This week sees celebrations for the 60th birthday of BBC 2 get underway. And, whilst we must give thanks for classics like Fawlty Towers and the ground-breaking series Civilisation, the wave of nostalgia that is enveloping me, as I write, is taking my focus elsewhere. Namely - on a Monday evening – we watched The High Chaparral, Alias Smith and Jones (“that’s a good deal?”) and Lancer. Plus, I would seek out the Saturday Western (unless Burnley were at home), and then there was the Midnight Movie which was my introduction to more adult fare. Anyway, this week is not so much light as non-existent but there are, at least, three golden oldies to enjoy.
THE GOLD RUSH (1925) Saturday 20 April 1.00-2.45pm Sky Arts (Ch 36)             
Sky Arts began its Chaplin season last Saturday with The Kid (1921) – a great film, but The Gold Rush is better and quintessential Chaplin. Some have challenged his reputation in recent times and, technically, Keaton might be a better director but – let’s be clear – Chaplin was a genius and a true cinema great. The film has a repeat showing on Sunday evening.
KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (1949) Wednesday 24 April 11.00am-1.10pm Film Four             
For many, this is the greatest of all the great Ealing comedies. Alec Guinness is phenomenal, in eight roles, as the D’Ascoyne family – all of whom stand in the way of cad Dennis Price inheriting their title and land. I highlight it this week because, as part of 75th anniversary celebrations, a Once More with Ealing season will soon be in UK cinemas – and hopefully in a cinema near us!
NO NAME ON THE BULLET (1959) Wednesday 24 April 2.25-4.00pm 5 Action (Channel 33)             
This is probably Audie Murphy’s most unusual western and, certainly, is one of his best. Here darkly attired, Audie – as killer John Gant – arrives in town and paranoia sets in shortly afterwards. Why? Well, none of the citizens knows which one of them he has been hired to kill . . . .

I’m sure that many (younger) viewers feel that TV drama has never been better; certainly, the budgets are higher; it often has actors of real quality, and it is more detailed (and nuanced?) in its adult content. But is the updated Shogun more absorbing than we found Richard Chamberlain’s? Do we really need a TV drama based on the Emily Maitlis/Prince Andrew interview? (And why make it? Chasing ratings, I suppose.) I do watch (and have made a study of) series from the 1950s and 1960s, and many of them hold up – whether for younger viewers (the 13-part The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe from 1964) or adults (Manhunt, from 1970, currently on Talking Pictures).  The latter has some fine acting, too!  
EVERYTHING WENT FINE (2021) Saturday 6 April 9.00-10.50pm BBC 4    P             
We have usually found François Ozon’s films to be rewarding – Frantz, for example. He tackles different subject matter in this sensitive drama – Sophie Marceau’s father has suffered a stroke and he asks that she help him with his assisted suicide.
ON CHESIL BEACH (2017) Sunday 7 April 10.00-11.45pm BBC 2             
Most members probably prefer Ian McEwan’s novella, but Saoirse Ronan and Billy Howle are good casting and the locations are bound to please.
THE ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE (1952) Thursday 11 April 5.35-7.20pm TP (Ch 82)             
Legendary director Luis Buñuel’s reputation was built on surrealist fare such as The Exterminating Angel (1962). So, making a restrained version of Defoe’s novel might seem odd – but it works. Indeed, Daniel O’Herlihy was nominated for an Oscar. The colour and print quality are usually below par, though.
LOVE FROM A STRANGER (1936) Friday 12 April 7.05-8.50pm TP (Ch 82)             
This is a rarely seen – and early – adaptation of an Agatha Christie story. Ann Harding wins a small fortune and marries Basil Rathbone, little realising that that he likes to murder wealthy women . . . amazingly, Joan Hickson (later to play Miss Marple) has a small role. Two years later, Rathbone worked again with director Rowland V. Lee on Tower of London in which he played Richard III.

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.