Saturday 31/01/26A Matter of Life and Death (1946) ***** (BBC2, 12.40pm)Dashing Second World War pilot Peter (David Niven) flirts with radio operator June (Kim Hunter) during a return journey from a bombing run. It looks like any romance will be very short-lived though, as his plane has been hit and he’s about to bail out without a parachute. So, when Peter then wakes up on a beach, it seems like a miracle – but all is not well. It turns out his survival is down to a clerical error in heaven and, if he wants to stay on Earth with June, he must argue their case in a celestial court. Written, produced and directed by the visionary Powell and Pressburger, A Matter of Life and Death is one of the greatest romances of all time. And with the lush, brightly coloured Earth, and austere black-and-white heaven, it’s also one of the most visually striking.
The Naked Gun (2025) **** (Sky Cinema Premiere, 2.50pm & 8.00pm)Police Squad detective Lieutenant Frank Drebin Jr (Liam Neeson) is proud to follow in the footsteps of his father and protect the people of Los Angeles from the many rubbery faces of crime. Bank thieves escape with the contents of a safety deposit box belonging to Simon Davenport, who is subsequently found dead behind the wheel of an electric car manufactured by charismatic magnate Richard Cane (Danny Huston). The deceased’s vampy sister, Beth (Pamela Anderson), implores Frank to unmask her brother’s killers and the smitten detective meets bullets with buffoonery to incur the wrath of Cane’s trusted lieutenant, Sig Gustafson (Kevin Durand). The Naked Gun is a delightfully dippy comedy of deliberate errors that exceeds expectations even if it falls short of the delirious, gut-busting original.
Cocaine Bear (2023) **** (Channel 4, 9.30pm) PremiereCocaine smuggled by Syd Dentwood (Ray Liotta) is ditched on Blood Mountain in the verdant heart of Chattahoochee National Forest in northern Georgia before the plane goes down. Drug dealer Daveed (O’Shea Jackson Jr) and Dentwood’s son Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich) join the ham-fisted salvage operation. Meanwhile, concerned mother Sari (Keri Russell) enters the forest to track down her 13-year-old daughter (Brooklynn Prince) and a classmate (Christian Convery). Strangers converge in the wilderness and come face-to-snout with a 500-pound apex predator, which has consumed bricks of the jettisoned cocaine and is attacking anyone in its path. Cocaine Bear is an unapologetically violent action comedy inspired by a September 1985 incident in Georgia, but gleefully embellished truth is stranger and gorier than fiction.
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