the songs.
Jackson Browne – The Old Grey Whistle Test (1976) 9.35pm, BBC Four
Jackson Browne’s appearance on The Old Grey Whistle Test captures one of America’s finest songwriters during the height of his creative powers. Honest, understated and beautifully crafted, his music represents songwriting at its most enduring.
Alongside contributions from Nanci Griffith and Loudon Wainwright III, it makes this one of the week’s essential viewing choices for lovers of great music.
Licorice Pizza (2021) Midnight, BBC Two
Paul Thomas Anderson’s nostalgic coming-of-age drama wanders through 1970s California with enormous affection and confidence. Rather than following a conventional narrative, it captures the exhilaration of youth, first love and limitless possibility.
Cooper Hoffman and Alana Haim make a wonderful pairing, while Anderson demonstrates once again why he remains one of America’s greatest contemporary directors.
Nosferatu the Vampire (1979) 12.40am, Talking Pictures TV
Werner Herzog’s reimagining of Murnau’s silent classic is less a remake than a dream drifting in the same direction. It isn’t frightening in the conventional sense; instead it moves with a slow, hypnotic melancholy, as though the entire film has been drained of daylight. Herzog treats the material with reverence but not nostalgia, creating a world where superstition and plague feel like natural extensions of the landscape.
Klaus Kinski’s Dracula is extraordinary — not a swaggering aristocrat but a creature hollowed out by loneliness. His pallid face and mournful eyes suggest someone cursed to outlive every connection he might ever form. The hunger is there, of course, but it’s the sadness that lingers. He’s terrifying not because he’s monstrous, but because he’s recognisably human in his despair.
Isabelle Adjani brings a ghostly stillness to the film, her presence heightening the sense that everyone is moving through a story already half‑written in fate. The imagery — rats spilling through streets, deserted squares, candlelit rooms where shadows seem to breathe — has the weight of a fevered painting. Herzog isn’t chasing shocks; he’s building atmosphere, letting dread seep in like damp.
The result is one of the great Gothic films: eerie, mournful, and strangely beautiful. A vampire story where the horror lies not in the bite, but in the ache of eternal solitude.
Streaming Choice
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Prime Video – Available Now
George Miller returns to the extraordinary world of Mad Max with a film that is every bit as visually spectacular as Fury Road, while giving Furiosa the richly detailed backstory she deserves. Anya Taylor-Joy steps confidently into the role, delivering a performance that captures both vulnerability and fierce determination.
The action is breathtaking, but what makes Furiosa memorable is its emotional depth. Miller continues to prove that even the most explosive action cinema can still be driven by character rather than spectacle alone.
Monday 29 June
Rolf Harris: Primetime Predator Prime Video
The collapse of Rolf Harris’s public reputation remains one of the most shocking stories in British entertainment. This documentary examines not simply the crimes themselves but the culture of celebrity that allowed warning signs to be ignored for decades.
Sensitive, measured and deeply unsettling, it asks difficult questions about power, trust and institutional failure.
Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova: The Final Set Netflix
Few sporting rivalries have produced such enduring respect and friendship. This documentary reflects on the remarkable careers of Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova while exploring their lives beyond tennis.
It becomes less about trophies than about resilience, loyalty and growing older with dignity, making it rewarding even for viewers with little interest in the sport itself.
Leaving Soon
Love & Mercy BBC iPlayer – Available until Monday
Bill Pohlad’s portrait of Brian Wilson remains one of the finest music biopics ever made. Paul Dano and John Cusack portray different stages of Wilson’s life with remarkable sensitivity, while the film avoids easy clichés in favour of a compassionate examination of genius, vulnerability and creativity.
If you’ve never seen it, this is the week to put that right before it disappears from iPlayer.
Tuesday 30 June
Tyler Perry’s Ruthless Paramount+
Seasons 1–5 available
Season 6 – Episodes 1 & 2 available
Perry’s spin-off from The Oval continues its increasingly dark exploration of a dangerous religious cult. Combining melodrama, suspense and psychological tension, it has developed into one of the most uncompromising series in his catalogue.
With the complete back catalogue now available alongside the opening episodes of the new season, it’s an ideal opportunity for newcomers to discover the series.
Radio Choice
Saturday 27 June
Sheba: Just Like Us 12.05pm, BBC World Service
This thoughtful documentary explores the life of Sheba, a chimpanzee whose experiences raise profound ethical questions about the use of primates in medical research. By examining the emotional and intellectual lives of our closest evolutionary relatives, it challenges listeners to consider where science, compassion and morality intersect.
As with the best radio documentaries, it encourages reflection long after the programme has ended.
Monday 29 June – Friday 3 July
Ten Fights That Made the Green Movement 1.45pm, BBC Radio 4
Environmental politics did not begin with climate change. Across five programmes, Radio 4 revisits the campaigns and protests that gradually shaped modern environmental thinking, introducing the activists whose determination forced governments and industries to confront uncomfortable truths.
Whether discussing conservation, pollution or public protest, the series demonstrates that social change rarely arrives overnight. It is usually built patiently by people prepared to challenge accepted wisdom.
Until Next Week…
One of the pleasures of putting together Culture Vulture is discovering unexpected connections between seemingly unrelated programmes. This week those connections are everywhere. David Hockney, Pauline Black, Jackson Browne and Amy Winehouse remind us how artists continue to reinvent familiar forms. Nelson Mandela, Evonne Goolagong and Ayrton Senna demonstrate the extraordinary resilience of individuals who transformed their respective worlds through determination and talent. Meanwhile, films such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Past Lives and Licorice Pizza celebrate curiosity, memory and the endless possibilities of the human imagination.
It is also a week that rewards those willing to venture beyond the obvious. Alongside the major blockbusters and prestige dramas sit forgotten British horror films, classic political cinema, insightful documentaries, ambitious international films and archive television that deserves to be rediscovered. In an age when streaming services tempt us to watch only what algorithms recommend, there is still something deeply satisfying about stumbling across a hidden gem on an ordinary television channel.
Enjoy the week.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Prime Video – Available Now
Saturday 27 June
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