The World Cup reaches its climax this week, but that’s only part of an unusually rich few days for anyone who enjoys intelligent television. The final between Spain and Argentina promises one of the sporting moments of the year, while the BBC Proms throws open its doors to progressive rock in a gloriously unlikely meeting of orchestral grandeur and electric ambition. Elsewhere, BBC Three marks ten years of Fleabag, a reminder that Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s creation remains every bit as funny, fearless and painfully truthful as it was on its debut.
Selections and writing are by Pat Harrington.
Saturday 18 July 2026
2.40pm – BBC Two – Jesus Christ Superstar (1973)
Norman Jewison’s Jesus Christ Superstar isn’t just a film — it’s a fever dream of faith, doubt, and electric guitars. The desert looks biblical, but the energy is pure 1970s rebellion: sand, sweat, and rock riffs colliding in a swirl of conviction and confusion. Ted Neeley’s Jesus is fragile and furious, a man caught between prophecy and burnout, while Carl Anderson’s Judas prowls the frame like a conscience that won’t shut up.
It’s a film that still splits audiences — believers see revelation, sceptics see spectacle — yet both end up humming the same tunes long after the credits roll. Jewison’s direction is audacious, sometimes chaotic, but always alive. You can feel the tension between worship and performance, between the sacred and the showbiz.
Half a century on, it remains a strange, shimmering miracle: a rock opera that dares to ask whether faith can survive fame, and whether doubt might be the most human prayer of all.
4.20pm – BBC Two – Calamity Jane (1953)
There’s a joy in watching Doris Day tear through Calamity Jane like a whirlwind in buckskin. She doesn’t just play the role — she inhabits it, all swagger and sunshine, a woman who can outshoot the men and outsing the saloon. The film’s Technicolor optimism feels almost defiant now, a reminder of when Hollywood musicals believed that a good melody could fix anything.
It’s warm-hearted and gloriously tuneful, with songs that stick like burrs and a spirit that refuses to dim. Beneath the yee‑haw bravado, there’s tenderness too — a story about belonging, self‑discovery, and the courage to love without losing yourself.
Impossible to dislike? Absolutely.
4.35pm – Film4 – Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
There’s a particular thrill in revisiting Jason and the Argonauts, the kind that reminds you why certain films lodge themselves in the collective imagination. It certainly remained in mine after I watched it as a boy. Ray Harryhausen’s stop‑motion work isn’t just clever craftsmanship — it’s mythmaking in motion. Those skeletons, clattering into battle with eerie precision, still feel more alive than half the CGI armies that came decades later.
The film has that unmistakable adventure‑serial charm: bold colours, booming declarations, gods meddling from the clouds, and mortals scrambling to keep up. It’s earnest in a way modern fantasy rarely dares to be, and that sincerity gives it staying power. You can see every hour of labour in the creatures Harryhausen conjured, every frame nudged by hand, every illusion built from patience rather than processing power.
Imagination ages differently from technology. That’s why Jason and the Argonauts still casts a spell — not because it looks real, but because it feels wondrous.
6.35pm – 5Star – The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011)
A fine British ensemble cast finds humour and humanity in later life. Comfort viewing done properly.
7.30pm – BBC Radio 3 – BBC Proms: The Prog Rock Prom – A Fanfare for the Common Man
Progressive rock arrives at the Royal Albert Hall with all the scale and confidence it deserves. A fascinating meeting of classical tradition and adventurous rock.
8.00pm – Radio 4 – Archive on 4: Alan Watts – The Brahmin of Bromley
A thoughtful portrait of the philosopher who helped introduce Eastern spirituality to the West.
9.00pm – BBC Four – The Sentinels
This isn’t your usual wartime drama. The Sentinels imagines a France pushed to the brink during the First World War, turning not to tanks or tactics but to science — or something close to it. In hidden laboratories far from the trenches, a radical serum is being tested, designed to push ordinary soldiers beyond human limits. Strength, speed, resilience: the promise is intoxicating, the cost less so.
The film follows the team behind the experiment — doctors, chemists, and a handful of unwilling visionaries — as they wrestle with the ethics of manufacturing heroes. There’s tension in every corridor, a sense that the war outside is nothing compared to the one happening in these rooms. And when the first “enhanced” soldiers step into the light, the question becomes whether France has created saviours… or something it can no longer control.
Atmospheric, unsettling, and quietly ambitious, The Sentinels asks what happens when desperation meets invention — and whether victory is worth the monsters we make to achieve it.
9.00pm – 5Star – The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015)
The sequel doesn’t quite match the original’s freshness but the warmth of the performances carries it through.
12.15am – Film4 – Zola (2020)
A film that sprints head‑first into chaos and never once looks back. Zola takes one of the internet’s wildest true(ish) stories — a 148‑tweet odyssey of strip‑club hustling, bad decisions and worse men — and turns it into a neon‑lit thriller that feels both hilarious and horrifying.
Taylour Paige anchors the madness with a performance that’s sharp, sly and constantly alert, while Janicza Bravo’s direction keeps the whole thing teetering between comedy and dread. It’s a road trip, a nightmare, a social‑media myth made flesh — and somehow it all works.
A wildly entertaining descent into the kind of trouble you only get into when you trust the wrong person at exactly the wrong moment.
12.50am – Channel 4 – Men (2022)
Alex Garland’s Men is the kind of folk horror that doesn’t shout — it seeps. The film starts quietly, almost tenderly, then begins to twist itself into something far stranger and far more unsettling. Jessie Buckley carries the whole thing with a raw, brittle intensity, wandering through an English countryside that feels ancient, watchful, and profoundly wrong.
Garland leans into repetition, symbolism, and the uncanny with a confidence that’s both maddening and mesmerising. The village men — all sharing the same face, the same smile, the same threat — turn the film into a looping nightmare about grief, guilt and the monstrous shapes masculinity can take when left unchecked.
It’s eerie, provocative, and impossible to shake off.
Sunday 19 July 2026
11.25am – BBC Two – A Man for All Seasons (1966)
There’s a stillness to Paul Scofield’s performance, a kind of moral gravity, that pulls the whole film into orbit around him. Fred Zinnemann’s historical drama can feel austere on the surface, but Scofield gives it heat: quiet conviction, flashes of wit, and a resolve that never tips into sanctimony.
The debates over conscience, loyalty and power still land with force, not because the film shouts its themes, but because Scofield makes them human. Every pause, every measured line, carries the weight of a man refusing to bend even as the world closes in.
12.30pm – E4 – Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005)
An underrated family adventure with genuine imagination.
7.00pm – BBC One & ITV1 – FIFA World Cup Final Build-up
8.00pm – BBC One & ITV1 – FIFA World Cup Final: Spain v Argentina
The biggest match in world football. Two outstanding sides meet for the greatest prize the game has to offer. And if you are English let’s not be two down as number 3 or 4 in the World isn’t so bad!
8.25pm – BBC One – The Full Monty (1997)
The Full Monty just gets sharper. It’s still funny — properly funny — with that mix of Sheffield grit and warmth that never tips into sentimentality. The jokes land, the characters feel lived‑in, and the film’s big-hearted honesty about pride, work, friendship and desperation remains disarmingly fresh.
It’s still moving too. Beneath the cheeky bravado is a story about men trying to reclaim a bit of dignity in a world that’s slowly taken it away. Stripped them of it in fact! That combination of humour and vulnerability is why it endures, and why it still feels like one of the finest British comedies ever made.
9.00pm – BBC Four – BBC Proms
Elim Chan conducts Beethoven’s Fifth alongside Mussorgsky’s A Night on the Bare Mountain, while Marin Alsop brings Strauss’s Don Juan to life. A magnificent evening.
11.00pm – BBC Four – Hans Zimmer: Hollywood Rebel
A portrait of the composer whose music has become almost inseparable from modern cinema.
12.00am – Channel 4 – Diego Maradona (2019)
As exhilarating and contradictory as the football genius himself.
Monday 20 July 2026
7.00pm – BBC One – Our Lives: Big Cat Investigator
A fascinating search for Britain’s most elusive feline mysteries. Whether you’re convinced or not, the people behind the investigations are compelling company.
8.00pm – BBC One – Panorama: There’s a Gangster in My Flat
A disturbing investigation into landlords who unknowingly hand properties over to organised criminals.
9.00pm – BBC Two – Evolution (full series on iPlayer)
A sweeping account of how life on Earth has changed across millions of years. Worth watching as a complete series.
9.00pm – Legend – Get Carter (1971)
Michael Caine’s Jack Carter is still the benchmark — cold‑eyed, controlled, and utterly uncompromising. There’s no glamour in this world, just smoke, concrete and the kind of violence that feels inevitable rather than sensational. The film moves with a hard, unblinking confidence, every scene sharpened by Caine’s icy precision.
Half a century on, Get Carter remains the gold standard for British crime cinema: lean, brutal, and stylish in a way that doesn’t date because it never tried to be fashionable in the first place.
10.00pm – BBC Four – Becoming Frida Kahlo
A richly rewarding portrait of the artist behind one of the world’s most recognisable faces.
11.00pm – Channel 4 – Secrets of the Celebrity Sex Tape
This week’s episode examines the strange intersection of fame, scandal and commerce through the story of Farrah Abraham.
11.00pm – BBC Two – In the Heat of the Night (1967)
2.45am – Channel 4 – Minimum (2024)
A curious little late‑night gem — the sort of film that slips onto the schedule at an hour when everything feels slightly off‑kilter. Minimum doesn’t shout for attention; it sidles up with a strange mood, a few sharp ideas, and a tone that’s just elusive enough to keep you watching.
The plot follows a young woman drifting between dead‑end jobs and half‑formed ambitions, pulled into a quietly surreal chain of events after she discovers a mysterious device left behind in a rented flat. What begins as a small, almost forgettable moment spirals into a story about identity, chance and the odd ways life reroutes itself when you’re barely paying attention. The film keeps its cards close, offering hints rather than answers, and letting the unease build in the margins.
Intriguing, atmospheric, and exactly the kind of oddity that rewards anyone still awake at this hour.
An intriguing late-night curiosity.
Tuesday 21 July 2026
9.00pm – BBC Four – She-Wolves: England’s Early Queens – Matilda and Eleanor
Helen Castor restores two formidable women to their rightful place in English history.
9.00pm – Channel 4 – The Undeclared War (complete series available on Channel 4 Streaming)
Peter Kosminsky’s cyber-thriller feels alarmingly plausible. Smart television with plenty on its mind.
10.40pm – BBC One – Harriet (2019)
A stirring account of Harriet Tubman’s extraordinary courage, told with a clarity and urgency that never slips into hagiography. Cynthia Erivo gives the film its pulse — fierce, determined, and utterly compelling — charting Tubman’s escape from slavery and her return, again and again, to lead others to freedom.
The film balances action with quiet resolve, showing the grit behind the legend and the sheer audacity of Tubman’s missions. It’s respectful without being reverential, dramatic without losing sight of the real woman at its centre.
A powerful, heartfelt tribute to a life lived in defiance of fear.
11.00pm – BBC Two – The History Boys (2006)
Alan Bennett at his funniest and most perceptive. The film crackles with wit — that unmistakable Bennett blend of sharp humour, melancholy and insight — as a group of Sheffield sixth‑formers chase Oxbridge dreams under the guidance of teachers who are, in their own ways, just as lost as the boys they’re shaping.
It’s brisk, clever and full of lines that land with a sting or a smile, often both at once. A comedy, yes, but one with real bite: about education, ambition, and the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of growing up.
1.10am – Film4 – The Pillow Book (1996)
Peter Greenaway’s The Pillow Book is a visually sumptuous meditation on love, art and obsession — a film that treats the human body as both canvas and text. Inspired by Sei Shōnagon’s writings, it follows Nagiko, a woman whose life becomes entwined with calligraphy, desire and the search for a lover who can honour her need to be written upon as beautifully as she writes herself.
Greenaway layers image upon image: ink on skin, shifting frames, saturated colour, and a cool, deliberate eroticism that feels more like ritual than provocation. It’s hypnotic, strange, and uncompromising — a film that asks you to surrender to its aesthetic rather than simply watch it.
Wednesday 22 July 2026
12.50pm – BBC World Service – Witness History
The remarkable story of the Crazy Horse Memorial, one of the world’s most ambitious monuments.
8.35pm – Talking Pictures TV – Payday (1972)
A gritty slice of early‑1970s American cinema, Payday follows honky‑tonk singer Maury Dann as he barrels through the South leaving chaos, bad decisions and bruised relationships in his wake. Rip Torn is phenomenal — swaggering, magnetic and utterly toxic — giving the film a raw, lived‑in authenticity that feels closer to reportage than fiction.
It’s rough, sharp and steeped in the era’s dust‑and‑whiskey realism, the kind of character study that doesn’t tidy anything up or offer easy redemption. A late‑evening gem for anyone who likes their Americana unvarnished.
9.00pm – BBC Four – The Magic of Mushrooms (iPlayer)
A quietly fascinating reminder that fungi are among the unseen architects of the natural world.
9.00pm – TLC – One Day in My Body
Moving stories of resilience from people living with lifelong health challenges.
9.00pm – Film4 – Nobody (2021)
Bob Odenkirk proves he can throw a punch as convincingly as he can deliver a punchline. What starts as a story about a worn‑down suburban dad quietly absorbing life’s frustrations turns into a sharp, stylish burst of action cinema. Odenkirk brings a weary charm to Hutch Mansell — a man who’s spent years tamping down his instincts until one bad night gives him permission to let them loose.
The action is crisp, darkly funny and surprisingly character‑driven, with Odenkirk selling every hit through sheer commitment rather than swagger. It’s lean, fast and far more satisfying than you expect when it begins.
10.00pm – BBC Four – Play for Today: Edna, the Inebriate Woman
Patricia Hayes gives an unforgettable performance in Jeremy Sandford’s compassionate, uncompromising drama.
10.40pm – BBC One – The Hurt Locker (2008)
Kathryn Bigelow’s Oscar‑winning war film remains one of the most intense pieces of cinema this century. It follows an elite bomb‑disposal unit in Iraq, but what makes it so gripping isn’t just the danger — it’s the psychology. Jeremy Renner’s Sergeant James moves through each mission with a mix of swagger, skill and something far more troubling, and the film captures that adrenaline‑charged mindset with unnerving clarity.
Bigelow shoots every scene with a documentary‑like immediacy: dust, heat, silence, then sudden chaos. It’s lean, tense and razor‑sharp, a portrait of men living on the edge because they don’t quite know how to live anywhere else.
Thursday 23 July 2026
4.00pm – Talking Pictures TV – The Winslow Boy (1948)
David Lean’s elegant courtroom drama has lost none of its quiet dignity. Based on Terence Rattigan’s play, it tells the story of a family fighting to clear their son’s name after he’s accused of theft at naval college — a battle that becomes less about the case itself and more about principle, sacrifice and the cost of doing what’s right.
Lean keeps the tone restrained and humane, letting the performances and the moral weight do the work. It’s beautifully acted, sharply written and still moving in its calm insistence that justice matters, even when the world would prefer you let it go.
8.00pm – National Geographic – Pompeii: Out of Time with Tom Hiddleston (Disney+)
A fresh look at one of history’s greatest archaeological discoveries, presented with infectious enthusiasm.
10.40pm – BBC One – I Am Legend (2007)
Will Smith carries this post‑apocalyptic thriller almost single‑handedly, and that’s exactly why it works. As Robert Neville — the last man in a ravaged New York — he gives the film its emotional weight, playing isolation, routine and creeping despair with a quiet intensity that keeps you locked in.
The empty city is eerie, the action sharp, and the film’s mix of survival drama and sci‑fi horror still lands. Smith’s performance anchors everything: a man trying to stay human when the world around him has stopped being recognisable.
11.05pm – BBC Two – The Inspection (2022)
An emotionally powerful drama about identity, discipline and belonging. Inspired by writer–director Elegance Bratton’s own experiences, it follows a young gay Black man who joins the Marines after being rejected by his family, hoping the military will give him the structure and purpose he’s been denied.
What unfolds is tough, intimate and deeply human. The film doesn’t shy away from the brutality of boot camp, but it’s the quieter moments — the search for acceptance, the fight to be seen, the fragile hope of forging a new self — that give it real force.
Friday 24 July 2026
7.30pm – BBC Four – BBC Proms: The Prog Rock Prom
The television broadcast of one of the week’s musical highlights — a lavish, affectionate celebration of prog rock’s most ambitious, theatrical and musically adventurous era. This Prom draws on a wide sweep of the genre, with orchestral arrangements of classics by Yes, Genesis, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, King Crimson, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, Gentle Giant, Focus, Renaissance, Soft Machine, Moody Blues, Osibisa, Incredible String Band, Supertramp, Mike Oldfield, and even Frank Zappa.
Guest appearances from Carl Palmer, Peter Hammill, Guy Garvey, Gruff Rhys and Jane Weaver add extra personality to the evening, bridging the gap between the original prog pioneers and today’s eclectic musical voices.
A rich, playful and gloriously over‑the‑top tribute to a genre that always aimed higher, stranger and louder.
9.00pm – ITV1 – The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox (ITVX)
Grace Van Patten stars in a drama that examines not just a murder investigation but the relentless machinery of modern media.
9.00pm – Film4 – Quadrophenia (1979)
The definitive Mod film. Angry, exhilarating and still unmistakably British. It captures that volatile mix of youth, identity and tribal belonging with a rawness that still feels fresh. Phil Daniels’ Jimmy is all restless energy and frustration, ricocheting between pride, insecurity and the desperate need to belong to something bigger than himself.
The film’s Brighton sequences remain iconic — chaotic, charged, and shot with a documentary immediacy that makes you feel the salt, sweat and adrenaline of the moment. And beneath all the scooters, parkas and The Who’s thunderous soundtrack, there’s a sharp, melancholy edge: a portrait of a young man discovering that the myths he clings to don’t always survive contact with reality.
10.30pm – BBC Three – Fleabag: 10th Anniversary
The first episode begins a celebratory overnight run of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s masterpiece, continuing at 10.55pm, 11.25pm, 11.50pm, 12.20am and 12.45am. Ten years on, it remains one of the sharpest, funniest and most emotionally honest comedies British television has produced.
11.05pm – BBC Two – Janet Planet (2023)
A beautifully observed coming‑of‑age drama that rewards patience. Annie Baker’s debut film unfolds in quiet, precise moments, following young Lacy as she navigates a summer orbiting her mother, Janet — a charismatic, complicated woman whose presence shapes everything around her.
The film is gentle but piercing, built from small gestures, overheard conversations and the subtle shifts that define childhood. Baker’s theatre instincts show in the careful framing and the way she lets scenes breathe, giving you time to settle into the rhythms of these lives.
It’s tender, truthful and quietly mesmerising.
11.25pm – Film4 – Velvet Goldmine (1998)
Todd Haynes’s glam‑rock fantasia is gloriously excessive — a shimmering, chaotic dive into identity, performance and the electric charge of reinvention. Set against the glitter‑soaked world of 1970s glam, it follows journalist Arthur Stuart as he digs into the rise and disappearance of rock icon Brian Slade, uncovering a story that’s part myth, part memory, part fever dream.
The film is all colour, attitude and theatrical swagger, with Haynes treating music and persona as acts of self‑creation. It’s bold, queer, stylish and defiantly messy in the best way, a celebration of the moment when pop culture felt like it could rewrite the world.
12.05am – Channel 4 – Polite Society (2023)
Fast, funny and joyfully inventive. Nida Manzoor’s debut feature is a riot of genre‑blending energy — part martial‑arts caper, part coming‑of‑age story, part affectionate send‑up of family expectations.
Ria Khan, a teenage stunt‑wannabe, becomes convinced her older sister is being swept into something sinister, and the film follows her increasingly wild attempts to “rescue” her. It’s sharp, colourful and packed with wit, but underneath all the chaos sits a sincere love for sisterhood, ambition and the messy business of figuring out who you are.
Streaming
Channel 4 Streaming
Walter Presents: Sea Shadows (all six episodes, Friday)
A Nordic mystery that values atmosphere as much as plot, making it ideal for a weekend binge.
Paramount+
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Series 4 (weekly from Thursday)
Still, arguably, the finest modern Star Trek, balancing optimism, humour and adventure with a confidence that feels wonderfully old‑school. Strange New Worlds keeps the spirit of classic Trek alive — episodic stories, big ideas, moral curiosity — but delivers them with the warmth and character‑driven charm that’s made this cast so easy to love.
Blue Bloods – Series 12 (Saturday)
Tom Selleck’s long-running family police drama continues to deliver dependable entertainment.
Netflix
Heartstopper Forever
Gentle, generous and full of warmth — and rooted, as ever, in the tender honesty of a gay love story. What makes Heartstopper resonate isn’t just that it centres queer relationships, but the way it treats them: with softness, sincerity and a complete absence of cynicism.
It’s a world where two boys falling in love is allowed to be joyful, awkward, hopeful and real. The emotional beats feel lived‑in rather than manufactured, and the show’s kindness toward its characters gives the romance a glow that’s hard to shake.
WWE Unreal – Series 3 (Tuesday)
A revealing look behind the spectacle of professional wrestling.
Prime Video
Project Hail Mary
A science‑fiction adventure with brains as well as spectacle — and one that wears its heart surprisingly openly. Andy Weir’s story centres on Ryland Grace, a schoolteacher‑turned‑astronaut who wakes up alone on a spacecraft with no memory and a mission that’s somehow even bigger than saving Earth.
What makes it stand out isn’t just the clever problem‑solving or the hard‑science puzzles (though there are plenty). It’s the emotional core: the slow, brilliant reveal of connection in the most unlikely circumstances, and the way the book turns isolation into something hopeful rather than bleak.
Smart, inventive and unexpectedly moving.
Apple TV+
Cape Fear – Episode 9 (Friday)
The thriller heads towards its conclusion with tensions mounting. As the story tightens, every character feels that pressure — choices narrowing, consequences circling closer, and the sense that the past isn’t finished with anyone just yet.
It’s the kind of episode where unease sits under every scene, where even quiet moments feel loaded, and where you can sense the finale gathering itself like a storm. A strong penultimate chapter, sharp and unsettling in all the right ways.
Leaving Soon
- Bohemian Rhapsody (Prime – until Sunday)
- Deepwater Horizon (Prime – until Wednesday)
- The Producers (BBC iPlayer – until Wednesday)
Radio
Saturday & Sunday – BBC Radio 2 – 70 Years of the Official Albums Chart
Celebrating the chart first published in Record Mirror on 22 July 1956, this weekend retrospective revisits the records that defined generations.
Saturday – 7.30pm – BBC Radio 3 – BBC Proms: The Prog Rock Prom
A memorable collision of progressive rock and orchestral grandeur.
Saturday – 8.00pm – Radio 4 – Archive on 4: Alan Watts – The Brahmin of Bromley
An engaging study of the philosopher who opened Western minds to Eastern thought.
Wednesday – 12.50pm – BBC World Service – Witness History
The extraordinary story behind the Crazy Horse Memorial and the decades-long effort to carve one of the world’s largest sculptures from the Black Hills of South Dakota.
