The terrestrial channels are again presenting some of the best new British films this week. The downside is that there is a clash, so you might need to use one of the catch-up services. 
ROCKS (2019) Sunday 30 October 10.15pm-12.05am Channel 4    P       
Bukky Bakray won the Bafta Rising Star for her performance as a teenager left to look after her younger brother, when her mother leaves unexpectedly.
HIS HOUSE (2020) Sunday 30 October 10.45pm-12.15am BBC 2    P     
A most intriguing offering we have here: a couple from South Sudan are granted asylum; unfortunately, the council house they have been given might be haunted. . . . 
A STORY OF BONES (2022) Tuesday 1 November 9.30-11.05pm BBC 4    P     
Another fascinating Storyville documentary – this time about the discovery of human remains on Saint Helena in 2008 and the efforts of Annina Van Neel to have the emancipated slaves who died remembered. 
A REFLECTION OF FEAR (1973) Friday 4 November 9.05-10.55pm Talking Pictures (Channel 82)         
TP does it again with another rarity. This one has a particularly interesting cast – Robert Shaw, Mary Ure, Sally Kellerman and Sondra Locke – and is the sort of thriller that had to be made in the 70s and not in the 1960s or 1980s. Cinematographer William A Fraker only directed three cinema features and they all have merit. 

As Halloween approaches, you won’t be surprised to hear that there are horror films, in abundance, across the Freeview channels. I opted not to focus on them in the notes that follow, but must mention three titles that are on next Friday evening. Who would have thought that the BBC would show an ex-video nasty (The Evil Dead on BBC 3, well done the Beeb) and there are two rare films on Talking Pictures: Brotherhood of Satan (1970) and The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre (1964) starring Martin Landau. 
LILIES OF THE FIELD (1963) Saturday 22 October 2.00-3.30pm BBC 2       
Sensitive, delicate drama directed by Ralph Nelson – especially when considering that his other best-known film was Soldier Blue (1970). Sidney Poitier rightly won an Oscar as the handyman who helps German nuns build a chapel. 
AFTER LOVE (2020) Sunday 23 October 10.50pm-12.15am BBC 2    P     
Here we have another modest, but winning, drama, from our ‘nearly list’. Joanna Scanlan won a Bafta for Best Actress as the widow who discovers that her husband had a secret family. 
THE RIDER (2017) Tuesday 25 October 11.30-1.40am Film 4    P     
A pre-Nomadland Chloé Zhao had already garnered critical acclaim for this authentic drama set in the world of US rodeos. 

Alfred Hitchcock remains one of the most iconic of film directors and it will be interesting to see if Vertigo still tops the Sight & Sound poll, conducted every 10 years, in 2022. Sky Arts has also been showing his 1950s TV series, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and many of the episodes still hold up well.
THE 39 STEPS (1935) Saturday 8 October 1.15-2.40pm BBC 2       
Still the best adaptation of John Buchan’s novel; it stars the impeccable teaming of Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll. It is also Hitchcock’s best British film.
THE LADY VANISHES (1938) Saturday 8 October 2.40-4.10pm BBC 2     
Despite some ridiculous model work at the beginning, this – mostly – train-set thriller, with Michael Redgrave and Margaret Lockwood, is essential viewing.
STALAG 17 (1953) Thursday 13 October 12.35-2.55pm Film 4     
We began the current season by drawing everyone’s attention to the superb performance given by Anthony Hopkins in The Father. Most people would struggle to name William Holden’s Oscar-winning role; it was in this prison camp drama. Equally, most of wouldn’t think of Billy Wilder as the director, although his satirical and comic jibes are present and correct.