17 - 23 DEC 2022

I was so keen to recommend The Shootist this week (a great western, one of the best films of the 1970s and my ‘desert island choice’), but ITV normally edits it for content and so it would be sacrilegious to add it! Better to buy the DVD.
SCROOGE (1951) Monday 19 December 4.10-6.00pm Channel 5                
Scrooge is a 5-star classic that can be enjoyed over and over again. The set designs are superb, the pacing impeccable and we have the magnificent Alastair Sim in an interpretation of old Ebenezer that will never be improved upon. Not that he was everyone’s automatic choice at the time – George Minter, the Managing Director of Renown Pictures, had to defend his choice in print! 
THE GOOD LIAR (2019) Tuesday 20 December 9.00-10.45pm BBC 2   P      
Unfortunately, the film doesn’t really do justice to the acting legends who top the cast: Ian McKellen as the con artist and Helen Mirren as his latest mark. In spite of that, if you feel like settling down with a glass of something and a mince pie. . . . 
HUMPHREY BOGART DOUBLE BILL (Thursday 22 December BBC 2): The African Queen (1.50-3.35pm) earned Bogie his only Oscar; Casablanca (3.35-5.15pm) remains, for many, the best film to come out of a Hollywood studio. 
ATTACK OF THE LEDERHOSEN ZOMBIES (2016) Friday 23 December 11.20pm-1.00am TP (Ch 82)
What better antidote to the usual Christmas fluff could there be, especially if you like to ski? I suspect that the title says it all!