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

There may be plenty of movies available on streaming platforms and being released weekly in cinemas, but nothing quite beats the feeling of finding a hidden gem while flicking through the TV.

With such a raft of options – old and new – to pick from this weekend, it can often feel like a bit of an insurmountable task to find one that really tickles your fancy. But that's where we come in to do the hard work for you, picking out some of the most stellar options available to tune into.

This weeks selection includes everything from Powell and Pressburger classic The Red Shoes to recent British independent gems like Polite Society. There's something for everyone and if you're wondering where to find some of the best films on the terrestrial channels this week, we've got you sorted.

Read on for an expertly compiled list of the best flicks airing across the next seven days.

Friday 16th January

The Wicked Lady - 5:55pm, Talking Pictures TV

A 17th-century noblewoman tires of her humdrum life and decides to seek a little excitement - turning to highway robbery and murder to spice up her life, as well as getting romantically involved with a caddish crook. Absolutely fabulous classic British costume drama, with Margaret Lockwood on brilliant form as the vampish villainess, and support from James Mason, Patricia Roc and Griffith Jones. Read our full review

Hot Fuzz - 10:45pm, ITV1

Action comedy starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. London policeman Nicholas Angel is reassigned to a sleepy rural village, but soon finds that the big city doesn't have a monopoly on crime. Read our full review

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum - 11:05pm, Film4

Action thriller starring Keanu Reeves, Halle Berry and Laurence Fishburne. With a bounty on his head making him the target of the world's top assassins, famed hitman John Wick goes on the run. Heading for Casablanca, he meets an old friend who may be able to help him with his predicament. Read our full review

Lollipop - 11pm, BBC Two

Social drama starring Posy Sterling. Recently released from a short stint in prison, Molly discovers her two young children have been removed from the care of their grandmother and are now with a foster family. While attempting to regain custody, Molly faces an onslaught of obstacles both personal and bureaucratic. Read our full review

Saturday 17th January

The Red Shoes - 9:50am, BBC Two

Classic ballet drama starring Anton Walbrook, Moira Shearer and Marius Goring. Ballet impresario Boris Lermontov enlists promising dancer Victoria Page and young composer Julian Craster in his company. But when the couple fall in love, Lermontov decides that romance will not interfere with their careers. Read our full review

Once Upon a Time in the West - 5:35pm, 5 Action

Epic spaghetti western starring Henry Fonda, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards and Charles Bronson. A cold-blooded killer is hired to ensure the progress of the railroad through a nascent frontier town. Standing in its way is recently widowed Jill McBain, whose property has a water supply that is vital for the venture. Read our full review

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning - 8:30pm, Channel 4

Action spy thriller starring Tom Cruise and Hayley Atwell. IMF agent Ethan Hunt once again goes rogue when he realises that, for the sake of humanity, he must destroy a terrifying weapon that his bosses are desperate to track down and use: an all-powerful AI that has already gained sentience. But Ethan and his loyal team are not the only parties vying to obtain the key that controls this powerful device. Read our full review

Shirley Valentine - 9pm, Great TV

Comedy written by Willy Russell from his own play, starring Pauline Collins and Tom Conti. Liverpool housewife Shirley leads a domestic existence of routine dullness. Her monosyllabic husband's only concern is to find his supper on the table on time - things are so bad, she confides in the kitchen wall. What she needs is a holiday; a place with sun, sand and sea, a place where she can fall in love with life. Read our full review

Big Daddy - 9pm, Comedy Central

Comedy starring Adam Sandler. When his latest girlfriend dumps him because she says he is not a responsible adult, 32-year-old Sonny Koufax tries to win her back by adopting the illegitimate five-year-old son of his friend Kevin, who's on a trip to China. Read our full review

Sunday 18th January

Big - 2:10pm, ITV1

Comedy starring Tom Hanks. At a fairground fortune-telling booth, 12-year-old Josh Baskin wishes that he could be "big". The next morning he is astonished to find himself fully grown. He soon learns that, in the adult world, being a grown-up is not all that it is cracked up to be. Read our full review

The Fugitive - 9pm, 5 Action

Thriller starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones. Despite protesting his innocence, Richard Kimble is sentenced to death for the murder of his wife. En route to prison, he is caught up in a disastrous escape attempt, and finds himself on the run. In order to clear his name, he must find the mysterious one-armed man with whom he struggled on the night of the murder, but the law is hot on his trail. Read our full review

For a Few Dollars More - 9pm, 4Seven

Classic spaghetti western starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Gian Maria Volonté. Rival bounty hunters set out on the trail of psychopathic killer Indio - but it soon becomes apparent that money is not the motive driving one of the pursuers. Read our full review

Schindler’s List - 10pm, BBC Two

Steven Spielberg's classic biographical drama starring Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley and Ralph Fiennes. In 1939, businessman Oskar Schindler, a Gentile, comes to Krakow with the idea of getting rich quickly by using cheap Jewish labour in his factory supplying the German war effort. As Jewish persecution spreads throughout Europe, Schindler, although a close associate of SS officers, finds it worth his while to protect his workers from the escalating evil around him. Read our full review

How to Blow Up a Pipeline - 11:40pm, Film4

Crime thriller starring Ariela Barer and Sasha Lane. A small group of people from various walks of life converge on a remote cabin in Texas with a shared goal: to plan and carry out an attack on a stretch of oil pipeline. Despite various setbacks, they forge ahead with their act of environmental protest, hoping to inspire others to do the same. Read our full review

Monday 19th January

The Terminator - 9pm, ITV4

Sci-fi action thriller starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn and Linda Hamilton. In the not-too-distant future, machines rule the Earth and are locked in combat with a gallant band of freedom fighters led by John Connor. Back in present-day Los Angeles, his mother Sarah is unaware of her role in the struggles to come, until the arrival of a Terminator, a terrifying robot assassin whose only purpose is to kill her and thereby change the future. Read our full review

I Am Martin Parr - 10pm, BBC Four

A profile of the photographer, who revolutionised his art by inventing a political, humanist and accessible language. The programme follows him on a road trip, his camera trigger finger always at the ready to capture the smallest details of everyday life, and there are interviews with various individuals who have crossed paths with Parr, including close family, fellow photographers, artists and film-makers. Read our full review

The Souvenir - 11pm, BBC Two

Romantic drama starring Honor Swinton Byrne, Tom Burke and Tilda Swinton. In 1980s London, film student Julie begins a relationship with the affluent, worldly Foreign Office employee Anthony. Though the romance starts off well enough, Anthony's behaviour becomes increasingly strange when the couple move in together, and Julie begins to suspect that her partner is merely using her for money. Read our full review

Tuesday 20th January

The Fighter - 9pm, Legend

Oscar-winning biographical drama starring Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale and Amy Adams. Welterweight boxer "Irish" Micky Ward dreams of a shot at the big time, but loyalty to his dysfunctional family - particularly Dicky, his drug-addicted half-brother and coach - threatens to block his path to greatness. Read our full review

The Crying Game - 11:30pm, Film4

Oscar-winning drama starring Stephen Rea, Miranda Richardson and Forest Whitaker. Jody, a black British soldier serving in Armagh, is kidnapped by an IRA group who intend to exchange him for one of their imprisoned members. While being held hostage, Jody slowly forms a friendship with his guard Fergus and, fearing for his safety, tells him to look after his lover back in London - the enigmatic hairdresser Dil. Read our full review

The Piano - 12am, BBC Two

Comedy drama based on a true story, starring Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren. In 1961, Newcastle taxi driver Kempton Bunton mounts a campaign to have the BBC licence fee revoked for pensioners. In order to drum up awareness, he travels to London, steals a painting from the National Gallery and holds it hostage. But how long before the law catches up with him? Read our full review

Wednesday 21st January

Goldfinger - 9pm, ITV4

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

Polite Society - 9pm, Film4

The bond between siblings Ria and Lena is tested when doctor Salim woos Lena and sweeps her off her feet to the visible delight of his controlling mother. A jealous and embittered Ria becomes suspicious of Salim and she vows to expose his true intentions. Action comedy, starring Priya Kansara and Ritu Arya. Read our full review

The Road Dance - 11:30pm, BBC Two

Period drama starring Hermione Corfield and Will Fletcher. In a coastal village on the Isle of Lewis in 1916, Kirsty dreams of a future with her partner Murdo. However, the First World War and a sexual assault dramatically alter the directions of their lives. Read our full review

Thursday 22nd January

The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw - 12:50pm, Film4

Comedy western starring Kenneth More and Jayne Mansfield. Timid English gentleman Jonathan Tibbs inherits a company that makes guns and decides to take his wares to the Wild West. Unwittingly set up as sheriff, Tibbs finds himself the keeper of law and order in the toughest town in the West. Read our full review

The Tall T - 1pm, Great Action

Western starring Randolph Scott, Richard Boone and Maureen O'Sullivan. The courageous Pat Brennan and newlyweds Doretta and Willard Mims are taken hostage at a stagecoach station by bandits, whose ruthless leader, Usher, has no qualms about killing anyone who gets in his way. Read our full review

The Last of the Mohicans - 11:05pm, Film4

Period adventure inspired by James Fenimore Cooper's classic novel, starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Madeleine Stowe. Hawkeye and Uncas are the sons of Chingachgook. They fight as mercenaries in the power struggle between the French and British in the New World, but suddenly find themselves involved in bitter intrigue and betrayal, where far more than land is at stake. Read our full review

Friday 23rd January

Harvey - 12:50pm, Film4

Fantasy comedy starring James Stewart as tippler Elwood P Dowd whose constant companion, Harvey, just happens to be a six-foot white rabbit who's invisible to everyone else. Yet Dowd's reliance on Harvey is quite enough to wreck the life of Elwood's ever patient yet socially prominent sister, and drastic action is called for. Read our full review

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad - 5pm, Film4

Fantasy adventure starring Kerwin Mathews. Blown off course to the monster-infested island of Colossa, Sinbad and his crew rescue a sorcerer from the clutches of a cyclops. The voyage continues to Baghdad, but the sorcerer has been forced to leave stolen property behind, and hatches a wicked plan to force Sinbad to return to Colossa. Read our full review

The Eternal Daughter - 11pm, BBC Two

Gothic drama starring Tilda Swinton. Film-maker Julie and her elderly mother Rosalind check into an imposing hotel in the countryside where the latter's family lived during during the Blitz. Julie secretly records her mother's memories of that time for a possible film project, but becomes increasingly unsettled by their stay in this eerie location. Read our full review

Ben is Back - 11:30pm, BBC Three

Drama starring Lucas Hedges and Julia Roberts. Ben Burns, who is in rehab for a serious addiction to painkillers, returns home over Christmas. His mother, Holly, attempts to manage her son's stay by keeping him with her at all times - but Ben's visit soon takes a turn for the chaotic when the family dog goes missing. 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.

Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.