Saturday’s TV Tips

Here’s our spoiler-free guide to what you should watch on the box tonight.

Saturday’s TV Tips

DRAMA: Doctor Who (BBC One, 7.30pm)

The Time Lord and Clara join forces with a beautiful shape-shifter and a cyber-augmented gamer.

The Doctor has been set the challenge of breaking into the cosmos’s most dangerous bank, and it’s a task too irresistible for him to turn down.

Expect sleepless nights after this episode, thanks to one of the scariest villains ever to enter the Doctor Who universe.

Also, the chemistry between stars Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman works a treat here. Both of their characters have now settled down nicely, and it’s wonderful to see such skilled performers play off each other.

REALITY: The X Factor (ITV, 8pm)

Here’s a game you can play during the latest part of the talent search juggernaut.

Any time someone mentions the word “Journey”, have a chocolate biscuit. If they use the sentence: “Music is my life,” or “This means the world to me,” have another.

If Louis Walsh compares the wannabe star to “A young...(former pop icon)” or Cheryl Fernandez-Versini uses the phrase “little”, feel free to finish the packet – then hit the gym on Sunday.

The question is: how will they those ’little’ stars get on at Wembley for the arena auditions, when they have to sing for a crowd of almost 5,000 people?

DRAMA: Crimes of Passion (BBC4, 9pm)

It’s time for another helping of the picture-perfect Swedish crime drama.

This week’s offering opens with a candlelit card reading, which, unsurprisingly, hints at death.

Anyway, before the opening titles roll, it seems the doom-laden prophecy is justified with a chilling discovery.

Later, Puck and Einar arrive at the country estate of Rodbergshyttan for Gabriella and Christer’s engagement party. The idyllic setting soon turns into an ominous area when Gabriella’s grandfather is found poisoned in his bed.

If we’ve learned anything from cracking Swedish dramas like The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, it’s that every person who lives in posh houses could be a killer.

A cracking slice of escapism all the same.

PANEL GAME: Through the Keyhole (ITV, 9.20pm)

ITV bosses can’t get enough of Warwick Davis at the moment, and he’s on top form as a guest on this rejigged panel game.

Aside from grilling him about his experiences on the Star Wars movies, Keith Lemon also finds out why Christine Bleakley hasn’t got a helicopter landing pad, and asks Kian Egan about his time in the jungle for I’m A Celebrity...

First stop is an enormous LA mansion where Keith has a map to help find his way round. Just walking up the drive leaves him exhausted.

’Jumbo’, ’stadium-sized’ and ’monster’ are just a few of the words he uses to describe the entrance, but the key question is: who lives in a house like this?

Well, if the programme-makers hadn’t pixellated the memorabilia room, the contestants would guess it straight away, but who could it be?

FILM: The Shawshank Redemption (ITV, 10.40pm)

Banker Andy Dufresne is wrongly convicted of murdering his wife and her lover in Forties America, and receives two consecutive life sentences. Winding up in the oppressive Shawshank Prison, he finds peril every step of the way from both his fellow inmates and the brutal guards.

However, after making a few friends he comes to adapt to life behind bars and over time starts to change the penitentiary for the better.

It’s one of the most acclaimed dramas of all time, the story is both tragic and uplifting. Spanning a period of nearly two decades, the movie charts the change in culture over time, and the way in which it can stand still for those who are cut off from the world.

Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman in the lead roles, and James Whitmore as the ageing crook Brooks Hatlen, are especially notable in a film full of captivating performances.

RottenTomatoes.com Rating: 91%

FILM: Sexy Beast (Channel 4, 11.20pm)

Retired safecracker Gal is living it up in Spain when he receives an unwanted visit from Logan, an old underworld contact.

Logan desperately wants to recruit Gal for a bank vault job, but Gal isn’t interested.

However, Logan is determined to get his man, leading to a violent confrontation that ends in disaster – and a meeting with a hard-bitten London gangster.

It’s brilliantly scripted by Louis Mellis and David Scinto, who went on to write 44 Inch Chest, and features several of the same cast members.

Former music video auteur Jonathan Glazer does a great job directing, and features career-best performances from the likes of Ben Kingsley (who received an Oscar nomination) and Ray Winstone.

RottenTomatoes.com Rating: 86%

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