Best films to watch on TV this week | BBC, Film4 and more

And this week, we have another varied list for you, with everything from '70s classic The French Connection to the 2018 remake of A Star is Born – so there really is something for everyone.

Sponsored

Bring the cinema home with Sky Cinema

Upgrade now for just £12 a month to enjoy blockbusters like The Suicide Squad, Peter Rabbit 2 and Godzilla vs Kong, alongside a selection of festive flicks like A Boy Called Christmas and Elf – all from the comfort of your own home. 

Shop the promotion on Sky Cinema

With so many amazing films airing, we've compiled a list of the best flicks for you to choose from below.

Friday 9th June

The Swimmer - 5pm, Film4

Drama starring Burt Lancaster. On a summer's day in Connecticut, Ned Merrill begins a journey of self-discovery when he decides to swim home via the pools of various neighbours. Read our full review

Defence of the Realm - 6:30pm, Talking Pictures TV

Thriller starring Gabriel Byrne, Greta Scacchi and Denholm Elliott. When a British politician and an East German military attaché are linked in a call-girl scandal, journalist Nick Mullen is assigned to the story. Meanwhile, Mullen's drunken colleague Vernon Bayliss is convinced of the politician's innocence. Read our full review

The Abominable Dr Phibes - 9:05pm, Talking Pictures TV

Horror starring Vincent Price. Dr Anton Phibes, horribly deformed as a result of a car accident, plots bizarre revenge against the doctors he blames for his wife's death. Read our full review

The Exorcist - 12:30am, BBC One

Controversial Oscar-winning horror film starring Ellen Burstyn and Max von Sydow. Successful actress Chris MacNeil and her 12-year-old daughter Regan (Linda Blair) live comfortably in Georgetown, Washington. When Regan suddenly begins to exhibit unusual symptoms for which medical science can offer no explanation, her distraught mother is forced to consider that the girl may be possessed by the Devil. Read our full review

Saturday 10th June

How the West Was Won - 2pm, BBC Two

Epic western starring James Stewart, John Wayne, Gregory Peck, Debbie Reynolds and Henry Fonda. Heading west in the 1830s, New England farmer Zebulon Prescott and his family begin a mammoth journey. From the rivers to the plains, through conflict with Indian tribes and the Civil War, the building of the railroad and encounters with legendary outlaws, their journey is a spectacular chronicle, and the great American adventure. Read our full review

The Water Horse – 4pm, Great Movies

Fantasy adventure starring Alex Etel, Ben Chaplin and Emily Watson. While his father is away fighting in the Second World War, a boy discovers an egg that hatches a strange slippery creature. When it gets too big, he releases it into Loch Ness and a legend is born. Read our full review

Titanic – 5:25pm, Channel 4

James Cameron's Oscar-winning blockbuster, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. During the Titanic's maiden voyage in 1912, penniless artist Jack Dawson falls in love with socialite Rose DeWitt Bukater, who is travelling with her fiancé. Years later, Rose relives the affair and the tragic events that followed, while a salvage crew searches for a priceless diamond said to have been lost in the shipwreck. Read our full review

Law of Tehran - 9pm, BBC Four

Crime drama starring Payman Maadi and Navid Mohammadzadeh. Single-minded Tehran cop Samad Majidi is on the front line of the city's failing war on drugs. When he manages to arrest narcotics baron Naser Khakzad, what should be a huge breakthrough in Majidi's case instead proves to be the beginning of a gruelling game of cat-and-mouse. Read our full review

A Star is Born - 10:25pm, BBC One

Musical romantic drama starring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. Rock star Jackson Maine meets aspiring songwriter Ally, a waitress who moonlights as a bar singer. Mesmerised by Ally's talent, Jackson invites her to perform with him and she becomes a sensation. The two begin a romantic relationship, but their happiness is threatened as an increasingly washed-up Jackson grapples with substance abuse issues. Read our full review

Sunday 11th June

Clueless – 2pm, Channel 4

to the present day, starring Alicia Silverstone and Paul Rudd. Cher and her best friend Dionne are going on 16 and know everything about being gorgeous, popular, and always in vogue. But everything changes when Tai, a new transfer student, arrives. She is, in a word, "clueless", and Cher sees it as her mission in life to give Tai a complete makeover. Read our full review

Paddington 2 - 2:55pm, BBC One

Comedy starring Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw as the voice of Paddington. When a rare pop-up book is stolen before Paddington can buy it as a birthday present for his aunt Lucy, the little bear is arrested as the prime suspect in the theft. While Paddington is attempting to make the most of his incarceration, the true thief is using clues hidden in the book to locate the immense fortune of its late author. Read our full review

Guys and Dolls - 3:20pm, BBC Two

Musical comedy based on Damon Runyon's short stories, starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons and Frank Sinatra. Hustler Nathan Detroit searches for a new location for his dice game while being pursued by the police. When he finds a suitable garage, he makes a $1,000 bet with slick gambler Sky Masterson to raise the necessary finance. However, that means Sky must persuade a pious young missionary to go to Havana to have dinner, or else he loses the wager. Read our full review

The Rocky Horror Picture Show - 10pm, BBC Two

Cult musical satire starring Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick. Sweethearts Brad Majors and Janet Weiss find themselves drawn into a bizarre and weird world when their car breaks down during a storm and they are forced to spend the night at a nearby gothic mansion. Read our full review

Rush – 10:30pm, BBC One

Motor-racing drama based on a true story, starring Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl. The 1976 Formula One season is dominated by the intense rivalry between two brilliant drivers: the maverick James Hunt and the methodical Niki Lauda. As their quest for dominance of the sport grows more intense, tragedy seems almost inevitable. Read our full review

Monday 12th June

Forever and a Day - 10:35pm, Talking Pictures TV

An English household suffers through a series of challenges from 1804 to the dark days of the Second World War, illustrated by a series of dramatic scenes from each period in the family's turbulent history. Drama, starring Anna Neagle, Ray Milland and Claude Rains. Read our full review

The Post - 6:45pm, Film4

Political thriller based on a true story, starring Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks. Kay Graham, publisher of The Washington Post, and editor Ben Bradlee must overcome their differences to bring the leaked Pentagon Papers - which reveal the extent of the US government's involvement in the Vietnam War - into the public eye. Read our full review

Shiva Baby - 1am, Channel 4

Frivolous college student Danielle expects to face the usual uncomfortable conversations with guests when she attends the traditional Jewish mourning observation of a family friend. But nothing could prepare her for the mortifying events that end up taking place. Comedy drama, starring Rachel Sennott. Read our full review

Tuesday 13th June

Daisy Kenyon - 2:20pm, Talking Pictures TV

Romantic melodrama starring Joan Crawford, Dana Andrews and Henry Fonda. Fashion designer Daisy Kenyon faces a dilemma when, having failed to persuade her attorney lover Dan O'Mara to leave his wife and children, she meets a gentle former army sergeant. Read our full review

Fly Away Home - 6:50pm, Great Movies

Drama based on a true story, starring Jeff Daniels and Anna Paquin. Amy finds life difficult with her eccentric father, but they are forced to overcome their differences when she rescues a batch of goose eggs from a construction site, then takes responsibility for teaching the birds to fly. Read our full review

Ravenous - 11:15pm, Talking Pictures TV

Period black comedy horror starring Robert Carlyle and Guy Pearce. 1847: life at a desolate mountain outpost is particularly drab for Captain John Boyd - until the arrival of mysterious stranger Colqhoun, who tells the terrible, but perhaps unbelievable, tale of his recent escape from the cannibalistic Colonel Ives. Read our full review

Wednesday 14th June

A Bronx Tale - 9pm, Great Movies

Crime drama starring Robert De Niro and Chazz Palminteri. In 1960, young Calogero Anello witnesses a Mob killing but refuses to identify the killer, earning the gratitude of mobster Sonny. But Calogero's upstanding father, Lorenzo, is unhappy with the association, and the boy suffers a conflict of loyalties that will span nearly a decade. Read our full review

The Last of the Mohicans - 9pm, 5 Action

Period adventure inspired by James Fenimore Cooper's classic novel, starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Madeleine Stowe. Hawkeye and Uncas are the sons of Chingachgook. They fight as mercenaries in the power struggle between the French and British in the New World, but suddenly find themselves involved in bitter intrigue and betrayal, where far more than land is at stake. Read our full review

The Sailor Who Fell with Grace from the Sea - 9:05pm, Talking Pictures TV

A teenager who has joined a secret society is driven into a jealous rage by his mother's romance with a sailor. Drama, with Sarah Miles and Kris Kristofferson. Read our full review

Thursday 15th June

Addams Family Values - 7:10pm, Film4

Comedy horror starring Anjelica Huston and Raul Julia. The arrival of baby Pubert leads to some "deadly" games in the Addams household as the jealous Wednesday and Pugsley try to dispose of their new sibling. Morticia and Gomez hire Debbie as a nanny for the new arrival, and Debbie soon attracts the amorous attentions of Uncle Fester. But the nanny's motives prove to be even more sinister than the Addams clan itself. Read our full review

Meet Me in St Louis - 8pm, BBC Four

Classic musical starring Judy Garland and Margaret O'Brien that charts the everyday adventures and romantic entanglements of the Smith family in early 20th-century St Louis. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, The Trolley Song and Skip to My Lou are just a few of the memorable numbers belted out by Garland and the cast. Read our full review

Zodiac - 10pm, Quest

Crime drama based on a true story, starring Mark Ruffalo, Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey Jr. San Francisco, 1969: following a series of homicides, a cryptic message is delivered to the offices of a local newspaper. It is the first in a series of letters that taunt Inspector David Toschi and his team who are on the trail of a serial murderer. It also launches the paper's cartoonist Robert Graysmith on an obsessive quest of his own to find the Zodiac killer. Read our full review

Friday 16th June

The Street with No Name - 12:45pm, Talking Pictures TV

An inexperienced FBI agent is assigned to infiltrate and expose the gang responsible for a string of increasingly violent robberies. Crime thriller, starring Richard Widmark, Mark Stevens, Lloyd Nolan and John McIntire. Read our full review

Dracula - 1:25pm, Legend

Classic horror from the Hammer Studio. On reaching Castle Dracula in darkest Transylvania, intrepid vampire hunter Doctor Van Helsing is alarmed to find that his young colleague Jonathan Harker has already succumbed to the mysterious count. On visiting the family of Harker's fiancee, he is even more alarmed to find that she is suffering from an unidentified malady. The local doctor suggests it is anaemia, but Van Helsing knows the terrifying truth, that she has become the count's latest victim. Read our full review

A Fistful of Dollars - 10pm, Channel 5

Classic spaghetti western starring Clint Eastwood. A mysterious gunfighter arrives in a lawless town on the Mexican border. The town is run by two rival families and, after witnessing the stranger's lethal gunfighting prowess, both are eager to recruit him to their cause. Read our full review

The French Connection - 11:05pm, BBC Two

Oscar-winning crime drama starring Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey and Roy Scheider. Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle, a relentlessly tough New York policeman, becomes obsessed with smashing a narcotics ring operating between Marseille and the USA. In his pursuit of the truth, Doyle finds himself at odds not only with the criminals but also with his superiors. Read our full review

If you have Netflix, we have rounded up the best movies on Netflix and the best series on Netflix to watch now - and Disney Plus viewers can check out our best movies on Disney Plus guide. Got Prime Video? We also have the best movies on Amazon Prime.

Wondering what to watch on TV? Visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide.

Advertisement

Try Radio Times magazine today and get 12 issues for only £1 with delivery to your home – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7s63DoqatoZ2awG%2BvzqZmpqemnrK0e9ahmK1lpKR6uK3TnJ9or5iWwW6yyKWkrGWkpHq4rdOcn2asmJ7AbsPEnqJo