Saturday’s TV tips

Check out our spoiler-free tips on what’s best to watch on TV tonight.

Saturday’s TV tips

MUSIC: Greg & Jen @ Reading (BBC3, 7pm)

It’s a big night in Reading tonight.

Once again, DJs Greg James and Jen Long guide us through the proceedings, introducing highlights from the Main and Radio 1 NME stages.

US bands Foster the People and Grammy-winners Imagine Dragons kicking things off at 8pm.

Jake Bugg also takes centre stage before Reading veterans Bombay Bicycle Club - this is their fifth appearance at the festival – perform.

Then it’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for – the Arctic Monkeys, prepare to wow the crowd at 10pm.

DRAMA: Doctor Who (BBC One, 7.50pm)

A bloke, a girl, a blue box, time travel and aliens. That, in a nutshell, is Doctor Who, if you’ve never seen it before and know nothing about it.

Tonight’s episode is certainly an exciting one – it’s set in Victorian London, where a dinosaur is running wild in the River Thames, just as a spate of spontaneous combustions take place.

Can the newly regenerated Doctor figure out what’s going on? And, perhaps more importantly, can his friendship with Clara survive his personality switch?

This is Peter Capaldi’s debut as the Time Lord, and his take on the role needs to hit the ground running to win over the fans who claim he’s too old for the role.

DRAMA: Casualty (BBC1, 9.10pm)

Is 40 really the new 30, or is that just a myth put about by people approaching the big four-oh and are in denial about the march of time?

Somebody who knows quite a bit about medicine and being 40 is Zoe, who clearly isn’t pleased about reaching the landmark age.

Instead, she sees it as a time to take stock, and isn’t thrilled by what she finds.

However, support comes from an unexpected source – an old patient.

FILM: Murder on the Orient Express (ITV, 3.55pm)

Hercule Poirot is travelling on the eponymous train when it becomes stuck in a snowdrift – just as a murder takes place on board.

A wealthy American has been killed, and it seems that everyone else travelling in his carriage at the time had a reason to want him dead – but who actually wielding the knife that slew him?

It’s arguably the best big-screen adaptation of any of Agatha Christie’s works.

On paper, Albert Finney seems miscast as Poirot, but he actually makes a good stab (pun intended) at the role.

Ingrid Bergman won an Oscar for her performance, and the late Lauren Bacall is also among the all-star supporting cast.

RottenTomatoes.com Rating: 100%

FILM: Insomnia (BBC Two, 11pm)

Featuring fine performances from Al Pacino (as the agitated copper) and the late Robin Williams (as the murderer at large) ensure this film is one of the most captivating thrillers of all time.

A troubled LAPD detective is sent to Alaska to investigate a teenager’s murder during a month when the sun does not set.

Naturally, sleep deprivation starts to take its toll and he accidentally kills his partner and covers up his own crime.

Coincidentally, his grisly act is witnessed by the very criminal he is trying to track down.

As he proved with Batman franchise, no one does grim quite like Christopher Nolan.

The British director expertly recreates the magic from the 1997 Norwegian blockbuster of the same.

RottenTomatoes.com Rating: 92%

FILM: Defiance (TV3, 11pm)

Daniel Craig stars as Tuvia Bielski, an ordinary citizen turned hero, in this action-packed epic of family, honour, vengeance and salvation.

Defiance tells the extraordinary true story of the Bielski brothers, simple farmers – outnumbered and outgunned- who turned a group of war refugees into powerful freedom fighters.

Tuvia, along with his unyielding brother, Zus (Liev Schreiber), motivate hundreds of civilians to join their ranks against the Nazi regime.

RottenTomatoes.com Rating: 57%

NEW ON NETFLIX: Top of the Lake (TV Series)

Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men) and Holly Hunter (Saving Grace) star in this gripping drama from Academy Award-winning writer/director Jane Campion (The Piano).

Top of the Lake begins with a mystery - Tui a 12-year-old girl walks chest deep into the freezing waters of a South Island lake in New Zealand.

She is five months pregnant and won't say who the father is. Then she disappears.

Robin Griffin (Moss) is a gutsy but inexperienced detective called in to investigate.

But as she becomes more and more obsessed with the search for her she slowly begins to realize that finding Tui is tantamount to finding herself - a self she has kept well-hidden.

Set against one of the most amazing and untouched landscapes left on the planet Top of the Lake is a powerful and haunting story about our search for happiness where the dream of paradise attracts its dark twin the fall.

RottenTomatoes.com Rating: 93%

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