The 2024 Oscar nominations were announced last Tuesday. Oppenheimer leads the way (13 nominations) and Killers of the Flower Moon has also been given the nod in the Best Film category. Anything for LRFS, I hear you ask? Quite possibly – American Fiction and Past Lives are two interesting titles that could well appear on the questionnaire. Assuming they are not ring-fenced by streaming platforms, of course.
BATMAN (1966) Saturday 27 January 3.35-5.45pm TP (Ch 82)             
‘Holy trip to the Odeon Batman!’ – I just had to bid a warm welcome to what was one of my earliest visits to the cinema. The comic book character and the various franchises have become very serious, and dark, since this camp classic appeared. The 1966 vintage is much more fun (so, too, was the TV series) and Adam West and Burt Ward will always get my vote. Zap! Pow! Thwack!
BEYOND UTOPIA: ESCAPE FROM NORTH KOREA (2023) Tues 30 January 10.00-11.50pm BBC 4    P             
A Storyville documentary that was good enough to warrant a cinema release. It follows several people desperate to flee the dictatorship – including a family of five whose circuitous route takes them through China, Vietnam and Laos.
A PASSAGE TO INDIA (1965) Wednesday 31 January 10.20pm-12.10am BBC 4                 
This is not David Lean’s epic adaptation (released in 1984). As it is a quiet week, we are breaking with convention and recommending a BBC Play of the Month (in b/w).  A very good cast is headed by Sybil Thorndike and Virginia McKenna and the director, Waris Hussein, has filmed a special introduction that is on at 10pm. Thank you, BBC – and keep these treasures coming!
RELIC (2020) Friday 2 February 11.05pm-12.30am BBC 2             
Relic tries very hard to bring something a little different to the horror genre and it helped earn it a good critical response. Emily Mortimer’s mother, who has dementia, goes missing. After her return, things seem a little odd – could there be an unexplained presence?

As International Holocaust Remembrance Day approaches, the week preceding it has several films and documentaries of interest. It presents a welcome opportunity to highlight them and support this act of remembrance.
SCHINDLER’S LIST (1993) Sunday 21 January 11.00pm-1.05am BBC 2             
Without a doubt, the two best directors in American cinema since the mid-1970s have been Martin Scorcese and Steven Spielberg. If it is possible for Mr Spielberg to have a ‘masterpiece amongst masterpieces’ Schindler’s List would be it. It was, and remains, a remarkable achievement. In 2024, I am of a mind to suggest that the United States will never produce anything this good again, but let’s appraise Flowers of the Killer Moon first. Incidentally, back in the day, distributing copies of Schindler’s List to UK schools was a brilliant idea.
THE LAST SURVIVORS (2019) Monday 22 January 10.00-11.30pm BBC 4             
This very special documentary has been shown before, but it is well worth seeing again – and, if you haven’t seen it, it is a privilege to watch it for the first time. Director Arthur Cary spent a year tracking some of the child Holocaust survivors, thus giving them the opportunity to share their memories with us.
REVENGE: OUR DAD THE NAZI KILLER (2023) Tuesday 23 January 10.00-11.30pm BBC 4    P             
It would be easy to believe that most stories have been told by now – but the Storyville documentary team appear to have unearthed a gem. Three brothers in Australia discover that their father, who had fought as a partisan during the Second World War, might have then led a vigilante group during peacetime.
JUDGEMENT AT NUREMBERG (1961) Thursday 19 January 10.50pm-1.45am BBC 4             
Producer/director Stanley Kramer had his detractors over the years, but his work earned 16 Oscars and over 70 other award nominations and cinema would have been the poorer without him. This superb drama holds the attention for three hours and there isn’t a weak link in a cast that includes Maximilian Schell, Judy Garland, Marlene Dietrich, Richard Widmark and Burt Lancaster. At the top of the acting tree, however, is Spencer Tracy. There is a scene early in the film where he just takes a walk and it is mesmerising; as for the end, where his speech clocks in at over 13 minutes, Robert De Niro would need three films to come even close.

Lost films and lost television: I ponder – quite often, and ruefully – what might re-appear. I have a copy of the 1926 film Bardelys the Magnificent (largely extant but with some still photos employed to bridge gaps). A precious minute or so of Theda Bara’s Cleopatra (1917) has been found. In May 2023, BFI Southbank programmed the half-hour Emergency – Ward 9 (BBC 1966), written by Dennis Potter and thought missing until a copy was found in 2011. Talking Pictures is good at giving us an opportunity to view similar fare. On Saturday at 7.20pm, it is showing an episode of the legendary Dixon of Dock Green. The series ran for 20 years and 400 plus episodes from 1955 and the majority of them have been lost. Amazingly, five from series 2 have survived and this episode is one of them.
DECISION TO LEAVE (2022) Saturday 13 January 9.00-11.10pm BBC 4    P             
The action unfolds in Busan (without zombies though): a young detective’s murder case seems to be progressing well – until he begins to fall in love with the victim’s wife. As it is of South Korean vintage, we know what to expect – it is well photographed, well acted and has action scenes put over with considerable élan.
FRENCH EXIT (2020) Monday 15 January 9.00-11.15pm Film Four    P             
A modest comeback for Michelle Pfeiffer – she plays a New Yorker, with financial problems, who moves to Paris with her son. It is a pleasant enough comedy drama with a committed performance from Ms Pfeiffer.
CAPTIVE STATE (2019) Tuesday 16 January 9.00-11.20pm Great Movies (Ch 34)    P             
Captive State tries very hard to have a different take on the ‘aliens have invaded’ drama although it doesn’t come close to the inventiveness of 2010’s Attack the Block. (Not that Lyme citizens were bothered – this sleeper-hit had a Sunday-night audience of four, if I remember correctly!) Anyway, the action here takes place in Chicago and the aliens are in control – but not everyone wants them to be, of course.
BEATRIZ AT DINNER (2017) Tuesday 16 January 11.15pm-12.30am BBC 2             
Beatriz has a short running time reminiscent of the likes of Duck Soup in the 1930s. It couldn’t possibly be in the same class, of course; nevertheless, Salma Hayek v John Lithgow – Salma is a Mexican therapist stranded at an exclusive dinner party – should be very entertaining! It is on late, but there is always the BBC’s catch-up service.
THE BLUE LAMP (1949) Friday 19 January 5.10-6.55pm Film Four             
PC George Dixon’s first appearance on screen was in this semi-classic. Dirk Bogarde plays the young hoodlum who panics and kills a policeman – and it launched what was to be a stellar career for the young actor. Two Ton Tessie O’Shea (remember her?) also puts in an appearance.