Best films to watch on TV today, tonight and this week

If you’re wondering where to find some of the best films, both old and new, on the terrestrial channels this week, then we’ve got you sorted with our picks for the next seven days.

While there are so many streaming sites that boast a seemingly endless collection of movies, isn’t it great when you stumble across an absolute classic whilst browsing the TV guide?

And this week, we have another varied list for you, with everything from the classic Bond film Goldfinger to Barry Jenkins’ Oscar winner Moonlight – so there really is something for everyone.

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With so many amazing films airing, we’ve compiled a list of the best flicks for you to choose from below.

Friday 12th May

Born Free – 11am, Film4

Biographical wildlife adventure, starring Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers. George Adamson, a game warden in Kenya, brings home three lion cubs whose mother he has shot. With his wife Joy he sets about rearing them and Joy becomes particularly attached to the smallest cub, Elsa. Read our full review

Enemy of the State – 9pm, 5 Star

Conspiracy thriller starring Will Smith, Gene Hackman and Jon Voight. Successful lawyer Robert Clayton Dean is out shopping when he unwittingly becomes the custodian of evidence to a political murder. Soon the bewildered Dean is on the run, trying to stay one step ahead of a sinister adversary who has an arsenal of hi-tech surveillance gadgetry at his disposal. Read our full review

Everything: The Real Thing Story – 11:20pm, BBC Four

Music documentary that interweaves interviews with classic footage to tell the story of Liverpudlian pop group The Real Thing, who broke barriers while topping the charts in the 1970s. Read our full review

Carrie – 12:10am, Channel 4

Brian De Palma’s dramatisation of Stephen King’s bestselling horror story, starring Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie. Shy Carrie White is repressed by her mother and ridiculed by her classmates, who make her life a misery with their taunting. But, unbeknown to them, Carrie has special powers. Read our full review

Saturday 13th May

Summer Holiday – 1pm, BBC Two

Musical comedy starring Cliff Richard and Lauri Peters. Four young London Transport mechanics decide to run a European travel service using double-decker buses and set out on their first trip bound for Athens. Read our full review

The Croods – 3:10pm, ITV2

Animated comedy adventure with the voices of Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds and Nicolas Cage. A prehistoric family are made homeless by an earthquake and are forced to trek through hostile territory in search of a new cave, encountering weird and wonderful wildlife en route. Read our full review

Far from the Madding Crowd – 8:05pm, BBC Two

FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD 

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Period drama based on the novel by Thomas Hardy, starring Carey Mulligan, Michael Sheen, Tom Sturridge and Matthias Schoenaerts. In Victorian Wessex, the bewitching and fiercely independent Bathsheba Everdene attracts the romantic attention of three men from very different backgrounds. Read our full review

Fast & Furious 7 – 9pm, ITV2

Action thriller starring Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham. When it becomes apparent that someone out for revenge is picking off members of his crew one by one, Dominic Toretto decides the gang should get back together. But no sooner have they reassembled than they’re co-opted by a shadowy agency figure, who needs the team’s special skills to help steal a surveillance device known as God’s Eye. Read our full review

Absolutely Fabulous – 12:20am, BBC One

Comedy based on the popular TV series, starring Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley. Scatterbrained socialites Edina and Patsy go on the run after they’re suspected of killing model Kate Moss at a glitzy event. Attempting to make a new life on the French Riviera, they hatch a plan to get rich quick, all while being pursued by their singer nemesis, Lulu. Read our full review

Sunday 14th May

Ferdinand – 11am, Film4

Charming animated bovine road movie from the makers of Ice Age. A scary looking but sweet-natured bull (voiced by WWE’s John Cena) tries to get home after being sent to a bull fighting ranch. Read our full review

Goldfinger – 4pm, ITV1

Spy adventure starring Sean Connery. Agent 007 James Bond investigates ruthless criminal Auric Goldfinger, a man with an insatiable appetite for gold and a desire to become the most powerful man on Earth. Read our full review

Easy A – 10pm, BBC Two

Comedy starring Emma Stone. When a little white lie about losing her virginity makes the previously anonymous Olive Penderghast the talk of school, she decides to exploit her new-found notoriety to improve her social standing. But being “easy” comes with mixed blessings. Read our full review

The Mauritanian – 10pm, BBC Two

Believed by US intelligence to be the main recruiter for the 9/11 attacks, Mohamedou Ould Slahi is picked up from his home village in Mauritania and taken to Guantanamo Bay without charge. His case is taken up by New Mexico lawyer Nancy Hollander, who is determined to take the US government to task for unlawful detention. Fact-based legal drama, starrring Tahar Rahim, Jodie Foster, Shailene Woodley and Benedict Cumberbatch. Read our full review

Mindhorn – 12:05am, BBC One

Comedy starring Julian Barratt and Andrea Riseborough. When the deranged fan of a 1980s detective TV series goes on the rampage, the show’s wrung-out star is enlisted to help take him down. But adopting the guise of Mindhorn, his old character, could create more problems for the actor than he’s able to handle. Read our full review

Monday 15th May

The Hanging Tree – 6:50pm, TCM

Western starring Gary Cooper, Maria Schell and Karl Malden. When a doctor with a past moves to a small gold-mining town, he rescues a thief from a mob that wants to hang him. But in return for saving his life, he makes the young man his bond servant. Read our full review

Strange Days – 9pm, Talking Pictures TV

Strange Days 

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A paranoid ex-cop dealing in illegal virtual-reality experiences receives a compact disc that contains the memories of a murderer killing a prostitute. Suspecting an old flame might be in danger, he investigates further and uncovers a secret that could throw the entire city into chaos on New Year’s Eve, 1999. Kathryn Bigelow’s sci-fi thriller, starring Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis and Tom Sizemore. Read our full review

Colette – 11:15pm, BBC Two

Biographical period drama starring Keira Knightley and Dominic West. In belle époque Paris, provincial girl Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette marries the rakish “Willy” and writes stories that are published under his name. When the novels become best-sellers, Willy’s demands escalate, and Colette begins an affair with a Louisiana debutante. Read our full review

Tuesday 16th May

The Stars Look Down – 12:25pm, Talking Pictures TV

Drama based on AJ Cronin’s novel, starring Michael Redgrave and Margaret Lockwood. David Fenwick, a miner’s son from the north of England, goes to university vowing to use his education to fight for miners’ rights. But his resolve is tested when he meets scheming Jenny Sunley. Read our full review

Dirty Harry – 9pm, TCM

Crime thriller starring Clint Eastwood. San Francisco cop “Dirty” Harry Callahan is assigned the case of a sniper who has murdered a young girl and threatened further killings if his ransom demand is not met. Dismayed to find himself partnered with a raw recruit, Callahan is soon at odds with his bosses over whether to pay off the killer. Read our full review

Moonlight – 11:15pm, BBC Two

Alex Hibbert with Mahershala Ali in Moonlight

Oscar-winning coming-of-age drama directed by Barry Jenkins, starring Trevante Rhodes and Naomie Harris. Against the background of a poor Miami neighbourhood, a sensitive young African-American boy struggles to cope with his drug-addicted mother and come to terms with his sexual identity. Read our full review

Wednesday 17th May

Star Trek – 6:35pm, Film4

Science-fiction adventure starring Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto. Rebellious youth James Kirk is persuaded to join the Starfleet Academy, where he befriends Dr Leonard “Bones” McCoy and clashes with officer Spock. When an evil Romulan arrives from the future, the young crew of the USS Enterprise find themselves in the thick of the action. Read our full review

Only God Forgives – 10:50pm, Great Movies

Two brothers run a drug-smuggling operation out of a boxing gym in Thailand, only for one of them to be killed in retribution for the death of a prostitute. The pair’s ruthless mother orders her surviving son to avenge his death, forcing him into a conflict with a cop who uses brutal methods to enforce the law. Crime thriller, starring Ryan Gosling and Kristin Scott Thomas. Read our full review

Hell or High Water – 11:45pm, Film4

Crime drama starring Ben Foster, Chris Pine and Jeff Bridges. Toby and his loose-cannon brother Tanner put aside their differences to carry out a series of robberies. They target branches of the Texas Midlands Bank, an institution that is threatening to foreclose on their family farm. However, the predictable nature of the thefts allows a veteran ranger to second-guess their moves. Read our full review

Thursday 18th May

Summertime – 12:25pm, Film4

Romantic drama starring Katharine Hepburn and Rossano Brazzi. Ohio spinster Jane Hudson takes a European holiday in Venice where an affair with an antiques-shop owner offers temporary respite from her loneliness. Read our full review

Commanche Station – 12:35pm, Film4

Western starring Randolph Scott and Nancy Gates. After rescuing a settler’s wife from the Comanches, Jefferson Cody encounters three outlaws who plan to kill him and collect a reward for the woman’s return. Read our full review

Licence to Kill– 9pm, ITV4

Spy adventure starring Timothy Dalton. Agent 007 James Bond sets out for revenge when his best friend Felix Leiter is badly injured by an evil drugs baron. But after ignoring orders from “M” to give up the case, Bond has his licence to kill revoked. Read our full review

Friday 19th May

The Quiet Man – 1:25pm, Film4

Romantic comedy starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara. Sean Thornton returns to his native Galway to settle down in peace after growing up in America. The quiet life still eludes him, however, as he finds himself reluctantly sparring with his neighbours, his sweetheart and his conscience. Read our full review

Oliver Twist – 3pm, Talking Pictures TV

Classic drama based on the novel by Charles Dickens, starring Alec Guinness and Robert Newton. When orphan Oliver Twist runs away from the brutality of the workhouse, he little realises the dangers he will face in London – especially when he joins a gang headed by arch-villain Fagin. Read our full review

Carnival of Souls – 11:05pm, Talking Pictures TV

Cult horror starring Candace Hillgloss and Herk Harvey. Mary Henry, the sole survivor of a tragic car accident, is plagued by strange and horrifying visions. Moving to Utah, she becomes drawn to an abandoned fairground which may hold the key to her condition. Read our full review

Trading Places – 12:10am, Channel 4

Comedy starring Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis. Millionaires Mortimer and Randolph Duke create an experiment in human nature by framing their niece’s fiancé Louis, a pompous stockbroker, for theft and drug pushing, and replacing him with conman Billy Ray Valentine. Their wager is that Valentine will make good and Louis will turn to crime. Read our full review

If you have Netflix, we have rounded up the best movies on Netflix and the best series on Netflix to watch now – and Disney Plus viewers can check out our best movies on Disney Plus guide. Got Prime Video? We also have the best movies on Amazon Prime.

Wondering what to watch on TV? Visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide.

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