HAPPY EASTER everyone! In film terms this means, of course, that the usual suspects are in the weekend line-up: Ben-Hur (1959), Easter Parade (1948) and The Wizard of Oz (1939), on Sunday; then The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), on Monday.
ON THE WATERFRONT (1954) Saturday 30 March 2.30-4.15pm BBC 2             
Waterfront isn’t just one of the best films of the 1950s; it’s one of the best ever. A scintillating drama set in New York’s docklands it won 8 Oscars including Best Picture and one for Marlon Brando – who would have been 100-years-old this week. Ye gods!
WATERLOO (1970) Tuesday 2 April 4.30-7.10pm Great Action (Channel 42)             
Consider this essential viewing if you haven’t seen it but went to see Napoleon last year. Some of the reviews for Waterloo were mixed but it remains a very good, old-style epic (no CGI, thousands of extras). And Rod Steiger (as Napoleon) and Christopher Plummer are both excellent.
THE SECRET ARMY (2024) Tuesday 2 April 10.00-11.30pm BBC 4    P             
It might seem eccentric to recommend a documentary that examines another documentary made 50 years ago, but bear with me! The original The Secret Army was filmed by an American team that went to Northern Ireland and was given exclusive access to key IRA personnel. Unsurprisingly, political pressure was then applied and it wasn’t transmitted . . .
IN HARM’S WAY (1965) Friday 5 April 10.45am-2.05pm 5 Action (Channel 33)             
For me, this is one of the most underrated films in the John Wayne canon. He teamed rarely with a director like Otto Preminger (in this instance, just once), and they both worked really hard – with minimum fuss (or clashes) on set – to make it work. There is a powerful cast, too, that includes Kirk Douglas, Patricia Neal and Dana Andrews. Set in Pearl Harbor in 1941/42, the story unfolds like a combination of the novels From Here to Eternity and The Winds of War. Only some poor model work detracts from the overall effect.

The TV premieres are missing this week, alas. This means that all four recommendations are of an older vintage although there are some interesting TV documentaries, if you are so inclined. Ukraine: Enemy in the Woods (Monday, 9pm BBC 2) is harrowing but looks brilliant; Lincoln: Divided We Stand (also Monday, 9.15pm on the PBS channel) is a 6-part series on the American president – and five episodes are on this week, so it requires some dedicated viewing. Finally, there is Bruce Lee: a Life in Ten Pictures which is on BBC 2 Thursday evening. It is 50 years since Mr Lee died, but he remains a cultural phenomenon. I have happy memories of engaging (under age) with kung fu films, back then. It was said that one of his kicks was so fast it wouldn’t register at 24 frames per second, so they had to slow the camera speed!
HONDO (1953) Sunday 24 March 7.10-9.00pm 5 Action (Channel 33)             
Often cited as the best John Wayne western not directed by John Ford (it’s up there, certainly), Hondo is literate, well paced and entertaining. The story concerns a cavalry scout who befriends a mother and her young son as the Apaches threaten. The Duke didn’t get on too well with Geraldine Page who went from the theatre to an Oscar nomination in her debut role here, but their teaming works. Originally it was shown in 3D and to see it in this format remains one of my great, so far unrealised, ambitions.
THE SMALLEST SHOW ON EARTH (1957) Monday 25 March 1.15-2.55pm Film Four             
The Show is a small, ripe-for-demolition cinema inherited by Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers. The supporting cast is peerless: Margaret Rutherford as the dotty pianist, Bernard Miles as the doorman and Peter Sellers as the projectionist (Toby Jones doesn’t even come close). As much as our members enjoyed Empire of Light, this classic is a true love letter to small-town cinemas that is matched only by Cinema Paradiso.
DAPHNE (2007) Wednesday 27 March 10.00-11.30pm BBC 4             
Surely of interest to everyone is this more recent BBC TV movie about Daphne du Maurier and her relationships with Gertrude Lawrence and others. It is followed by a 1971 interview with the writer; apparently, it was the first to which she had consented.
THE ROBE (1953) Friday 29 March 9.20-11.30am BBC 2             
Relatively short for a Biblical epic, and famously the first film shot in CinemaScope (where the screen ratio is a minimum of 2.35: 1), The Robe is entertaining old-style Hollywood and was successful enough to warrant a sequel (Demetrius and the Gladiators). Richard Burton earned himself an Oscar nomination, but Victor Mature, Jay Robinson and Jean Simmons all look more comfortable before the camera.

Well, the Oscars have been and gone with Oppenheimer winning the serious awards (Best Film, Actor, and Director). There was a modest surprise with Emma Stone winning Best Actress rather than Lily Gladstone. Some of the hosting and presentations were awful, but there were at least two moments of class involving Christopher Nolan and the delightful Da’vine Joy Randolph who won Best Supporting Actress. This brings me nicely to my main complaint of recent years: name-above-the-title major players such as Robert De Niro and Ryan Gosling being nominated for ‘supporting’ roles. Sorry, but these categories should be for character actors who work at the coalface year on year and who do not always receive the praise, and recognition, they deserve.
DOCTOR FAUSTUS (1967) Sunday 17 March 9.00-10.50pm Legend (Channel 41)             
Richard Burton was a high-profile actor in the 1960s but this film, which he also co-directed, wasn’t successful, and doesn’t turn up all that often. It’s an adaptation of Christopher Marlowe’s play; it isn’t very good but, as a curio, might interest members. Elizabeth Taylor is also in the cast.
NAME ME LAWAND (2022) Tuesday 19 March 12.05-1.45am Channel 4    P             
Despite its strong critical reviews, Lawand has a late (early?) slot due to its subject matter. A documentary that follows a six-year-old Kurdish refugee who is deaf, it is both insightful and moving. Well, at least coming to a terrestrial channel in addition to the BFI Player subscription platform, makes it available to a wider audience (or to insomniacs).
WAY OF A GAUCHO (1952) Wednesday 20 March 3.05-4.55pm Talking Pictures (Ch 82)             
Cult director par excellence Jacques (Night of the Demon) Tourneur made this rather good Argentinean western. It has style and some affecting moments – particularly the one when Rory Calhoun stands on his horse to see better the lay of the land. Excluding Randolph Scott, Calhoun made the best co-feature westerns between 1953 and 1959 by which time he was investing in his TV series The Texan (which was also one of the better half-hour western shows).
HOTEL DU LAC (1986) Wednesday 20 March 10.00-11.15pm BBC 4             
BBC 4’s weekly offering from the archives won two Baftas, an award going also to Anna Massey in the lead role – as a novelist ‘exiled’ to a Swiss hotel.
HERE WE ARE (2020) Thursday 21 March 10.20-11.50pm BBC 4    P             
The terrestrial premiere of our successful Israeli film from last season: you’ll remember Aharon who is desperate to look after his autistic son Uri, rather than see him move to a specialist home. Our members’ score was 87% and the Radio Times gives it 5-stars.

​Members, it is that time of year – the 2024 Oscar ceremony is this weekend. ITV 1 has the transmission rights this year, so tune in on Sunday at 10.15pm to watch the show. Stamina will be required, though – it will end at about 2.30 the next morning! Failing that, there is a highlights show Monday at 10.45pm. It will be interesting to see how the ones on our questionnaire (including American Fiction and The Holdovers) will do. There are also two film premieres on Sunday evening, so you will have a range of options available to finish the weekend in style!
THE SOUVENIR: PART II (2020) Sunday 10 March 10.00-11.40pm BBC 2    P            
Ideally, you will have seen The Souvenir (released in 2019) to best re-engage with the story arc. Film student Julie has still to recover from her break-up with an older man, but hopes that including it in her graduation project will help. Director Joanna Hogg is much respected but, as with Aftersun and Tori and Lokita, her work might not be to all tastes.
MOTHERING SUNDAY (2021) Sunday 10 March 11.15pm-1.15am Channel 4    P            
In contrast to the above, this drama is more likely to appeal to members. It is adapted from a Graham Swift novel, is set in the 1920s, and the central character is a housemaid who is having an affair, in secret, with a neighbour of her employers.
THE CARD COUNTER (2021) Wednesday 13 March 9.00-11.15pm Film Four    P            
This clever psychological thriller isn’t ever so well known which is a shame. Oscar Isaac plays an ex-army veteran trying to put his Iraqi ghosts to bed. Now a civilian, his phenomenal memory is a useful tool at the poker tables.
THE RAILWAY STATION MAN (1993) Wednesday 13 March 10.00-11.30pm BBC 4            
Here we have a splendid BBC film that paired Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland for the first time since their seminal Nic Roeg thriller Don’t Look Now (1973). It is a much gentler affair, though – literally, as they fall in love during the time they spend together in an Irish village.
LUNANA: A YAK IN THE CLASSROOM (2019) Thursday 14 March 10.50pm-12.35am BBC 4    P            
Tell your friends, everyone – this season’s big success (the current leader on 94%) makes its debut on terrestrial TV. It will also be available on BBC iPlayer for a year.

‘STAND BY FOR ACTION’ – the first prize I won ever was a Stingray Painting by Numbers kit and I haven’t won too many others in the sixty years since then! So, well done – again – to Talking Pictures as, following on from Fireball XL5 and Thunderbirds, they bring back Captain Troy Tempest and his doughty crew (plus Oink, of course) from the Gerry Anderson back catalogue. It was the Andersons’ first series in colour and it is a good example of how mogul Lew Grade was not afraid to give strong financial backing to a project – the allotted budget was in the region of £800,000. Two more enormously popular series from the 1960s also make their debuts on TP this week: The Beverly Hillbillies and Bonanza. The former went to no. 1 in the US in just three weeks which might still be some kind of record for a series.
TRUE THINGS (2021) Sunday 3 March 10.45pm-12.20am BBC 2    P             
BBC 2 premieres a recent UK drama that focuses on a toxic and uncomfortable relationship between Ruth Wilson’s benefits officer and an ex-con who is manipulative.
BULLET FOR A BADMAN (1964) Monday 4 March 2.15-4.00pm 5 Action             
This is the last decent western made by war hero Audie Murphy towards the end of his career. It is still relatively standard fare but Darren McGavin is a particularly good foil. He was a good actor and always a welcome sight in TV movies and series – particularly the cult classic Kolchak the Night Stalker.
OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN (2022) Tuesday 5 March 11.10pm-1.15am Film Four    P             
It is a shame that this sensitive, beautifully-acted French drama is on so late. Rachel is a 40-year-old teacher in a stable relationship – but it is newly established, and her partner has a daughter. If things do go wrong, Rachel fears that she will not cope with the break-up of her new family.
COLD COMFORT FARM (1995) Wednesday 6 March 10.15-11.55pm BBC 4             
This is a very good adaptation of the popular novel with a fine cast that includes Eileen Atkins (currently in new release Wicked Little Letters) and Ian McKellen. Plus cast member Miriam Margolyes gives a new introduction at 10.pm.
SMOKE SAUNA SISTERHOOD (2023) Thursday 7 March 11.15pm-1.05am Film Four    P             
Come on Film Four – give these interesting, quality films an earlier transmission time! Should it have been on the questionnaire? Quite possibly, and it is certain to say more about the human condition than half-a-dozen Hollywood blockbusters. But, it is a documentary set in an Estonian sauna so it might not appeal to all members.
THE CABINET OF CALIGARI (1962) Friday 8 March 9.05-11.20pm Talking Pictures (Ch 82)             
Anyone who knows anything about film will be aware that the 1921 Cabinet of Dr Caligari was a landmark of expressionist cinema. Despite being written by Robert (Psycho) Bloch, this version isn’t any such thing – but it is shown very seldom, and so it is one to add to the viewing list!