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 Pixar's animated gem Coco and Predator prequel Prey to brilliant drama The Remains of the Day and iconic '90s flick Trainspotting. There's something for everyone but 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 31st October

Dead of Night - 4:45pm, Film4

Portmanteau horror starring Mervyn Johns. Architect Walter Craig goes to the home of a new client, but finds the house and its inhabitants strangely familiar. Each of the guests has a story to tell and gradually Craig realises he is trapped in a ghastly recurring nightmare. Read our full review

Terminator 2: Judgment Day - 9pm, ITV4

James Cameron's science-fiction action thriller sequel to The Terminator, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton. Tormented by the imminent threat of a nuclear holocaust from which intelligent machines will emerge to crush the last vestiges of human existence, Sarah Connor has been institutionalised and separated from her son. Informed of the future, she knows that young John Connor will survive and become leader of the human race. However, the machines of 2029 know it too, and once again they send a cyborg assassin back through time to terminate the potential saviour. Read our full review

Don’t Look Now - 11:40pm, BBC Two

Nicolas Roeg's supernatural thriller, adapted from Daphne du Maurier's short story, starring Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie. Following the tragic drowning of their young daughter, John and Laura Baxter go to Venice - he to work, she to recuperate. There they meet two sisters, one of whom claims to be able to communicate with the dead child. Caught up in the bizarre events that follow, the Baxters are drawn inexorably toward a mysterious and forbidding fate. Read our full review

Shiva Baby - 12:10am, Channel 4

Comedy starring Rachel Sennott. Student Danielle returns to her home town for a funeral, where various threads of her disordered personal life threaten to unravel. Read our full review

Saturday 1st November

Scott of the Antarctic - 9:45am, BBC Two

Adventure based on the true story of Captain Scott's ill-fated expedition to the South Pole in 1912, starring John Mills and Derek Bond. After commanding the unsuccessful National Antarctic Expedition of 1904, Scott attempts to raise funds for a return trip to the region. Read our full review

Jurassic World - 3:35am, ITV1

Decades on from the creation of Jurassic Park, a fully operational attraction filled with genetically engineered dinosaurs has been opened on the island. In need of a new attraction, the company behind the park creates an entirely new species - only for it to escape and terrorise the tourists. Action adventure sequel, starring Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard. Read our full review

Minority Report - 8:30pm, ITV2

Futuristic action thriller from director Steven Spielberg, based on the Philip K Dick short story, starring Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell and Samantha Morton. In the mid-21st century, John Anderton is in charge of the Justice Department's Precrime unit, an elite force that can predict offences and make arrests before the crimes are committed. But Anderton's life falls apart when he is labelled a future murderer and forced to go on the run to clear his name. Read our full review

Trainspotting - 11:20pm, Channel 4

Drama starring Ewan McGregor and Robert Carlyle. Mark Renton, a young heroin addict, lives with a group of friends in a squalid Edinburgh flat. Determined to change his life, but equally dependent on the drug culture around him, he visits his dealer for the last time. Read our full review

One Fine Morning - 12:50am, Channel 4

Drama starring Léa Seydoux and Pascal Greggory. Parisian single mother Sandra juggles her work as a translator with caring for her father, who has a neurodegenerative disease. When she encounters one of her late husband's friends, Clément, they begin an affair that helps to reawaken passions Sandra thought she had forgotten. Read our full review

Sunday 2nd November

Whisky Galore - 12:40pm, BBC Two

Classic Ealing comedy starring Basil Radford. A Hebridean island community senses a chance to replenish its whisky stocks when a cargo ship full of the prized drink is stranded offshore. Read our full review

Coco - 3:15pm, BBC One

Animated adventure featuring the voices of Anthony Gonzalez and Gael García Bernal. A young boy wants nothing more than to become a musician, but his family forbids him from pursuing his dreams. When he plays a guitar hanging in the crypt of a famous singer, the boy is transported to the magical Land of the Dead, where he embarks on a quest to uncover the truth about his roots. Read our full review

The Big Gundown - 7:05pm, 5 Action

Spaghetti western starring Lee Van Cleef and Tomas Milian. Bounty hunter "Colorado" Corbett is tasked with bringing to justice an accused rapist and murderer. But his target doesn't make the job easy. Read our full review

Kiss of the Dragon - 9:35pm, Great Action

Martial arts action thriller starring Jet Li and Bridget Fonda. Life becomes hazardous for top Chinese cop Liu Jiuan when he is sent to Paris to help the local vice squad bring a drug baron to justice. Read our full review

The Remains of the Day - 10:45pm, BBC Two

Period drama starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. Mr Stevens, a butler, spent the period prior to the Second World War working for Lord Darlington, a politician who owned a glorious country estate. Now that the lord is dead and the property is owned by Lewis, an American diplomat, Stevens starts to reassess his life there and, in particular, his relationship with the housekeeper, Miss Kenton. Read our full review

Monday 3rd November

Starman - 6:45pm, Film4

Sci-fi romance starring Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen. A visiting extraterrestrial takes refuge in the home of recently widowed Jenny Hayden, who wakes to find that the alien has assumed the form of her late husband. Read our full review

Candyman - 10:30pm, BBC Three

Horror sequel starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Teyonah Parris. Artist Anthony and his girlfriend Brianna become fascinated by the legend of a supernatural killer who supposedly menaces their Chicago neighbourhood. Delving into the legend of the "Candyman", Anthony is inspired to create a disturbing new art piece, but then the attendees of his latest show are found brutally murdered... Read our full review

Letter to Brezhnev - 11:10pm, BBC One

Comedy starring Alfred Molina, Peter Firth, Margi Clarke and Alexandra Pigg. Teresa works in a frozen chicken factory, and her best friend, Elaine, is on the dole. To escape their dreary daily lives, the two girls decide to paint the town red. During their night out, the Liverpudlian lasses meet two Russian sailors in a disco and Elaine falls in love. Read our full review

Tuesday 4th November

Nicholas Nickleby - 11am, Film4

Period drama, based on Charles Dickens's classic novel, starring Derek Bond and Cedric Hardwicke. A young man is sent to teach at a brutal boys school by his wicked uncle. There he befriends one of the students who has suffered particularly badly, and together they decide to escape the cruel regime. Read our full review

The Winslow Boy - 4:50pm, Channel 4

Drama, based on Terence Rattigan's play, starring Robert Donat, Margaret Leighton and Cedric Hardwicke. Retired bank official Arthur Winslow risks everything to clear the name of his son who has been expelled from naval college for allegedly stealing a postal order. Read our full review

Old School - 11:25pm, BBC One

Comedy starring Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn. Bored and disillusioned with their adult lives, three 30-something buddies try to recapture the fun of their college years by establishing their own off-campus fraternity. However, their unconventional antics soon attract the unwelcome attention of the local university dean. Read our full review

Wednesday 5th November

Jubal - 2:40pm, Film4

Western drama starring Glenn Ford and Ernest Borgnine. Drifter Jubal Troop's arrival at Shep Horgan's cattle ranch causes tension when he attracts advances from Horgan's young wife. Read our full review

Red Sparrow - 9pm, Great Action

Spy thriller starring Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton and Matthias Schoenaerts. After her ballet career ends in injury, a young Russian woman begins work as a spy and is sent to entrap a CIA operative. But when the assignment becomes more complicated than anticipated, the spy considers becoming a double agent. Read our full review

Broker - 12:35am, ITV4

A dull American town in the middle of the desert is suddenly attacked by huge man-eating subterranean creatures. Luckily, two dim-witted but brave handymen step into the breach to lead a ragtag bunch of locals and a mismatched pair of survivalists in the battle against the gruesome worm-like monsters. Comedy horror, with Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter, Michael Gross, Reba McEntire and Bobby Jacoby. Read our full review

Thursday 6th November

The Smallest Show on Earth - 11am, Film4

A newly married couple inherit a dilapidated cinema and its incompetent staff and resolve to transform its fortunes. They soon find, however, that their hopes for the future are far more difficult to realise than anticipated. Basil Dearden's comedy, starring Bill Travers, Virginia McKenna, Peter Sellers, Margaret Rutherford, Bernard Miles and Leslie Phillips. Read our full review

Lethal Weapon - 9pm, ITV4

Action thriller starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. Martin Riggs is a detective whose almost suicidal recklessness makes him a walking time bomb for criminals and colleagues alike. His reluctant partner, Roger Murtaugh, is a mature family man who plays everything by the book and wants to see out his police years as safely as possible. The duo are reluctantly teamed together to take on a vicious international heroin ring being run by former Vietnam mercenaries. Read our full review

Braveheart - 9pm, Film4

Oscar-winning historical drama directed by and starring Mel Gibson. Scotland at the end of the 13th century: the young William Wallace sees his father and brother killed by the English. Later, when his sworn enemies execute his wife, Wallace leads the clans in the fight for Scottish independence. Read our full review

Friday 7th November

The Caine Mutiny - 1:10pm, Film4

Courtroom drama based on Herman Wouk's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, starring Humphrey Bogart as martinet skipper Philip Queeg who's put in charge of the naval minesweeper Caine. But the strain of maintaining discipline among his restless crew begins to affect his ability to command. Read our full review

Prey - 9pm, Film4

Sci-fi action prequel starring Amber Midthunder and Dane DiLiegro. Eighteenth-century Comanche healer Naru wishes to hunt and fight like the men in her tribe. When a mysterious entity that leaves strange tracks begins to attack the local wildlife, Naru has a chance to prove herself - but this predator is unlike anything on Earth... Read our full review

Attack the Block - 10:50pm, BBC Two

Sci-fi action comedy starring Nick Frost, Jodie Whittaker and John Boyega. On the mean streets of south London, five teenagers in the process of mugging a woman are disturbed by an alien invader. Soon their housing estate is overrun with beings from outer space and the hunters have become the hunted. Read our full review

Benediction - 11pm, BBC Two

Biographical drama starring Jack Lowden and Peter Capaldi. Young British poet Siegfried Sassoon is decorated for his combat in the First World War, but while convalescing in 1917, he decides to take a stand against the conflict. After the war, he enjoys a career at the forefront of the country's literary scene while his personal life grows ever more turbulent. Later in life, a brooding Sassoon attempts to achieve salvation. 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.