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 week's selection includes everything from Hitchcock classic Shadow of A Doubt to Danny Boyle's Oscar-winning drama Slumdog Millionaire to recent genre gems such as Immaculate.

There's something for everyone, so 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 coming week.

Friday 18 September

The Mountain - 2:50pm, Legend

Drama starring Spencer Tracy and Robert Wagner. A retired mountaineer reluctantly accompanies his unscrupulous brother to the scene of an air disaster at the top of a nearby mountain, where the young man intends to steal from the dead passengers. Read our full review

Starve Acre - 11pm, BBC Two

Horror starring Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark. Archaeologist Richard and wife Juliette move to rural Yorkshire with their son, Owen, in the hope that the country air will help with the child's asthma. Once there, however, Owen's behaviour becomes increasingly unsettling. As events take a shock turn, the desperate couple turn to folklore and the supernatural for help. Read our full review

Basic Instinct - 11:55pm, Legend

Erotic thriller starring Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone. After a former rock star is brutally murdered with an ice pick, San Francisco detective Nick Curran interviews Catherine Tramell, the star's novelist girlfriend, whose last book contained an identical killing. Curran, who is trying to reform his excessive lifestyle with the help of a police psychologist, soon becomes dangerously involved with his key suspect. Read our full review

Moonage Daydream - 1:20am, Channel 4

Documentary that tells the story of David Bowie's life and career, from his start on the rock and roll scene in 1960s London to his death in 2016. Footage collected from throughout the decades, much of which previously unseen, presents each of the singer/songwriter's evolving musical styles, fashions and personas, while Bowie himself "narrates" via audio material assembled from his recorded interviews. Read our full review

Saturday 19 September

West Side Story - 2:45pm, BBC Two

Film version of the classic musical with songs by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, starring Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is updated to late-1950s New York where two rival gangs, the American "Jets" and the Puerto Rican "Sharks" are preparing for confrontation. The tension is heightened when Maria, the sister of "Sharks" leader Bernardo, falls in love with a former "Jet", Tony. Read our full review

The Day after Tomorrow - 6:55pm, Channel 4

Disaster movie from Independence Day director Roland Emmerich, starring Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal. When climatologist Jack Hall tries to warn Washington that the planet is facing an imminent, catastrophic climate shift, government officials fail to take him seriously. But, when the Earth abruptly plunges into a new ice age, it soon becomes clear that the human race is facing extinction. Read our full review

Total Recall - 9pm, Sky Mix

Science-fiction thriller starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and featuring Sharon Stone. After suffering a series of nightmares about Mars, construction worker Douglas Quaid discovers that the planet may in fact hold the key to his true identity. Read our full review

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings - 9:15pm, Channel 4

Superhero fantasy adventure starring Simu Liu and Tony Leung. As a teenager, Shang-Chi rejected his brutal crime-lord father, Xu Wenwu, and fled to the USA. Years later, this highly skilled young warrior has renamed himself "Shaun" and is laying low as a hotel valet... until Xu's men come dragging him back into his dangerous old life. Read our full review

Made in Dagenham - 11:40pm, BBC One

Comedy drama based on a true story, starring Sally Hawkins, Bob Hoskins and Miranda Richardson. In 1968, workers at the Ford car factory in Dagenham - one of the biggest employers in the UK - go on strike, demanding equal rights for female staff. The unassuming Rita O'Grady finds herself at the centre of a movement that is destined to change the lives of women for years to come. Read our full review

Sunday 20 September

Bee Movie - 9:20am, E4

Animated comedy featuring the voices of Jerry Seinfeld and Renée Zellweger. On a mission from New Hive City into Manhattan, pollen jock Barry B Benson becomes lost and breaks bee law when he talks to florist Vanessa, who helps him. Shocked by the discovery that humans have been stealing bees' honey, Barry goes to court to stop the theft, but his well-meaning action causes unforeseen problems for both his home and the wider world. Read our full review

Madagascar - 1:30pm, ITV2

Animated comedy adventure featuring the voices of Ben Stiller, Chris Rock and David Schwimmer. A zebra called Marty tries to escape his comfortable existence at the Central Park Zoo and return to the wild. Accompanying him, albeit reluctantly, are Alex the lion, a neurotic giraffe and a no-nonsense hippo. Read our full review

Back to the Future Part III - 2:20pm, BBC One

Third instalment in the blockbuster comedy adventure series, starring Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyd. Trapped in 1955 when "Doc" Brown's time-travelling DeLorean vanishes, Marty McFly needs help again to get back to the future. However, to do that he must travel through time to the Wild West of 1885, where Emmett Brown's future is being threatened by evil gunslinger Buford Tannen. Read our full review

Slumdog Millionaire - 10pm, BBC Two

Danny Boyle's Oscar-winning drama starring Dev Patel and Freida Pinto. Teenager Jamal Malik is one question away from winning the top prize on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? when the police intervene and accuse him of cheating. Under brutal interrogation, Jamal recounts the story of his life in the slums of Mumbai and how fate has brought him to this place and time. Read our full review

The Mercy - 11:40pm, BBC One

Drama based on a true story, starring Colin Firth and Rachel Weisz. In October 1968, amateur yachtsman Donald Crowhurst sets out on a round-the-world race. But the event proves more difficult than Crowhurst has anticipated, and with the threat of failure looming, his mental health declines. Read our full review

Monday 21 September

The Heiress - 4pm, Film4

Oscar-winning period drama based on Henry James's novel Washington Square, starring Olivia de Havilland, Montgomery Clift and Ralph Richardson. Wealthy widower Dr Austin Sloper considers his daughter Catherine unattractive and dull. When she tells him about a prospective suitor, he labels the young man a mere fortune hunter, but Catherine is sure that Morris Townsend is sincere. Read our full review

Miranda’s Victim - 9pm, Film4

Teenager Patricia 'Trish' Weir is committed to putting her kidnapper and rapist Ernesto Miranda in prison, while her life is wrecked by the legal system. Drama, starring Abigail Breslin, Emily VanCamp and Kyle MacLachlan. Read our full review

Songs My Brothers Taught Me - 1:50am, Film4

Johnny is a senior at Lakota High School who dreams of leaving the reservation for Los Angeles, where he wants to make a life with his girlfriend, Aurelia. Writer/director Chloe Zhao's drama, starring John Reddy and Jashaun St John. Read our full review

Tuesday 22 September

Shadow of a Doubt - 1:35pm, Film4

Classic Hitchcock thriller starring Joseph Cotten and Teresa Wright. When Uncle Charlie arrives in the small Californian town of Santa Rosa, he is welcomed with open arms by his family. However, his admiring niece soon begins to harbour doubts about her favourite uncle. Read our full review

Fury - 10:40pm, BBC One

Second World War drama starring Brad Pitt, Logan Lerman and Shia LaBeouf. In the final days of the conflict, a young tank driver gets a baptism of fire when he joins a battle-hardened crew led by the uncompromising "Wardaddy". Read our full review

Housebound - 11:05pm, Film4

Comedy horror starring Morgana O'Reilly. Troubled young woman Kylie Bucknell is sentenced to house arrest after an attempted robbery. Cooped up in her childhood home, Kylie begins to wonder if her irritating mother's claims about the house being haunted might be true. Read our full review

Wednesday 23 September

Robin and Marian - 2:20pm, Film4

Adventure starring Sean Connery, Audrey Hepburn and Robert Shaw. After fighting in the Crusades and following the death of King Richard, Robin Hood and his long-time companion Little John return to Sherwood Forest to be reunited with Maid Marian and once again confront the evil Sheriff of Nottingham. Read our full review

Belle - 6:45pm, Film4

Period drama starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw. The true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle, the illegitimate black daughter of a British serviceman who is raised by her aristocrat British uncle. But will the colour of Belle's skin prevent her from ever being fully accepted? Read our full review

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

Thursday 24 September

Comanche Station - 12:40pm, Legend

Western starring Randolph Scott and Nancy Gates. After rescuing a settler's wife from the Comanches, Jefferson Cody encounters three outlaws who plan to kill him and collect a reward for the woman's return. Read our full review

A Foreign Affair - 12:45pm, Film4

Romantic comedy drama starring Jean Arthur, Marlene Dietrich and John Lund. Clean-cut congresswoman Phoebe Frost arrives to investigate GI morality in post Second World War Berlin and runs into crooked Captain John Pringle and his mistress, a nightclub singer with a shady past. Read our full review

Hobson’s Choice - 9pm, Great TV

Classic comedy starring Charles Laughton and John Mills. While his three unmarried daughters run his business, boot-shop owner Henry Hobson passes the time drinking. But Hobson's livelihood is threatened after his eldest daughter marries his assistant, meek Willie Mossop. Read our full review

Friday 25 September

Cahill, United States Marshal - 12pm, 5 Action

Western starring John Wayne and George Kennedy. A veteran US Marshal discovers that his sons have taken part in a bank robbery. Realising they have turned to a life of crime because he has neglected them, he tries to make amends by pursuing the ringleader of the gang. Read our full review

Mr & Mrs Smith - 9pm, Legend Xtra

Romantic action comedy starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Dissatisfied married couple John and Jane Smith live an outwardly respectable existence in suburbia, but they are soon shocked to discover their similar secret - they are both sophisticated professional assassins and their next lethal assignment is to kill one another. Read our full review

Immaculate - 10pm, BBC Two

Horror starring Sydney Sweeney and Alvaro Morte. Young novice nun Sister Cecilia comes from the suburbs of Detroit and is invited by Father Tedeschi to join a renowned convent in Italy, where she is asked to provide care to the ageing nuns who reside there. Cecilia settles in to her new life and takes her vows of chastity. Yet, despite being a virgin, she becomes pregnant and a miracle is declared. Read our full review

His House - 11:20pm, BBC Two

Horror starring Wunmi Mosaku and Sope Dìrísù. A married couple flee South Sudan and are granted probational asylum in the UK. They tackle racism, bureaucracy and survivors' guilt as they try to adapt to their new life, but the biggest challenge of all is their dilapidated council house - which is home to a malevolent spirit that won't leave them alone. 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+ viewers can check out our best movies on Disney+ 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 TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.